Spring Update

One of the things about having a blog is that I often think of things to write about when I don't have time to sit down and write. And then of course when I do have the time, I have forgotten what I was going to write about and have a hard time coming up with anything!

I was going to write an Earth Day tribute, but that week passed by so quickly. I'll try to give everyone some brief updates of things that have been going on with us.

Capanna remains busy as ever. Business has really picked up this spring and we are excited to see sales continue to grow each month. One exciting new development is that we are purchasing a portable gelato cart so we can be a food vendor at various local events. Iowa City is a great place to be in the summer with the Summer of the Arts and all of the activities associated with that. The Friday Night Concert series is one of the reasons our downtown location is so great. We get hundreds of people right outside our door every Friday night. But the two big events, Arts Fest and the Jazz Fest bring thousands of people to Iowa City. Being able to be out on the street with other local food vendors is a great opportunity and we fully expect to be cranking out the gelato those weekends. This year we also have Ragbrai coming through North Liberty, so we'll be selling gelato as a food vendor there as well. Mike is working night and day to work out all of the logistics. We've projected that we'll need a lot more freezer space those weekends. Fortunately, we have made good relationships with some local businesses that have offered freezer space to borrow! Mike is so good at figuring out how to make things work. I would initially have thought it was impossible to produce that much- needing as much as 200 gallons of milk those weekends!!! But where there's a will there's a way I guess. Really, I just see God continuing to bless Capanna and us because we have had things work miraculously with the stores so many times.

I am currently enjoying the lilac season. I inherited a love of these wonderful blooms from my mom. I seriously love just walking up to a lilac bush and inhaling several times, usually with my eyes closed. We are blessed to have two lilac bushes in our yard, which are abundant with blooms this year. I think it is my most favorite smell in the world!

I've been reading much more on vegetarianism lately. I'm still not ready to make the switch, but as a dietitian, I really want to have expert knowledge in this area. Most of my dietetics education focused more on traditional nutrition/medicine, especially since I went to school in Iowa. However in dreaming how I might use my skills in the future, I have considered the idea of trying to consult for the co-ops in Iowa City and Coralville on a part-time basis. Many grocery stores are starting to hire dietitians to do a combination job of marketing and providing a service to customers. Hy-Vee has had great success with their RD's. I think I would really like doing that, especially for the co-ops because it seems like it would just be a fun place to work. But that means I need to really be up on vegetarian/vegan nutrition as well as other alternative nutrition therapies, supplements, that sort of thing. One of the things I have come across is the idea of doing "Green Smoothies". These are smoothies that have green leafy vegetables added to them, like spinach, kale, romaine, etc. Seems weird, but I have now made a couple and they are soooo good! My first included a lettuce blend with watermelon and frozen berries. More recently I've been doing spinach with strawberries, banana, and ground flax for the omega-3's. They look pretty putrid sometimes, but are really yummy. You don't even taste the greens. I highly recommend it if you have difficulty meeting your fruit and vegetable intake per day. Minimum recommended is 5 servings per day between the two and up to 9 or more servings per day.

Speaking of fruits and vegetables, I have decided to do a garden this year. A full size garden is a little overwhelming for me, and I have a tendency to start things and then not finish them, so I didn't want to put the money into a large garden and then let it go because I don't feel like spending that much time outside in the oppressive heat of July. So I decided to start out small and try container gardening. I'm going to try growing tomatoes, bell peppers, lettuce, radishes, green beans, cucumbers, yellow squash, and zucchini, and basil in containers. I have the lettuce, radishes, tomatoes, and cucumbers planted. I planted some bell peppers that a friend from work had started from seed, but realized that even though you can usually plant those outside by this time, because we've had colder weather, it's still too cold. So I have successful killed my first plant :) Oh well, my tomato plant looks like it's doing well so far and has a few blooms on it. I'll keep you updated on the progress. Unfortunately our camera had an accident, so pictures will probably not be accompanying, but you can use your imagination! :)