• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Easy Plant-Based Recipes | realrawkitchen
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Contact Me
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Medium
    • Pinterest
You are here: Home / Uncategorized / weekend wanderer: at the flea market

weekend wanderer: at the flea market

Originally Published: Jun 17, 2013 ❀ Last Updated: Jun 17, 2013 by realrawkitchen ❀ This post may contain affiliate links ❀ This blog generates income via ads ❀ Leave a Comment

I’m a huge believer in self-care. Seriously. I truly believe that there is no way you can be your best self, wife, mother, friend, daughter, employee, etc if you don’t first pamper yourself into happiness. This doesn’t mean just pampering but a sort of soul-satisfying, mental-health-checking, weekend-adventuring, exotic-food-making pampering. And this is exactly what I set out to do every weekend.

This weekend was pretty spectacular. We didn’t go anywhere exotic and I didn’t do anything dangerous or fancy. Instead, we went to a flea market in the Redland’s, which is the agricultural area outside of Miami Dade County, and shopped around for good food.

One thing you realize very quickly when you move from any outside city to the Miami area is that you are essentially moving into another country. There are so many Latin American cultures here, all claiming certain corners of the city, and very few of them have compromised their origins in order to live in the U.S. What has resulted from this is a very unique and very exotic experience that can really only be described as Miami.

One way I like to help myself transition to such a city (is it still a transition after 2 years??) is by exploring it as if I’m a tourist, visiting everything with virgin eyes and an open heart. 

What this allows me to do is see the hidden beauty of South Florida, push my boundaries, and get my hands on more and more juicy fruit.

  YES! 

The flea market was basically a big warehouse filled with tons of fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, vegetables, and people calling out at you in Spanish. Connected to it, and behind it, is a sort of shanty town built of more metal sheets where they are selling various “goods”. It goes on for what seems like forever.

Food trucks sit outside of it all, in between the street and the warehouse, all pumping out authentic and warm Mexican food, served in complete platters. Adjacent to the trucks are large tents filled with tables topped with fresh cilantro, lime, tomatoes and lettuce for your meal

.

The sweltering heat seemed to be trapped underneath it all as the temperature reached the 90s and the humidity peaked by early afternoon. We had sweat dripping from our backs and necks and had to use our hands to swat away the very curious flies. It was another world, one existing completely on its own about 30 minutes South of Miami.

  I loved every minute of it.

Raw cacao beans and dried chili peppers filled the bags lining each row. A scoop-and-weigh system was used with each vendor as they called out to the “mamacitas” and “papitos” to come check out their goods.

We stopped and got fresh coconut and mango to munch on while we browsed, all for $2 each (one expensive mango but a very cheap coconut). These handheld snacks proved to be the perfect way to hydrate ourselves as we made our way through the rest of the market.

We ended up loading bags up with fresh farm tomatoes (5), zucchini (2), onions (2), avocados (2), ginger (4″), bell peppers (3) … all for about $10. We, sadly, didn’t get any fruit because we didn’t want the heat to get to them since we had to put the food in the car for a little bit.

We made our way to the food trucks and my SO ordered a plate of enchiladas, followed by a Fresas Con Crema: cut strawberries covered in condensed milk and topped with whipped cream. 
This seemed to help his mood … he wasn’t too happy about the heat or the flies.
Next we made our way down to the Fruit and Spice Park where they had a Fruit Festival going on. The park was lined with tents manned by local farmers and vendors, selling their fruits, trees, plants, and little farming and gardening gadgets.

My favorite part about the Fruit and Spice park (I visit several times a year) is that there is always exotic fruit. It’s my favorite part about Miami, really. I’ve been introduced to so many different types of fruits I’d really only see here or another tropical country. Dragon Fruit is my favorite. It’s like eating ice cream.

We also discovered that there seem to be a limitless number of varieties of mangoes, which is perfect because I love mangoes.
We ended the weekend at the in-laws, celebrating Father’s Day with the family. We spent some time inside eating Colombian food (vegan arepas for me!!) and outside soaking up the Miami sun. Overall it was a wonderful weekend.

I love the weekends. They are my way to recharge and explore new things. How do you use your weekends?

xo

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Previous Post: « RECIPE: Cherry Tart and an intro to “801010”
Next Post: RECIPE: corn basil salad »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

vegan sweetener guide

hey 👋

I'm Kiki. I am a pretty basic plant-based chick that does yoga and all the things. I try to have as little impact on this planet as I can and I share all the ways I do it here with plant-based vegan food, eco-friendly sustainable living, home gardening, and homemade all natural everything.

