75 Days of Summer Part 2
Check it out here!
Winter CSA!
Just yesterday I received my last delivery from my first subscription to a CSA program. I was so sad to see it arrive, knowing it wouldn’t be until next June that I’d get another delivery. This has been the single biggest improvement in our diet at home — having fresh vegetables delivered every week! And knowing that they are local, grown organically, and by someone I know makes it so much better. I haven’t even gotten around to posting the “last” picture here, but I wanted to share some excellent news — the farmer wrote an email last night asking who would be interested in a Winter CSA!!! She has a greenhouse set up with tons of veggies growing all winter, and she’s only going to be going to a nearby Winter Farmer’s Market every other week and worries that she will have too many vegetables on her hands. She is also going to offer an egg share and maybe even meats. Check out what she is considering offering in her baskets every week (or maybe every other week):
Green Tomatoes
What to do with all those green tomatoes at the end of the season? We plowed under all our plants last weekend, built a new compost bin, and spread a fresh layer of compost on top of everything. But before we did all that, I picked every tomato out there. I was sure they’d ripen if I just left them alone, but I also knew we couldn’t eat that many before they spoiled, and I already had plenty of sauce. So I did some searching, and found 3 recipes I just had to try. Here are pictures of what I made:
Red and Green Tomato Salsa — this was a mixture of green tomatoes, red and yellow tomatoes, sweet onions, bell peppers, salt, pepper, garlic salt, lime juice and lemon juice. Delicious!
Green Tomato Mincemeat — chopped green tomatoes, chopped apples, raisins, brown sugar, and spices are all that’s in this. Then you let it cook down for 3-4 hours and in the end it tastes exactly like mincemeat! I put 3 quart size ziplock baggies of this mixture in the freezer for later use. I’m thinking at least one pie and some moons will be in order!
Green Tomato Cake – very similar to a zucchini cake or a spice cake. Unfortunately, I originally gave it low marks the day I made it because it smelled like cooked tomatoes when it was pulled from the oven, and then was very dry and off-tasting when I frosted it. However, I served it the next day and others sampled it as well and we all agreed it was good. I guess it’s one of those make-ahead recipes.
CSA #20
Week #20. I never thought there was any way that I’d still be receiving fresh vegetables this late in the year! The farmer’s market is long over, and we are a week from the other local market (produce and bakery products only) from closing. But my CSA farm is still bringing wonderful bounty. Have I said enough yet that I simply LOVE this program? I am so glad I found this farm. I had really wanted to join another CSA because I was familiar with their produce already, but they were so late in getting things set up and getting calls out, I just felt like I couldn’t wait to see if I could get a spot. I am glad I was impatient. I was able to get familiar with a new farm and I’ve gotten wonderful produce all summer and fall so far. I hope they offer the subscriptions again! So funny that I still have 2 weeks to go and I’m already thinking about next year!
Food Matters
If you watched “Food Inc” and got anything out of it, if you are living clean and eating well and doing everything right, if you hunger for more, I highly recommend “Food Matters”. You can get it on Netflix, buy it online, and even stream it live. Go here for more information:
http://www.foodmatters.tv/
I also was able to watch it free, at least in pieces because they have a time limit, but it was worth it here:
http://documentaryheaven.com/food-matters/
CSA #14: Fall Bounty
My basket arrived today, and as promised, it contained what we should start expecting as soon as the summer produce finishes up. My basket contained 3 ears of decorative corn (which I promptly hung on the outside door), a tiny pumpkin (too small to carve or eat, so it’ll decorate our table), a potted purple aster, tomatoes, a butternut squash, an acorn squash, an onion, green beans, and soybeans (edamame). Also included were some wheat berries, grown on their farm. The farmer says we’ll return to the regular summer baskets next week and stick with that until that harvest is done. Oh, and we’re supposed to get what she called a really LARGE winter squash next week as well which is supposed to be put in the freezer. Instructions included! Can’t wait!
