Organic

So I've been thinking about going all organic, food wise. Since I can't really start growing a garden and killing my own animals for meat in the backyard in the city I need other resources. Luckily Memphis has a Farmers Market ... http://www.memphisfarmersmarket.org/home. Every Saturday they open from 7am to 1pm, there are games, music, and even pet sitters for those who want to bring their dogs! Of course there is also home grown produce and grain fed meat and even local artist exhibitions. The website has lots of other useful information too!
I most likely wont go all organic at once, because well it is expensive and may take me some adjusting to financially and taste wise. But I'm surely going to try to go that first weekend I'm there to check it all out and maybe test a few things out. I would also like to compare the prices to that of kroger. Who knows, maybe I can find a way to make it cheaper or at least get some tips for eating better at cheaper rates while I'm there.
Memphis Farmers Market 

S Front St & E GE Patterson Ave
Memphis, TN 38103
Tel. 901-575-0540
Maryanne Lessley

More Information
The Memphis Farmers Market is a weekly non-profit outdoor market featuring local farmers and artisans. The market showcases locally sourced produce and food items and locally produced arts and crafts from the Mid-South region and also serves to educate the community about eating local, nutrition and food choices. Enjoy live music and weekly themed events and programs. 

Visit every Saturday 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. mid-April thru October. Rain or shine! Located in the Pavilion at Central Station in the Historic South Main District of downtown Memphis. Free admission and parking. Pet sitting available.

Products and Production Methods:

Beef - Organic, Grass Fed
Cheese
Chicken - Organic, Free Range or Roaming
Eggs
Honey
Lamb - Organic
Pork - Organic, Pasture Raised
Produce - Organic
Specialty Foods
Turkey - Organic
Vegan
Vegetarian


To find a Farmer's Market and other Organic options just type in your zip code at... http://www.eatwellguide.org/i.php?pd=Home

An awesome concept I came across on the web..."Living Walls"

A living wall, also referred to as a green wall, vertical garden, or sky farm, is usually part of a building and consists of some sort of vegetation. These types of gardens are sometimes referred to as urban gardening, because they are well-suited for an urban environment where space on the ground is very limited but vertical space is plentiful. These vertical gardens can be quite spectacular in appearance, and in some cases, they even work to filter clean air into the building in which they are growing upon.

Vertical gardens can be grown on just about any type of wall, with or without the use of soil, and they can be placed both on outdoor and indoor walls. As long as there is not shortage of water for the living wall, no soil is required. These amazing sky farms are able to literally bring life to an old rundown building in the middle of the city and they are becoming increasingly popular inside office buildings, homes, and retail stores because of their outstanding beauty and their natural air purification properties.

Living walls have fast become an art form for many people, and one of the pioneering vertical garden artists is Patrick Blanc. He observed how plants were able to grow vertically without the need for soil in the wild, and soon developed a way to create artistic looking vegetation walls that were both lightweight and needed little maintenance. Since these living walls only weighed approximately 30 kg or less per square-meter, he noticed that just about any type of wall would be able to support the weight of a vertical garden. There are many amazing examples of vertical gardens around the world. Here's our list of some of the most creative and beautiful living walls in the world. We may have missed some of course, but please feel free to drop any we’ve missed in the comments.

Musee du quai Branly, Paris, France

This popular French museum near the Eiffel Tower in Paris is home to one of the best examples of vertical garden work by artist Patrick Blanc. The living wall here is about 200 meters long and 12 meters tall. The museum's living exterior was at one time healthy and vibrant, but today you can see signs of the inadequate support for irrigation and drainage of the garden – although it still remains breathtakingly beautiful.

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Parabienta Living Wall System, Japan

This living wall is manufactured and marketed by two Japanese companies that have created a product that is lightweight, cheap, and very functional. The living wall is called 'Parabienta', and it costs approximately $60 per square foot. This eco-friendly wall will significantly cool down a building through a naturally occurring cooling process that takes place within the plants – otherwise known as shade.

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Paris, France – A Vertical Garden Mecca

The 'city of love' is a sort of vertical garden hotspot, and it's becoming increasingly popular and mainstream to 'decorate' a bland wall with a plethora of beautiful plants, whether it be for artistic purposes or for more functional eco-friendly intentions. Much of the reason that Paris is such a vertical garden mecca is the fact that one of the founding fathers of the art form, Patrick Blanc, lives there. He, and other living wall artists have created some amazing vertical gardens in France's capital city.

