Wednesday, July 28, 2010

before she was 2






















Yep, this is an entire post dedicated to Maia shortly before her birthday. I couldn't resist. Sorry!














































Check out the retro dress thingie below on the right...I wore that when I was the same age! Maia wore it for the first day of summer.

























The lilies in the back yard didn't stand a chance against the wrath of Moo!











































Maia's first snow cone at the preschool picnic...





































Tuesday, July 27, 2010

ahhh...the farm

Now that the tomatoes
are doing well I have to
blog about the farm again.
CSAs are just the best
most satisfying way to
obtain local organic produce.
You know the farmer, help
work the fields, have a say
in what gets planted, know
the water source that irrigates the soil, harvest a lot of your own produce (unless it's a delivery style CSA like some farms), and have the kids learning about where their food comes from hands on.


Sometimes I feel bad
talking so much about
our local farm, Stearns
Farm CSA, because it's
just sooo good. There's
a several hundred person
waiting list. Yeah. It's that wonderful. And if you don't renew by January you're outta there! But almost everyone does. 95% of familes this year returned. Considering that people move and such, that's really impressive.
Here's Nate toting 2 quarts of purslane on his head. Purslane is essentially a weed to most people in the U.S., but one of the most nutritious and delicious weeds you've ever tasted! It's growing among the crops, shading the root veggies, free for the taking.

Before the basil is even
out of the greenhouse,
there is purslane popping
up among the rows. I
topped some whole wheat
pita pizzas with purslane
pesto, then added Daiya
mozzarella. Perfection.

The good news is there
are new CSAs opening
every year. In fact the farm around the corner from ours began offering shares 2 years ago, and now they are utilizing the field adjoining Stearns Farm for organic crops, instead of hay as they did in the past. I'm sure the Community Supported Agriculture model will only continue to grow.

quick!

Before the tomatoes ripen! (Please please PLEASE let the tomato crop do well this year!) It's farm pickup this afternoon, and I'm anticipating the first significant tomatoes. I had a salad for breakfast using an entire store-bought tomato in order to clean the counters, fruit bowl, fridge for whatever we might be bringing home. (Yes, I do refrigerate tomatoes only if they're very ripe...don't want to feed the fruit fly population any more than necessary.)

So back to the end of the school year...






















AJ created scrapbook pages for his kindergarten teacher, and really wanted to give her a hand-decorated mug (as cliche as it sounds, but he did a really wonderful job and I know it's something I would have loved back when I was a teacher). We filled it with zucchini brownies with a copy of the recipe.
Maia joined Nate for his end of preschool ice cream party (we brought our own vegan equivalents of course), and Nate made cards to attach to the banana-apple-strawberry muffins he helped make with strawberries from the farm.

Nate was excited to
use his bubble blower
from his teacher, and
he spent weeks looking
at his big portfolio of
artwork and photos
from his second year
at preschool.

Then a couple of days
later was a final family
picnic where the kids
got their faces painted (except for AJ, he was at a birthday party where he got a cool hat). Nate had a dragon on his cheek, but wouldn't cooperate for a picture...typical 3 year old.

























AJ's
teacher
gift:




















Ryan had three
teachers to make
gifts for, so he
just made cards
with recipes to go
with baggies of
brownies.





Ryan's last lunch of the school year included some of his most favourite items: farm strawberries; leftover Gianni's spinach, mushroom & black olive pizza; zucchini brownie.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Lots O' Lunches

Lots of lunches...
I've
almost
caught
up to
the
end
of the
school
year.

Still to
come...
Maia's
bday,
farm
pics,
a pet,
some
hikes,
camping,
and a
new
oven!