Pumpkin Patch

I just happened to pick some pea shoots growing as a cover crop at the farm yesterday, perfect for pumpkin vines...

Ryan's
lunch:
veggie
fried
rice
(with
onion,
carrots,
aspar-
agus,
broc-
coli,
snap
peas);
rice
cheese
moon;
carrot
pump-
kins
with
nori
and
pea tendrils; meatless meatballs.

AJ stayed home with a stuffy nose today, so I only had to make one bento. Ryan noticed the difference, saying "you make nicer lunches when you only have to make one! I like it when my lunch looks like an actual place." It's true...it's much easier to make just one bento.

The boys have been asking to get pumpkins for Halloween. We only have one pie pumpkin from the farm this year. The winter squash crop didn't do so well. I suppose I'll have to find a place to buy a couple of decent carving pumpkins, preferably locally grown that don't cost a fortune.

"S" it Spring yet??

Seriously, enough with the constant rain, and the weather that can't make up its mind from one minute to the next. The lighting was horrible on the porch for picture taking this morning...

Ryan's "S" lunch: juju stars;
spinach; soba noodles; star-
fruit slices; sesame sticks;
seaweed crackers.

Served in a Snoopy bento
with a spork, and a S'mores
mini Luna bar on the side.

I should have posted over
the weekend...hmmm...so
much else to blab on about...

Well, first my food:

friday:
7am- 6 flax crackers w/almond butter.
10am- Greek cucumber salad: cucumber, red onion, olives, vinegar, salt, sugar, paprika, black pepper; flax crackers & leftover pineapple mango salsa.
1pm- a banana.
3pm- bowl of red grapes.
5pm- 2 bananas; 6 dates; 6 flax crackers.

saturday:
8am- smoothie: 1/2 banana, 1 mango, handful of frozen blueberries, liquid DHA, water.
10:30am- flax crackers & guacamole (avocado, tomato, onion, lemon juice).
1:30- 1 orange; 6 flax crackers w/almond butter.
3:30- small bowl of dates, raisins & almonds; grapes.
5:30- leftover guacamole w/flax crackers; 3 olives.

sunday:
7:30am- a banana; 4 flax crackers w/almond butter.
9:30am- sprouted quinoa tabbouleh salad: sprouted quinoa, tomato, cucumber, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, ginger, olive oil, shoyu.
12pm- 1 avocado; 1 apple; last of the flax crackers w/sprouted chick pea hummus.
3pm- red & green bell peppers w/sprouted chick pea hummus; 6 olives.
5:30pm- an orange; small bowl of dates, raisins & almonds.

Drum roll...I've finally found
a way I really like quinoa!!
This sprouted quinoa salad
from Juliano's RAW was
marvelous...though I omitted
the mint. It's not that I don't
like mint, but, well, I just
don't like mint often in a lot
of things. Mint chip ice cream
is another story. :-)

The weekend kept us busy. It began with a bonus farm pickup on friday afternoon! They're really getting the hang on winter growing now during the second year trying it, and for $30 we brought home 10lbs of root veggies, a monster bag of spinach, some garlic, and as many extra purple-topped turnips as we could use. Plus for $5 each we could purchase another bag of spinach and/or a bag of swiss chard & beet greens. We got both.
The greenhouse was already filled with flats of seedlings poking out of the dirt, getting ready for spring planting. It was very muddy around the farm though, as we had a ton of rain.













In other news, the Death
Star is finally complete!
It only took 3 months of
friday evenings, LOL.
It has its own shelf, up
high of course so that it
is protected from the
destructive forces of a
toddler and 3yo.

"A" lunch

River over at The Crafty Kook has a new idea, or a sort of challenge, called Eating Around the World.

Well, I don't think I'm
up for it...at the moment
...though it sounds like a
lot of fun. Instead, I'm
going to warp her idea
into some bento fodder
for lunches. I'm going to
attempt to make a bento
for each letter of the
alphabet!

"A" lunch for Ryan: avocado half; dried apricots; apple slices; asparagus & sliced almond fried rice.

Speaking of A's, AJ & I visited the Wayside Inn over the weekend. It is the oldest operating inn in the United States, open since 1716.


































AJ was impressed by the
schoolhouse that served
16 kids in grades 1-6, quite
different from the 600 kids
in AJ's school! Among the
children who attended the
Redstone School was Mary,
of Mary Had A Little Lamb
fame. The school was moved
from Sterling to Sudbury for preservation by Henry Ford.

small packages & silly boys

It was
early
release
at 1pm
for the
public
schools
today,
so a
lighter
lunch...

Ryan's
lunch:
Thermos
of bean,
vege-
table,
barley
soup;
soy
cheese
squares;
herb crackers; a tiny Pez pack leftover from Halloween.

Next I wanted to show Nate's preschool snack, not because of the food so much as the size of the container. Bento snacks and lunches are meant to be packed efficiently, tightly arranged so that there is little excess space. This container is only holds 130ml and can fit in the palm of my hand, yet properly filled it can easily hold a nice snack for a preschooler.
Nate's snack: 2 dried apricots; 4 grape tomatoes; 3 squares of soy cheese; 3 herb crackers.

Any of you with multiple boys knows just how silly and crazy they can get. Besides the blocks and cars and toilet talk...









As I was getting Maia ready
for bed I walked in on a
conversation about "space
diapers" and they all started laughing hysterically.

And on our afternoons hike,
Ryan was "the King", AJ
was "the Queen", and...









...Nate was "the mad dragon", of course!

Don't worry, once the
snow starts to fly I won't
have all these daily
hikes to bore you all
with!

AJ wanted to climb this
pine tree. I thought this
picture looked even better
turned 90 degrees counter
clockwise, LOL.