Foundation Cartier

The plant wall at the entrance of the Foundation Cartier has not been trimmed since it was planted back in 1998. The only maintenance of this beautiful garden involves a gardener coming in about every 2-3 months to remove dead leaves, or whole plants, and replace them with new ones.

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BHV Homme

The vertical garden at this popular Parisian department store literally adds life to the back of BHV Homme in Paris. This artistic living wall almost resembles an abstract painting from afar.
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Pershing Hall Hotel

Nestled in the courtyard of the Pershing Hall Hotel is a 30 meter high vertical garden that features over 250 different plant species. It's quite a site, to say the least!
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Club Med Champs-Elysees

The small vertical garden at this Club Med in Paris is designed to represent plants from 5 different continents. The addition of the vertical garden at this Club Med location is all part of a plan to create a more upscale feel for the already first-class resort. The garden is visible from outside and is beautifully lit at night.
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CaixaForum, Madrid, Spain

As the newest museum in Madrid, CaixaForum certainly takes innovation to the next level before you even walk into the place. One of the exterior walls features a huge 24 meter high vertical garden with over 15,000 plants from more than 250 different species. This artistic display is one of the finest examples of living walls anywhere in Spain.
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Vertical Gardens, Bangkok, Thailand

The vertical gardening phenomenon is spreading like wild fire across the globe, and it's no different in Bangkok, Thailand. Check out these photos of two great examples of vertical gardening. The first two photos are at the Siam Paragon Shopping Center, and the second is a cool example of how strategically placing plants vertically alongside an elevator shaft at the Emporium Bangkok can add a nice decorative touch.
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Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain

In front of the Guggenheim Art Museum you'll find an awesome example of vertical gardening in the depiction of a puppy made entirely out of plants. The artist, Jeff Koons, created this 43-foot tall “plant puppy” in the mid-1990s using a steel substructure and a variety of plants. The detail of this piece is amazing.

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ACROS Fukuoka Prefectural International Hall, Japan

The 100,000 square foot rooftop at the ACROS Fukuoka building is definitely one-of-a-kind. The 18 story building features 15 stepped terraces that can actually be climbed to the top. The terraces are meant to promote a serene and peaceful environment in the middle of the city with lots green plants and even waterfalls and small pools to add to the calming effect of the building's extraordinary exterior.

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Living Walls, Netherlands

This building is a great example of how you can spice up a boring exterior and turn it into a living and breathing wall. The plants are growing in a thin layer of felt and rock wool material instead of soil. Recycled rain water is pumped through this material to provide nutrients to the root systems of the plants.
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Future Vertical Sky Farm Designs

The idea of being able to save valuable space on the ground and to farm vertically has intrigued many designers, architects, and government officials. Sky farming saves space on the ground, can provide a year-round crop, and can be placed in the middle of the busiest cities in the world. With overpopulation, rocketing food prices and the migration to cities, traditional farming could soon become obsolete. This poses an interesting question: could these futuristic and green utopic visions become the standard, the new way to farm in the future?

Netflix

      If I could turn back time to change something in my past...I would ask less questions and try to be less curious about the world. As a small child I was the student that all teachers feared, at least at my church anyways. I was the questioner. I always wanted to know more than the average christian child. Of course mine were the sort of questions that could never be answered except for with the simple phrase, "Well you must have faith, Ashley. If you pray about your questions you will receive an answer." What a bunch of bologna to tell a six year old. I prayed all the damn time and would sit there, knees becoming sore, waiting for some sort of answer. I had a ton of faith as a child. I believed in everything and that anything was possible. But I think it was the no answers back from God that made me question every other belief I had. I still went to church and kept asking my questions, always receiving the same answer or a "I never thought about it that way..." type response. I felt like no one really knew anything after a while, like no ones prayers were being answered and we were all on our own trying to make up answers that made the most sense to the things we didn't know. At the age of eight in the church you were said to be at the age of accountability and were able to be baptized. I wasn't all excited like my peers had been, to be plunged under water and have the responsibility of making the right choices in life. I asked my parents if I could first read the Bible to make sure that that was what I wanted. They encouraged me to do as I wanted but told me that I did not have to know all the answers to life for this event, I could still make mistakes as long as I repented before I died. I waited a few months and desperately tried to read the scriptures. At 8 this was not an easy task. It isn't an easy task in general for any age. I didn't understand half of what I read and when I thought it meant one thing my father would correct me and say it meant another. I gave in and took the plunge. It was a memorable, proud day for my parents, while a stressful and scary one for me. I was happy afterwards, but really who isn't happy to see all of their family and friends in one place enjoying food and congratulating you.

