Dirt Sniffer

We managed to keep busy for another day until Rob will be joining us. We hit up the Goodwill on 29th and King, shared a Cuban pork sandwich and spent 45 minutes at the public library with new friends. We walked into the "Babies & Books" hour at the library a little bit late, and when we sat down and introduced ourselves, the librarian asked "Is this the Finn?" I smiled and said, "... yes?" It turns out that Finn's vocal nature has landed us as memorable persons at an otherwise quiet establishment.

The Goodwill was a jackpot! We scored some Gymboree and BabyGap shirts for $0.50 a piece, and I landed this pair of Madden Girl high heels and this fun vintage purse for less than $10 total:

But aside from the small details of today, I got to thinking about an older idea I'd had a few months back when I was still in Nebraska. I had run across a story in Food & Wine magazine online regarding a somewhat radical artist from northern California who was -- get this -- having people smell/taste soil much like you would sample different wines. Her name is Laura Parker, and she called the project "Taste of Place." Participants smell soils placed in wine glasses, then taste foods specifically grown in the different soils. How awesome would that be to do the same thing with local soils and produce? I think I am going to make it a personal project over the next year to try to do this next summer. I would be looking for organic farmers (Who wants to sniff fertilizers??) and foods grown right in the soil. So Nebraska friends, mark your calendars for next August for Taste of Place at my place. Hopefully we'll have some Billings friends there, too...

S