My own tomatoes have dwindled to almost nil. I get about 5 romas a week, and a couple of smaller goldens. There are a dozen or more green tomatoes on each plant, and I’ll leave them as long as I can in hopes we’ll get an Indian Summer and they’ll ripen. My peppers are still growing, but some rain tipped a plant over last week while we were away, and I had to harvest several very small peppers just to keep them. I’m slicing and freezing them for use this winter.
Thoughts are starting to go towards next year’s garden. As much as I loved the green beans growing up the poles which made it very easy to harvest, the beans themselves were very stringy. I’ll have to research pole beans to see if any varieties aren’t so stringy. What I’d like to do is build an arbor and have the beans climb that and grow along the top. Then I could manage them better (especially if I don’t plant so many seeds). I’m not going to plant peas, and I’m going to move the herbs to the pots. That’ll give me more room for tomatoes and peppers. We had them too close together this year and the peppers have really struggled to get enough sunshine.
So we’re considering beans again, peppers, tomatoes, and herbs. Oh, and cucumbers again, this time left to crawl along the ground. I was thinking about maybe getting some chicken wire and laying it along the ground just beyond the plants and then when we need to mow, we can just lift up the wire to mow under it? I’m also going to build new tomato cages this year using much stronger wires. I’ll be buying longer stronger stakes too. We learned a lot this year!
I’d love to try potatoes too. Not sure if I have room though 
CSA #10
The bounty is back, and we are still enjoying all the treats! Fresh watermelon this past week, and I let it ripen a tad longer, so it’s very sweet now. The corn was a bit chewy, but it was still flavorful and delicious. The peppers made great stuffed peppers! We also enjoyed zucchini pancakes and cucumbers in our salad.
CSA #9: Shared Risk
I knew going in that there was always a chance for problems with this venture. When you buy a subscription to a farm, you share in the risk as well as the harvest. If a storm wipes out some crops, you get less in your weekly share. If rain makes it hard to plant, you get a later start. If rain disappears for a month or more, you get less because the plants are struggling. So far, this farm hasn’t had to beg off for a week or anything, and almost every week the share has been more than I expected, but I keep waiting. July was very dry. Horribly dry. Not like last year, but still very very dry. When the paper is posting articles about how we might hit a new record for the driest month ever, you know everyone is aware of that.
Still, the basket arrived today, just a day late but plentiful for this weather. The enclosed newsletter mentioned how dry their farm is, but that they’re starting to water. I happened to arrive at home when the basket was being dropped off, and I talked to the farmer about the lack of rain. She said they have a pond and a pump system set up so they can water their crops, but we both agreed that there’s nothing quite as good as Mother Nature. However, when Mama is busy, sometimes we need to help her out.
Today’s basket had some new goodies and some old favorites too. We got a pint of blackberries, some kale, a cucumber, 8 tomatoes, 2 peppers, a cantaloupe, and fresh celery. Oh, and something called “All Red Potatoes”, which are supposedly red all the way through. The kids are excited to try those!
The farmer included a recipe for a cold veggie pizza that sounded terrific, so I think I’ll box up the celery, peppers, some tomatoes, the cucumber, and see if my family at the reunion this weekend wants to enjoy that with me. Lunch anyone???
Our “Cowboys and Aliens” Experience
Ah, free money. I love getting free money! OK, what we got most likely wasn’t “free” but it was completely unexpected and it’s a refund from payments we made to a telephone cooperative almost 13 years ago! So, no it wasn’t free, but we decided to use it in the coolest way possible: dinner and a movie! For the whole family!
We took in a matinee of “Cowboys and Aliens”, the new Harrison Ford sci-fi thriller that just opened this weekend. It was horribly predictable and very campy, and for a PG-13, was a bit more gory than we expected (a bit much for our 8-year old, but he told us after that he COULD have watched the whole thing without hiding his eyes, he just chose not to!). But Daniel Craig is nice eye candy, Harrison Ford is always worth watching (even while playing a “good” bad guy), and Olivia Wild wasn’t bad.