      I'm getting off topic, but I thought it important for the viewer to know that I'm not the type of person to just believe anything right away. I like evidence. If that can't be provided I don't want lies either. I want truth. Faith is not truth. Now if one tells me that they have faith in something but that they know that they could be wrong. That is truth. I don't understand why so many believers can't just admit that. This was part of the argument between me and my mom. She thinks that faith and truth are one in the same when I believe they are not. Just a difference in opinion. 

     Being the curious person I am I like to watch documentaries, news, animal planet, history channel, etc. I enjoy learning, most of the time, if taught in the correct manner. If I'm not actually curious about something then it is hard to teach it to me but if I want to know then I am an easy student. Recently I've gotten into documentaries about the oil and food situations. Alot of it has to do with the world coming to an end because we are not using our resources correctly and really we care more about consumerism than saving future generations and the planet we all call home. These documentaries make me want to get out there and do something, but what I can really do? I know there are the simple things, such as eating organically, driving as little as possible, not flying, turning off the lights, taking shorter showers, turning the faucet off, recycling, etc. I know that by doing these things myself I will set the example to others, but I still feel like it isn't enough and at the same time I feel like just trying to do these things will be quite the challenge.
    Life would just be much simplier if I wasn't curious. I wouldn't feel the need to change my consumer habits or change my lifestyle. I would just keep eating endlessly, guzzling gas, and leaving all the lights on while I sleep for fear of the dark. I would be exceptionally happy as a clueless individual. Now I just feel guilty everytime I turn the key to start my engine or eat a product that I know shouldn't even be on the shelves. I wouldn't have to run in a panic up the stairs from the dark depths below or hide under the covers in fear of the mysterious dark at night. If only I wasn't so curious.

Ketchup

It has been quite a while so I will attempt to catch up on what's happened so far this summer...

1. I did find a job, as a waitress/server at Torero's Fine Mexican Dining, around the beginning of June and started working around mid-June. The job is wonderful, even though I'm not full time and the pay isn't exactly what I was looking for. I couldn't have asked for better co-workers. We all help each other out and have a little fun on the job as well. It is like working with family. Even the customers are wonderful, most days. 
2. Me and the parents had a big blow out. Mostly about my personal choices in life and how they don't agree with them all. It was an emotional rollercoaster filled with accusations, yelling, crying, and anger. It lasted for about a week or so, but I think we have all finally come to terms. We all respect one another now and we have all learned that we can happily agree to disagree, for the most part. I'm sure this argument will come up over and over throughout our lives and I think I can take it as long as I remember who I am and what I believe in. I believe and hope that once I start living on my own this issue will resolve itself.
3. We, being my aunts & their guys, my parents, me, and then the parents friends, all went on our family's annual canoe trip. I chilled in my aunt Vada's canoe with her and her boyfriend Josh. The trip was 10 miles of serene and peaceful adventure. A nice one day vacation from the world and the younger children. Just what we all needed. 
4. I haven't seen much of my high school friends this summer. Me, Martina, Marissa, Rebecca, and Dylan all had dinner and went bowling at the beginning of the summer but it has been difficult to cordinate everyone's schedules since then. I've seen Martina a couple times since then and I've hung out with Brittney a few times but it's just not the same anymore. I saw Kayla at her graduation and again today but we haven't really hung out. It is like we all have to get to know each other again. We have all changed over the year. Or maybe I've just changed. I'm unsure.
5. We have also, as a family been to Nashville Shores, Adventure Science Museum, the park, and the YMCA throughout the summer. Along with those things we have pool parties at our house and cookouts. The third of July we all went to watch the fireworks on the riverside while eating watermelon and funnelcake. On the Fourth we went to church and then to a church member's family's party. It was awesome. They had a pool, pot-luck food, blow up waterslides, sprinklers, glow sticks, endless candy bars, a ton of people, and a huge firework display once it got dark. They even had smaller fireworks for all the kids to shoot off with them watching and helping, of course. Needless to say, all the kids and adults had a blast. It was a great way to celebrate our freedom. 
6. Yesterday my mom and the 5 younger children left for a 2 week vacation, leaving me, dad, and casey behind to work. They are visiting friends in Louisiana, family in Texas, and family in Arkansas before making their way back. We are working at our jobs, keeping the house clean and tidy, doing mom's To Do List she left us, and trying to relax in the quiet house while we have it. We are on vacation too, just in a different manner.