Rich food vitalizes food stampers

I gave this local farmer poker-chip-like tokens to purchase tasty as all getup Elephant Kale. He could then redeem the tokens at the end of the day for a check. In this manner, the EBT/SNAP pilot program allows EBT card holders to purchase food items at the Farmer's Market.

Like a head sprouting through the birth canal, summer has emerged – wet, sticky and full of life. Seizing the season’s inception, Erin Lee, her man Richard, and I voyaged to the Four Mile Run Farmers Artisans Market, Sunday, to test out its new EBT/SNAP pilot program.

There in Arlandria, our low incomes actually proved to be a blessing. Because of the generosity of a hospital in Alexandria, which is subsidizing us foodstampers. We received $10 to spend as long as we spent $10 or more of our SNAP/EBT benefits.

We made out like chieftans with some serious local loot. Fresh strawberries, elephant kale, farmer’s fresh eggs, hamburgers, bratwurst, tomatoes and onion were among the gamut of goodies we walked away with. Thanks to Stifler Beef Farm, also known as “What’s for Dinner Now,” I was able to buy meat free from the heartless travails of factory farming.

Life was good. I had found a Mecca where I could use my EBT benefits to send a signal to the market. Yeah, with my Virginia-taxpayer funded transfer payment I was helping prop up quality establishments with decent values. Erin, Richard and I were doing well.

After the Farmer’s market, we got our swim suits and readied for a journey to Great Falls. But before we departed, I noticed tiny purple berries speckling a tree that overhung a sidewalk by my apartment. I started picking and eating with delight, and Erin informed me they were mulberries. I picked for the better half of an hour and only collected about six ounces of mulberries. I now understand why blueberries and blackberries are so crazy expensive.

Mulberry trees bear a bountiful supply of tasty fruit outside of my apartment in the Columbia Grove complex. My apartment is subsidized by a grant given to the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing and I'm truly living in a rare situation, where poor people get great things.

Alas, we headed to Great Falls and Richard showed us a secret swimming spot his friend had revealed to him. Apparently we came too early in the year, because we couldn’t even see the rock that Richard and his friends had sunbathed on before hopping into the mouth of the waterfall. We were looking at waters “about five feet higher than should be,” according to Richard.

Nonetheless it was good, freeze your cajones off, swimming. And there were butterflies abound! We saw about eight Tiger Swallowtails going crazy over some delicious snack they found near the source of the waterfall.

Behind Erin Lee & Richard a giant rock is normally exposed in the water, however, the water level is about five feet higher than normal, sources say.



Tiger Swallowtails feast near the mouth of the waterfall.

Richard seems to be this fountain of good information. He taught me of this band Architecture in Helsinki, that reminds me of Modest Mouse meets Arcade Fire. Also, there is this place in Virginia where you can squeeze between an extremely tight gorge in waist deep water and follow this route until you hit a rock wall. Then you dive under the wall and wind up on the other side of a waterfall. Nature is so full, I just want to play in it and explore it all day. Work is such a waste of life.

Anyway, we got back from the hike around 3pm. As fate would have it, my girlfriend would be finishing up her singing role as a soprano, at Greek wedding held in DC, around 5:30pm.

Sidenote: She’s crazy talented and when she reveals her vocal prowess it makes talking seem criminal.

So, I decided I would walk to DC from my Arlington apartment. I left at 3:30pm figuring I would have plenty of time. WRONG. It took me almost three hours to get to our meeting spot in DuPont, and that was after I hopped a couple of fences at Arlington National Cemetery and sprinted up New Hampshire.

When I saw Ileana in her maroon dress, I remembered why work is not a waste of life. It allows for things like DC, New York, and Confluence adventures. And most of all work brought me to a wonder-babe, and with a little luck, it will lead me to even more opportunity.

Undeniable Truth: Summer is the best backdrop for voracious exploration and new freedoms. Viva las foodstamps, farmers markets, new sources of adventure, and the unknown ahead. May we mold life into the forms our hearts so desire.