I truly believe that if we all do all of the 'little things' then it will add up to make a big difference. I'm so glad that you're here to join me in doing lots of little things.

Let's dig deeper ↠

let’s connect

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Medium
  • Pinterest

subscribe

for your weekly fix of recipes, DIY remedies, yoga, and gardening.

Around The Blog

  • About
  • Disclosure
  • Recipes
  • Contact Me

RECENT POSTS

vegan pumpkin chili

RECIPE: sweet and spicy pumpkin chili, cooked

happy hormones

REVIEW: Happy Hormones by Kristy Vermeulen ND

RECIPE: spicy tomato and herb sauce, cooked

RECIPE: healing turmeric smoothie

disclosure

  • The ads you see generate revenue for me. This is not my livelihood but I do get some change from the ads.
  • If you make a purchase through the Amazon recommendations I make a small percentage from the purchase at no cost to you.
  • Sometimes I receive free samples from companies in order to review for you. I never recommend something that I would not use, myself. I am very protective of my brand and image and feel very strongly about only recommending items I believe in!

Footer

We had to thin out our carrots and we pulled all t We had to thin out our carrots and we pulled all the beets, which only ever amounted to little nuggets with long leafy tails.⁠
⁠
We roasted the mini carrots and used the tops to make pesto 🤤⁠
⁠
I sautéed the beet tops with mushrooms, like you’d make collard greens.⁠
⁠
It was a very sophisticated and delicious dinner that I grew myself 🧑🏽‍🌾 and I can’t believe that I’m actually living the life I always dreamed of 💫✨⁠
⁠
Hope you are all well and safe ❤️
Making offerings to #gangama in Rishikesh before t Making offerings to #gangama in Rishikesh before the whole world shut down.⁠
⁠
Millions of people from all around India (and the world!) visit the Ganges River, a sacred river that flows from Shiva's head and out to the Himalayas.⁠
⁠
It is believed that bathing in her water is the way to salvation, a way to clear karma, sins, and attachment to this world.⁠
⁠
Every day, millions of people pray to the river, sending their blessings through the water to be sent through the country, one winding mountainside at a time. To bathe in it is to bathe in prayer.⁠
⁠
May you find salvation wherever you are 🥰🙏
I haven't been on here much lately. And before tha I haven't been on here much lately. And before that, I wasn't on here for years and years.⁠
⁠
I mostly just don't like being online cuz it's what I do for work, so when my workday is done, I set my phone down and forget about it until the next morning. ⁠
⁠
And I'm definitely not trying to slow down the food-to-mouth process by taking pictures. But if I don't post and comment 24/7, then will Instagram even see it? Will anyone notice? What if I want to build a following, then what? I'm a slave to engagement for the rest of my life until I die? 🤯⁠
⁠
Social media is a fun way to connect with people from all over the world but gets in the way of connecting with the world right around me.⁠
⁠
In the meantime, here's a sloppy pic of #bananaicecream with #rawcacao and strawberries. This is the kinda #rawfood I like 😋
Don’t mind me, just over here eating homemade co Don’t mind me, just over here eating homemade coconut yogurt with #rawnola and lots of peanut butter. You know, the usual 💁🏼‍♀️
#801010 with a view 😍⁠ ⁠ Tropical fruit is #801010 with a view 😍⁠
⁠
Tropical fruit is my favvvorritteeee omg I don't think I could live without it. It makes it super easy to be #rawvegan 🤤⁠
⁠
When your food is so vibrant and full of life, you can't help but be the same.
I like having green juice on an empty stomach. I k I like having green juice on an empty stomach. I kinda naturally practice intermittent fasting by not eating until noon or 1 p.m. each day. Sometimes, when I'm hungry during that time I opt for a juice. This class green juice is 👌⁠
⁠
❀❀❀❀❀⁠
⁠
•RECIPE•⁠
1 cucumber⁠
1 inch of fresh ginger⁠
4 pink lady apples⁠
1 lemon⁠
1 stalk of celery⁠
⁠
•INSTRUCTIONS•⁠
↣option 1: run through your preferred juicer and enjoy😋⁠
↣option 2: blender with a little bit of water, then strain through a nut mylk bag. then enjoy 😋
follow me on Instagram

around the blog

  • About
  • Disclosure
  • Recipes
  • Contact Me

my favorites

vegan pumpkin chili
happy hormones

Copyright © 2021 · Real Raw Kitchen