CSA week 5

I can't believe we are already on week five of the CSA! I think that it is mostly because it doesn't actually feel like summer...rain much? We did have a very nice day on Saturday, which worked out well since it was my niece's first birthday (shout out to Sydney) So this week we had lots of green stuff again :-)

lettuce
kale
broccoli
peas (yay for fresh peas!)
garlic scapes (definitely making some pesto)
green onions








So on this week's menu, zuppa toscana soup (sausage/potatoes/kale), pasta with pesto and chicken sausage, asian noodles with peanut sauce, and lot's of salad! Yummy!

iPhone

Just trying out my blog app for the new iPhone. PS I love it :) Now I really don't have a reason not to be blogging. Although I'm not sure this will help with my time management skills!

Where is summer?

Seriously? It has been raining so much this month. I don't understand what is going on. Last summer it was rainy and cold as well, and I don't really like the trend. I figure after 6, or closer to 7, months of winter cold snow yuck, we deserve a nice summer! It is already the end of June for crying out loud! Last week we had one nice day, and hopefully tomorrow will be a nice day, but the 10 day forecast says rain everyday after that. I'm just going to go ahead and say that I am sick of it :-) I know, the people in the mid-west would love some rain as a refuge from their 100 degree temps, but I would welcome a heat wave at this point...and so would my tomatoes.

So what is a girl to do when it rains all the time? Well clean, knit, and sew of course. I have been spending some quality time with my knitting needles and sewing machine. Of course, it tends to be in 15 minute increments, but that's ok. I can't actually post any pictures right now either...in case people see what I am making them. But soon I hope to have some pictures up. So when I spend my free time sewing and knitting...less of the cleaning gets done. But, at least I do the laundry :-)

In other news, Matt and I decided to get iphones. Yes, we are insanely crazy, but you know what? We have been talking about it for the past couple of years, so why not go ahead and finally get them. I have to say, very cool phone. The improvements to the latest one were what we were waiting for. I'm very excited to have it. Now if I could just figure out why it doesn't work so well with my wireless network. But, do I really need to use the internet on my phone when I have a laptop sitting at my desk? Probably not, but it is just so darn cool :-) I have to thank my wonderful brother and sister-in-law for tipping the scales in my favor by convincing Matt what a cool phone it is :-D

Our weekends have been very busy all of June, probably a good thing because of the rain. This weekend we will be heading down to my brother-in-law's for our neice's 1st birthday! Yay Sydney! Emma and Sydney are 6 weeks apart, and it is so fun seeing them together. They are both pretty mobile now. Emma is walking everywhere, so it will be fun to see them together. Let's hope for some nice weather! Other than that, I hope to be able to go strawberry picking at some point. I may try to go tomorrow, not sure if there are any strawberries...I should call about that. I was hoping to pick 2 flats so I could freeze a bunch, but if they aren't sweet due to the lack of sun, I might just pick enough for jam and call it good...unfortunately.

I think that is about all for now. I have tons to say, unfortunately not as much time to write it all out...maybe I should get one of those voice writing things for the computer...hmmm.

CSA Weeks 3 & 4

I can't believe I have already gotten my 4th CSA share of the summer! It doesn't seem possible...probably because of the rain, but in any case, I am getting yummy fresh veggies each week. It has been mostly greens, which is good, I will eat them while they are available. I know that once the sun comes out (and the heat as well) all the greens will go away.

So for week 3 we received:

beet greens
green lettuce
spinach
spicy lettuce mix
radishes
kale
carrots
cilantro
dill

I did take pictures, but they are on my camera's internal memory, and I don't have the wire to upload the pictures right now ;-) I will try to remember to do that at some point!

Then on Monday we received:

napa cabbage
another type of cabbage
green lettuce
red lettuce (you can't see it in the picture)
beets/beet greens
scallions

I was going to pick herbs, but it was pouring, so I opted not to this time. Hopefully next week it won't be raining...but...well it has been raining everyday for the past 2 weeks...so we'll see.

In other garden news, my garden surprisingly seems to be doing ok despite all the rain. My peppers and tomatoes are flowering, the potatoes seem to be growing well...at least the leaves are, no flowers yet. I have flour corn growing well, and watermelon. I do have a squirrel problem though...he ate all my green bean plants, canteloupe, and cilantro...jerk. So I don't know what I will do. I was thinking I might try and go to the greenhouse and see if they have any seedlings left, and plant where the squirrel ate the other stuff, not sure how that will work though. I was definitely bummed about the green beans. The cilantro...well I have another plant in a pot, so I am not concerned really. Let's just hope he doesn't start eating my peppers when they start to grow! Otherwise I may have to get a BB gun...

Onto pictures...

