This weekend I'm going to be at the E3 Spring Fair with a table for Eburg Veg. This is an annual event (previously known as KEEN's Winter Fair, but now presented by HopeSource) where Ellensburg locals come to learn about what's going on in our community in relation to the intersection of Education, Environment, and Economy. I'm incredibly excited to have the chance to talk to people about how to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into their diet, cutting down on single use plastic, getting involved with the children's garden at the downtown community garden, and celebrate how awesome our planet is while educating children about ways we can all protect it.

Since I have plant-based popups on my mind, I went back and forth between registering as an exhibitor and registering as a vendor. I decided to go all in and come up with some items to sell and hope that I can successfully raise money to execute that perfect brunch menu Jonas and I have been tirelessly working on. Everything came together in this beautiful way with finding a commercial kitchen space to use (thanks to one of the nicest people in our town), coming up with some sweet treats to offer, and the crafting and gathering of some simple items that will help people cut down on single use plastic items that are typically used and thrown away. I was having trouble narrowing down what kind of baked goods people would want to buy, knowing that I need to plan to sell out so I put a vote to the Eburg Veg Community facebook group. This is the list we came up with:

Lavender Truffles
Key Lime Cupcakes
Energy Bites
Mocha Truffles

I was surprised to see chocolate cupcakes at the bottom of the list, but since the facebook poll didn't display it as a option unless you clicked to see more I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and I'm making them anyway. Also, it would be kind of weird to have your only cupcake choice be lime. Since I realized how popular truffles are I'm thinking about coming up with a third kind to offer; any suggestions in the comments will be heartily considered! I might end up just doing whatever I want anyway, but I'd still love to hear your input.

I've been practicing the recipes this week to smooth out any kinks before I'm on the spot to make a million (ok not a million, but a lot) delectable confections and there are a few things I have noticed. I've made key lime cupcakes before, but I cheated and used regular limes. Can I just ask why nobody ever told me how tedious it is to squeeze tiny limes? Also, my recipe was half the size that I thought it was, and I still gave up and made key lime-lime-lemon juice cupcakes. I need your thoughts and prayers people. My fingers are worthless.

The good news is that I have an awesome lavender truffle recipe that I concocted for my mom on Valentine's Day this year. Piece of cake, right? Or trifle of truffle or something. I decided that I didn't like any of the mocha truffle recipes I found online and that it would be easy to adapt the lavender one. Simple switch, big kitchen explosion. I wish I could make this stuff up. Lots of cleaning and a trip to Goodwill for a $3 vintage chafing dish later, I was able to try again for the mocha truffles. No explosions, everything going smoothly. But of course there's this little thing where they are supposed to be scoop-consistency in a few minutes yet I'm sitting here hours later waiting for them to harden so I can take a nice picture and act like life is a breeze for my blog. If you see the picture here when I post this, we'll act like this conversation never happened, deal?

Luckily most of the other items I will have for sale don't have to be manufactured by me. The area where I do have some creative input is on designs for reusable bulk shopping bags. My talented artist mother, Diane Huckabay, has an art piece that started as a sketchbook doodle and over the years shows up in various incarnations and she was sweet enough to let me use it. You'll know which one is hers since mine are a little more slap-happy! I currently have 5 bag designs and am working on designs for produce-sized and large grocery-sized bags. Maybe in the future I'll figure out how to ship and set up a store on my website, but don't count on it. I'm happy to make items and deliver locally for anyone interested!

I know I may have offered a little too much information about my process getting ready for Spring Fair, but I meant it when I said I'm incredibly excited. Events like this in our community always remind me what amazing and caring people are out there in the world, even on my most cynical days. We have a bunch of awesome kids here in Ellensburg and I'm thrilled at any chance to come up with creative activities to share with them. Check out the details below, and if you come to the fair on Saturday, please introduce yourself - I'd love to know all of you personally!

All photos featured on this blog are copyrighted images. © January Bear Photography, 2018