Grand Opening of Argenta Farmers Market

Argenta Farmers Market

Argenta Art Market

This has been a difficult week for me.  For the most part, I have not been recycling or simply trying to reduce the amount of waste I create.  I have been driving a lot this week.  Some of the errands I have had to run could have been done using my bike, but I drove instead.  Also, I drove to UCA for my class even thought it would be just as easy to ride my bike and not create any carbon emissions. Not only have I been driving a lot, but I have not been practicing different driving techniques to conserve fuel.  For example, it is best to slowly accelerate after stopping.  Normally, I do not run my air conditioner in my car, but I have been this week.  It was a lot colder than I am used to it normally being.  

Today I spent the morning at a triathlon event and instead of saving my trash to put in my recycling bin at home, I just found the nearest trash can.  Sure, this was handy, but I felt like I had to resolve a huge internal conflict each time I had to through away a piece of trash.  

Some other things about this week, I ran my dishwasher with the "hot dry" setting instead of letting the dishes air dry.  This certainly used extra energy. I have also not been trying to get by with the least amount of electricity possible.  I try to use natural light as much as possible, but I have been using incandescent lighting mostly.  One of the tings that I didn't think about changing was my diet.  Before this month I tried to eat healthy, locally produced foods to support local farmers and also lead a healthy life. So far this week, however, I have been eating some more processed and frozen meals.  One really good example is a frozen pasta dish I had for lunch one day.  First lets talk about the packaging.  There was the outer cardboard box, a cellophane wrapper around the plastic dish.  Within the plastic dish, there was a plastic steamer basket.  On top of all that, there was a plastic cover that created a vacuum seal for the food.  Doesn't that seem like too much packaging for a silly frozen meal?  This isn't all that bothered me.  Half of the ingredients list was chemical compounds that I couldn't even pronounce, and the food just didn't taste very good at all.  It really made me want to buy locally grown naturally foods.

And this brings me to an important event in North Little Rock - the Argenta Farmers Market, a Certified Arkansas Farmers Market. The market is on the corner of 6th and Main Streets in Argenta. It is open Tuesdays and Saturdays from 7am to Noon.  I drove downtown for the grand opening this weekend and there was a a great crowd.  I noticed that most of the farmers were from not farther than 100 miles from NLR.  The food looked fantastic and so did the crafts too.  Close to the Farmers Market there was an Argenta Art Market that had several vendors selling very nifty jewelry and crafts.  Please shop at the market and support local farmers!  

I hope to post some more information this week!