My only problem with all “alien” movies anymore is that every movie shows aliens as naked. Why is it that a species as technologically advanced enough that they’re able to send some of their kind to our planet to steal/scare/terrorize whatever, cannot be aware of their own nakedness enough to clothe themselves? I can’t think of very many alien movies that show aliens dressed. “V” did, but only when they were pretending to look human. The apes in “Planet of the Apes” did, too. But not many others. Also, they’re portrayed as slimy too. Can no other creature from other planets have smooth skin and clothing?
Anyway, one thing I noticed while sitting in the theatre surrounded by people munching on overpriced popcorn and drinking too sugary sodas (we skipped all food going in) is that it was freezing inside! It couldn’t have been 65° inside. It was near 100° outside, so it felt great when we first sat down, but my youngest curled up quickly next to me, and I welcomed his heat. I supposed that when you are filling your face with hot popcorn and soda you need to be kept cool?
I think it was a great way to spend an evening, though, and while that movie isn’t for everyone, I do recommend it. We visited a local pizzeria afterwards for homemade sandwiches and pizza and breadsticks, which only fit the “75 Days of Summer” plan by being local, but it was still a nice treat. Wonderful service too!
McDonalds and Diet Food news
McDonalds announced recently that they’re going to be making changes in their Happy Meals. They’re going to reduce the size of the fries in the meal, and include the apple dippers as well. It’s unusual that a restaurant makes changes like this — we’ve all seen restaurants that make meals larger but rarely do they offer to make them healthier as a standard. They have offered apples as an option for their Happy Meals for awhile now, but to just include them without being asked is quite an undertaking. They also are not including the caramel dipping sauce.
They are claiming that the meal will be healthier overall, too. Clocking in at just under 600 calories, that’s a 100 calorie drop in the “regular” Happy Meal. With fewer fries, the sodium count will drop as well as the overall fat grams. I personally think 600 calories is a bit steep for a child, especially since these are marketed to kids from about 2 years of age to less than 12. But saving a hundred calories here or there is always better, right?
Well, consider that you could be making your own lunches at home. You could be buying freshly made bread using local organic ingredients, and making sandwiches with fresh ingredients. You could be peeling and chopping your own apples (and add in some carrots too). Include a small baggie of whole grain tortilla chips and fresh salsa, a bottle of water, and I’m betting your calorie count would be considerable less than 600 calories. Plus, no chemicals, no colorings, no HFCS and no silly toys that get broken as soon as they’re opened. Much better choice!
In other news, there’s a new trend in diet foods called ultra low-calorie foods. Artic Zero is making and selling a pint of ice cream that clocks in at 150 calories per PINT. Not per 1/2 cup serving, but you get to eat the whole thing for that amount. Tofu Shirataki makes a package of noodles that claims 2 servings at 20 calories each. Eat the whole thing yourself and you only have to log 40 calories! MGD 64 has many commercials showing the size difference between their full size (12 oz) bottle of beer at only 64 calories comparing it to tiny glasses of martinis and wine.
Are these really food items? The ice cream is primarily made from whey protein and the sweetness comes from monk fruit. The noodles come from mixing tofu and konnyaku, an Asian yam. These are mere “food like substances”, not really foods at all! More processing to make them ultra low in calories, and our bodies will surely pay the price.
What these manufacturers are thinking, though, is that genetically, we are designed to be gluttonous. We still have starvation fears in our genes so our tendency to overeat whenever possible can be “fooled” by these low calories food substances.
What our real problem is is that we no longer move or live like we did even 100 years ago. For thousands of years, we had starvation fears that were absolutely real. If we didn’t work the garden, the fields, the farm, the animals, we’d not make it through the winter. We worked hard, so we were able to eat a lot. Over the past 100 years, all we have done is make our life more convenient. We do not have to work to provide for ourselves over the winter because we can just call Domino’s to deliver whatever we crave. We have not year adapted to our new leisure lifestyle, but we’re obese because we’re eating as if we wouldn’t survive!
Much food for thought these days…