Summer CSA Week 2

It was another great week going out to the farm with Emma. I am thinking that at some point I should try and bring my camera with me when I get my CSA, and then I might have something other than food pictures :-) This week we received spinach, spinach, carrots, radishes, beets, and I also picked some mint from the herb garden. It was a really nice day so Emma and I walked around the gardens a bit. We met two of the apprentices, Molly and Jaimie, who were working hard at cleaning up the spinach beds. Overall it was a good trip, the only disappointment...no eggs! And none for the foreseeable future. Apparently they have been spoken for by some people from a winter delivery service...hopefully in the next couple weeks we will be able to get some eggs again :-) Without further ado, pictures!!!

happenings

Wow, I already posted once this week, and I am actually posting again :-) Exciting times! So it seems that we already have a renter set up for the fall. A girl called me yesterday, who is planning on attending the local college in the fall and wants to move in. Excellent! That is exactly what we need, since our current renter will just be here for the summer. I am a little nervous because we haven't met her yet, but I looked her up on myspace (lovely little spy tool that is) and she seems to be normal enough :-) I just don't want any crazy parties up there, but other than that as long as the rent is paid I could care less :-)

It's definitely a gift from God that we have another renter lined up, since we just found out also yesterday that Matt's health insurance is going to go up $300/month. And that is for the cheapest plan. We aren't sure what we are going to do yet. I would like to just not have any health insurance at this point, paying $11k a year for health insurance that doesn't actually cover us until we pay a $10k deductible...yeah...it doesn't sound right to me either. But, Matt is of course concerned about the catastrophic thing that *could* happen to us at some point. I think my catastrophic thing has already happened in my life time...but that's just me. I am thinking about getting Emma and I a private policy and then have Matt on his work's policy. I think that would end up being cheaper, but I'm not sure because Maine only has one health insurance carrier, so not much in the way of competition. The thing that really gets me is that if we lived in NH, the same exact policy would be half of what it is in Maine, that is just wrong. But, since I can't change that...I don't know. If I didn't expect that we would eventually have another baby I would push to just not have the health insurance for me. If I had to go to the Dr.'s, which I never do, then we could just pay cash, overall it would save us money...unless something happened. What a pain to think about that stuff.

In other news...I am still sick. I think that I might have a sinus infection, but I am going to give it another day before I actually call the Dr. (after my claiming I never go :-)) I don't really want to go on an antibiotic, but the fact that I can't breathe through my nose is a little irritating. I can't blow my nose either...so the sinuses are definitely swollen...and since my mom can no longer breathe through her nose (sinuses collapsed a while ago) I think that I will take my chances with the antibiotics :-)

It's been a beautiful week here, and I haven't really been able to be outside and enjoy it. I have no idea what my garden is doing. I do know that the one tomato seedling I planted in the ground is now dead from being blown all over the place by the wind...so I will be making another trip up to Longfellows to buy some more seedlings. I think that next year I might try the square foot gardening...that sounds a lot easier than hoping for the best. Maybe I should have bought a book about gardening before I just threw seeds in the ground... :-)

months again?

So it has been months since I last wrote. Surprise surprise! In a quick recap, we decided to go to Florida spur of the moment which meant 3 weeks of crazy planning, especially since we were leaving the day after Emma's 1st birthday party. Our trip went extremely well, Emma had a great time. The weather was beautiful. Then we came back to cold and rain...figures :-) Then it was time to dig up the yard for a garden. We are trying our hand at planting in the actual ground this year...of course for the 2 weeks following the planting it has been freezing cold and rainy, so I have no idea if anything will actually grow. I am hopeful...but we'll see. I also have my containers full, which is a plus, although again, not sure how well they will do this year. I have always had the containers on our second floor deck. Not this year, this year we actually have a renter up there (as of this weekend), so no plants up on the deck that is sunny all. day. long.

And now to top it all off, we are all sick. Matt was sick last week, so sick he had to call into work, which I have never seen him do in 10 years. Then Emma got sick...and now me...right now it is just a sore throat, so I am crossing my fingers that will be the extent of it...but really, am I ever that lucky? No, definitely not.

This week was our first CSA pick-up for the summer. I was very excited about that. Emma and I drove over to the farm and looked at their new goats (they added 15 goats this year). They are so cute! I wish that Matt would let us have some goats...well then we would have to deal with the city too...not sure goats are in the cards for us at our current home :-) Anyways, today's pick-up consisted of:

4 big bags of spinach
4 bunches of beet greens with baby beets
a bunch of radishes

I also picked up 2 dozen eggs, you cannot beat farm fresh organic free range eggs. Mmm! I figured I could make some fritatas with the eggs and spinach.

That's about all that is new right now. I know I keep saying that I want to write more, and I do, I just haven't had the time...or the energy when I do have the time! But, we can keep our fingers crossed that I will actually start writing more :-) In the meantime, here are some pictures to enjoy.