Farmer's Markets, Home Tours and Dirt

 We slept in again today. It's becoming a bad habit of mine lately. I was really hungry when I woke up so I had an apple and a few strawberries.

Grandpa Lungwitz got a big writeup in the Redgranite paper and he sent us the story in the mail.

After deciding we had to make it to the farmer's market and breakfast could wait, we checked out the demolished Broadway Liquor Outlet along the way. It got heavily damaged by the tornado and sat rotting away for nearly a year. 

Here's what it looked like right after the storm. It really was one of my favorite buildings on the northside. It made Penn and Broadway. 

The owner is going to be erecting a large multi-use building across the street. So, we'll get back the best liquor store on the Northside. I haven't heard anything about what will go in that hole.

Brooke and I meandered through Near North to the farmers market.

I was pretty excited that this weekend was the opening. 

There wasn't much produce at the market. Most of the stalls that are open are only selling the same junk you get at the supermarket.

The annex still had a nice crowd gathered at their food stalls.

This highway is all that separates our hood from downtown and the farmer's market.

We took a roundabout way back to our house and we passed the only synagogue I know of that still stands in NoMi. North Minneapolis was once a majority Jewish neighborhood, but slowly transitioned to the predominantly black Northisde of today. I love the juxtaposition of the Star of Davids and the crosses that supplant the original tenants.

 We biked by Tyler and Emma's house and thought we would stop by to say hello. Olive greeted us from the window. 

 They have had their house tested for lead recently and came back with high amounts. They had their kitchen cabinets painted the day before. (The main reason I wanted to come over) I love the new color it really improved their kitchen. 

 My strawberry plant is blooming. Does this mean strawberries will grow where the flowers are? I've never grown strawberries before so I have no idea. 

 All we got at the farmers market were scallions, rhubarb and spinach. I thought with the early spring there would have been more. At least asparagus, kale and pea shoots.

 Since all I had eaten was the fruit I was super hungry. The longer I go without eating the more I want something sweet so I made a BIG pancake for myself.

We only had enough milk for one big pancake, so I just ate leftover Singapore Noodles.

 After brunch Scott started grinding his meat for making sausages.

I made southwest and Northern Italian this time around. All the sausages have been of the fennel or coriander variety. Next time I'm going to go for Polish or Hungarian. 

 I was still hungry after breakfast so I had a kiwi.


This year a number of homes were a part of the Minneapolis-St.Paul Home Tour. Unlike the Get to NoMi tour we went to last year, most of these weren't for sale.


We also stopped by a few open houses that Live North had put together. We ran into Deb Wagner the realtor who represented the longtime owners of our house. She lives right in the neighborhood and is always a blast to talk to.

We have a bunch of insurance money to fix the small damage we got from the tornado. A good chunk is for painting the stucco, but I've felt weary about painting a maintenance-free siding. She said that her husband would never paint their stucco, which makes us feel like its probably wiser to use the money elsewhere on the home. We would be using a specialty paint...but still. What do you guys think: paint or not to paint?


Once again we determined we think our house is better than most of the ones shown, though the rambler we stopped at the end of the tour was very nice.

Deb told us about a little grill out around the Jordan Pond. So, we stopped by and met some new people and chatted with some we already knew.

We needed some fresh dirt for the garden, so we headed to Menard's.

 Scott loaded up the dirt. After walking around the store we decided against the dirt since it wasn't organic. He also noticed the name of the company was fertilizer something inc. 

 We went across the way to get the organic soil for 10 cents more at Home Depot. 

 Scott's a busy bee making dinner and getting the sausages ready. 

I had to wash out the natural casings before stuffing it with the southwest sausage.

They weren't perfect, but we got four links stuffed with a little teamwork.

 For dinner we had Spicy Cabbage and Sausage Pasta with a Capitol Brewery Maibock.

There's also a ghost lingering next to Scott. 

After dinner Brooke sorted puzzle pieces.

And then she shaped the Italian Bread.

 Apparently things were too boring for Scott because he had to go watch cartoons.

And voila, I was no longer bored.

And the Italian bread was done. 

Then we watched more of, you guessed it, Daria! This show is so funny I'm going to be sad when it ends.