.Yummy Fruit & Purple Water.

Many items that we are used to having in America are slightly less accessible here in our new country.

 If the items are available, they are most likely way more expensive - peanut butter is one of these things. I just love peanut butter and you can find it here but it's quite expensive for what you get. For instance, this little jar is a little more than $3 while this lovely jar of Jif is probably close to the same price (Thanks for bringing this for us Friends!!!!).

Luckily, fruit and vegetables do not fall under these two categories: they are readily accessible (in season...) and they are equal or lesser in price! It's amazing. You can buy fresh foods at any of the local grocery stores. However, my favorite method is to buy them at one of the many fruit stands nearby. 

This is the vegetable side of the market near our house. I normally buy fruit, cucumbers, green beans and zuccini. However, I really want to like carrots so they get tossed in there sometimes too. It's slow going but we'll see!

I just hop down the stairs with my new shopping basket (cute, right?!) and pick out what I want for the next few days. Things are measured by the kilo here. I normally buy things in half kilo so they don't go bad before we are able to eat them!

Due to the different way of producing these fresh goodies, our systems are slightly sensitive to the chemicals or something that they use when growing them. This means that it takes a little more effort to clean them before consumption. 

Most of the vegetables are peeled before munching but first we must soak them. 

After a quick rinse, I put them all in this large bowl and fill it with water. Then, I pour in some potassium water mixture: it's a few purple potassium permanganate pills dissolved in a liter of water. 

I let them soak a bit in this purple water. Then, let them dry and they are ready to eat!

The owner of the fruit stand gives us free gifts sometimes when we buy things from him. Last time, it was a basket of strawberries. This time, an avocado! How sweet! I wonder what he'll have us try next time :)

In other news, we spent some time at the beach this past weekend with some friends. It was a beautiful day, not too hot or cold! We hung out and then had a picnic while working on our summer tans. We got slightly pink but it was a great time!

Soon after eating, Paul was picnic-ed out and had a nice little snooze in the warm sunshine!