Natural ATL | Health Food Store in SW Atlanta - Fruits, Veggies & Herbs ...

Yesterday, my sister, my nephew and my three girls finally got a chance to shop at Fruits, Veggies &Herbs health food store. This is a small community store(and family owned) that I've been eyeing for several years now. For some reason, I only think about this place when I decide to take the bus home and when the bus passes by---I always say, oh yeah, I need to check them out.....unfortunately I always forget and the cycle just repeats itself.

Well, that cycle ended yesterday, and I was really impressed with the size of the produce and most of all, the price of the produce. They had lemons, grapefruits, potatoes twice the size of anything you would find at a chain grocery store, and they also had these gigantic carrots, that were so big I can't even begin to describe them.

You know,sometimes I wish I could be a little like my teenage daughters' when it comes to snapping pictures with my cell phone because  the size of a lot of the fruit and vegetables was really insane! I should've had my girls on camera duty, but like always, I was living in the moment and that's alright with me--just not the best when you're a blogger and want to share an experience.

My sister noticed that they had a really good deal on the Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar when most stores sell there's over $10, she noticed Fruits, Veggies & Herbs was selling their vinegar for $8. See that's an awesome deal for that particular product.

All in all we had a great experience shopping there, and if we had a little more money to splurge--we're shopping for school supplies that must be replaced because it is torn or broken, so the kids can be back to school ready, then we would've probably bought a little more.

Here's the breakdown of what I bought: 4 lemons, 8 kiwis, 2 grapefruits, and a bag of baking potatoes. I spent a little over $9. I think that's a great price considering the size of the items that I bought too.


Here's a little video clip I found of the store on Youtube.   Thanks to www.naturalatl.com for sharing this video.

If you live on the south side of the city, or ever visiting the southern end of the city, then  I highly recommend you checking them out. It's a small family run business with great customer service.   Oh yeah, don't forget to checkout the smoothie bar they have too!

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Late Summer....Time to Focus on Fall Gardening

Welcome to what I call the busiest time of my gardening adventures.....late summer!! The time of the year where I'm clearing out some plants because their time is up, I'm making  a lot  more compost tea for  the plants, and still collecting a harvest on other veggies in the garden.

It's also that time where I'm trying to decide what other plants to grow for the coming fall season. I already know that I'll be growing garlic....that's a no brainer for me. I've grown garlic for six years straight, and I always find some space in my garden to grow garlic, not only because I love cooking with it, but it's also easy to grow--can't beat that!!

See, the pic below, these are some of the seeds that I have put into the garden and a few that I  plan on putting into the garden. 

Let's see, I have arugula seeds and lettuce seeds(four season variety, they don't mind a little heat),oh yeah beets, Swiss chard, pumpkin seeds, and some carrot seeds from last year. I wished I could remember the name of the carrot seeds off of the top of my head, but I can't...I'm sure I have the name written down in my supposedly garden journal(I need to do better), but I'm sure I'll find the info because these baby carrots were, sooooo sweet  last year, I've got to find out the name, so I can share their name with you.

The arugula and the lettuce seeds are the only seeds that I haven't planted in the garden yet, but I'm going to real soon---I promise.

Three weeks ago, I decided to try my hand at growing a couple of pumpkins, so I bought some seeds at a local grocery store--I know I'm cutting it close, buying and planting pumpkin seeds in July, but sometimes I like to live on the wild side, lol!!! Don't worry, I figured out the dates and everything and a pumpkin or a few pumpkins, if I'm lucky, should be sitting pretty in my backyard in October.

Hey, let's take a look at one of my pumpkin plants.

Well, there she is in all of her glory, not bad looking at all. Guys please send me positive vibes for this one....like I said, I've never grown a pumpkin before and I just need the positive energy.

I just keep telling myself,  "If I can grow melons, then I can grow pumpkins."

I'll keep doing that, however, it would be nice if the people who read this blog would do the same, thanks.

Okay, now that I've shown you one of my pumpkin plants, let's take a look at the beets.

Yeah, they look pretty good, don't they? I plan on putting some more seeds out real soon.

And lastly here are a few carrots that recently sprouted. I plan on putting some more carrot seeds out as well.  This spot needs to be weeded out a lot better, well another thing to add to my to do list.

 

Well, that's a little bit of what's growing in my garden for the fall season. Sorry I didn't have any pictures of the Swiss Chard. The kids and I cut a lot of the leaves off to use as a topping for pizza last week, so for that reason I didn't have any pictures to share, but I can tell you that it was a delicious addition to the pizza....this I know for sure!

 

Thanks for stopping by, and remember..... Keep Growing!!!

 

P.S. What will you be growing in your fall garden?

 

Quote of The Week

Marta Weekly Pop Up Produce Market

Kudos to everyone that made this possible!!! I must say, this city has done it again with bringing fresh produce to the people. Yes, we have some great farmer's markets all around the city and awesome CSA(community supported agriculture)groups, but I must say, having a pop up produce market at the train station is fantastic!  Great job Atlanta!!



http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2015/07/10/marta-to-open-weekly-pop-up-produce-market-at-west.html

Tam Jalapeno Plant

Finally Harvested Some Tomatoes

Finally was able to harvest some cucumbers from the garden.As you can see, I have a lot of green yellow pear tomatoes that I brought in from the garden because they were taking to long to change colors. So, in order to feel like I've accomplished something  with my tomato plants this year, and to also help my plants along with production (tomatoes  haven't done very well, this year),I decided to pick my maters and let them bask in the sunlight on my windowsill.

This hasn't been a very productive tomato season for me.  Usually, I begin getting tomatoes in mid June,but this year we had an unusually cooler and wet spring, and  the potential move to Miami we were facing (became busy researching homes,schools,making a budget for a new city) I believe all of this played a hand in the lack of  production this year.

I'm seriously grateful for the harvest that I got, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get a harvest out of the other tomato plants in the garden.

Hmmm....let me send some good vibes to my Gypsy tomato plants and those delectable Cherokee Purple plants to grow and produce some amazing tomatoes for us.

Are you growing tomatoes and are you harvesting  anything yet?

Happy Birthday America!!!