CSA season has begun!

Today was our first CSA box of the season! Yay!

>>In our box this week @ cook.eat.think.

Thursdays.

Thursday is our CSA pickup day. One of the things we really wanted when choosing a CSA was not only organic produce and a nearby location, but also having an on farm pickup. We used to have a wonderful CSA, but the pickup was in someones garage as the farm was pretty far away. I love the convenience, but having a farm that the kids can see and visit and experience is priceless, I think (especially when it is only 12 miles away!). I think of the things I remember from my childhood, and I hope this is one of those things lodged in the memories that make a part of who they become.

It has been pretty hot and sunny recently, so we have just been picking up our boxes, chatting with the boys favorite farm worker for a bit, and perhaps visiting the tractor or stomping in mud before getting back into the car to go home. Today was cloudy and cooler so we were able to get out and walk around.


We first walked out into a field to visit the turkeys. These guys are pastured American Bronze Heritage Turkeys. They get moved around a bit, and today they were at the far reaches of the fields. As we approached they all walked over to look at us. I think having a hundred or so turkeys staring at you en masse all fluffed up is disconcerting.


See what I mean? So I suggested that A sing them a song. He happily crooned and sang to them, and sure enough, at several key points to the song, in perfect unison, ALL of the turkeys spontaneously gabah-gabah-gabah'd along! Too fun.


From there we visited the hoop houses to see tomatoes, basil, peppers and drying onions. On the way home we stopped by a few farm stands as well to pick up some more goodies - and so the boys got to socialize a bit more before coming home. Always a good afternoon.

Tomorrow afternoon we are headed out to pickup a bushel (53#) of canning tomatoes and then to pickup our eggs. More fun - and lots of kitchen work this weekend to make sauces, salsas and other goodies with all the tomatoes. Yum!

Strawberry Picking!

This year strawberry season came very late. With all of the late frosts, major storms and flooding, our CSA had only a portion of their strawberry fields make it through. Sunday was our CSA u-pick - and it was surprisingly a cool and windy day. That meant happy boys (and no mosquitoes)!

I am not sure why, but last year our u-pick was TOUGH - literally hundreds of stinging nettles, rashes up our arms, and the boys giving up to sit at the side and watch. Perhaps due to the straw mulch or cooler temps, there were really no weeds this year. It was pleasant and the boys could help - and we didn't need to wear our gloves! Very nice.


The boys spent part of the time helping, and part of the time at the end of our row snuggling under the blanket to warm up. It felt more like October than almost July!


We brought home just over 20 pounds of strawberries. We spent the rest of the day rinsing, cutting, prepping, storing. We made 10 pints of freezer jam, 5 quarts of chunky desert topping (great over pancakes or pound cake), and put 10 1-gallon bags of strawberries in our freezer for baking/smoothies. We also have a few pounds from our CSA box this week for fresh eating. Yum!


A lot of work, but well worth it!

CSA Season.

The boys enjoy being able to get out of the car to go in and pick up our CSA share each week. There is a giant walk in cooler, a big chalkboard, massive washing basins, lots of 'stuff', and of course water runoff (meaning: mud) and big farm equipment parked near the outbuilding. They had a special treat this week as they were chatting with the lady who helps everyone get what they need...and she even walked out with them and let them climb up into the cab of an old tractor. They were in heaven!

Each week we take a photo of our CSA box and post it to our food blog. We have some fun kid friendly recipes planned when we get our flats of strawberries too - yum!

Community Supported Agriculture.

It is that time of year. Planning the garden, drooling over seed catalogs, reading gardening books, and sketching out options.


Every January or February I also start to look forward to CSA time. The fresh produce, visiting the farm to pick up our weekly box, having organic food freshly picked from healthy soil, grown by farmers who use sustainable practices and who care for the land.

Having the boys participate in what we can grow in our own small (tiny?) yard is wonderful, and they can help with the process from seed to seed. I also love that they can see where food comes from in the bigger picture with our CSA...hoophouses, fields and human hands. Not to mention the breadth of variety we can expect from our share each week.


Here are some resources - both local and national (and even international CSA search link) - for those of you who want to find out more about CSA's!

Community Supported Agriculture - Info & Find a Farm:

Wisconsin:

Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition

Wisconson Farm Fresh Atlas

National/International:

Local Harvest

Locate a CSA Farm (+international listings)


Books:


Sharing the harvest : a citizen's guide to Community Supported Agriculture - by Elizabeth Henderson



Holy Cows and Hog Heaven : the Food Buyer's Guide to Farm Friendly Food - by Joel Salatin



About Community Supported Agriculture:

What is a CSA?

What is Community Supported Agriculture and How Does It Work?



And if you are in my area, you might find some of these wonderful resources interesting - classes about sustainability, organic farming, gardening, and preserving the harvest (N IL/S WI):

Inn Serendipity || Angelic Organics Learning Center || Michael Fields Agriculture Institute || Driftless Folk School || Artha Sustainable Living Center ||

Final CSA of the Season.

Today is the day. Our final CSA box pickup of the season at the farm.

This week in our box:
Lettuce, arugula, mizuna, saute greens, hakuri turnips, red radishes, green cabbage, celeriac, rutabaga, onions.

CSA Box This Week. The end is near...

Well, it is almost over. We have only one more CSA pick up after today. My seasons move with the CSA box, the outdoor Farmer's Market, and the U-Picks. We are very lucky to live where we can continue to visit the Farmer's Market throughout the winter and find much, much more than just soap and pickles well into the dark cold winter months. But it isn't the same as the feeling of abundance that comes into this area all summer. I am not a hot weather person at all, and really love the autumn coolness and cold nights and always look forward to the snow. But I do feel a bit of nostalgia at the end of each growing season.

Sure - I will have hints of summer flavor from my freezer and basement all winter. I will still get our dairy and meat from someone I can chit-chat with. And I'll still visit the winter Farmer's Market every week or two for those items I cannot find at the local coop. But for now, I'll enjoy these last few weeks of autumn and every bite that goes with it.

This week in our box:
Lettuce, arugula, spinach, hakuri turnips, red radishes, brussel sprout stalk, red cabbage, celeriac, acorn squash, parsley root.

CSA Box This Week.

My son picked the lovely background fabric for the photo today.

Today in our box we have: lettuce, arugula, leeks, carrots, brussel sprouts, green cabbage, red beets, beauty heart radish, red kuri squash, italian parsley!

Our CSA finishes for the season at the end of October. Another year passes...

CSA Box This Week.

This week in our CSA box: Arugula, french breakfast radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, carrots, delicata squash, italian parsley, garlic, "mystery" squash, and some roma tomatoes!

CSA Box This Week & TURKEY!

Today, a hot sunny day in October, turned out to be "Turkey Day". It all began as we drove the few miles to where my husband works (another car in the shop...) - and were delayed by a whole line of turkeys in the road. Turkeys are not too "cool"...they always seem skittish and freaked out. They saw the car, but the other turkeys were already across. This led to a frantic rush of turkeys, rushing in to the road, wugahwugahwugah shrieking all the way across. One turkey would hesitate (car!), but then, seeing ALL THOSE TURKEYS on the other side, decide to make a mad dash. We sat for a long while. Waiting for the turkeys to FINALLY cross the road. My 4 year old thought it was HYSTERICAL. "Mama, why did the turkey cross the road? To get to all the other turkeys!" haaaaaa haaaaa haaaaa. (Isn't it crazy how green everything in the photo above is? Parts of the area are at peak colors, others...nothing!)

After dropping my husband off at the mechanic to pick up his car, we headed out to pick up our CSA box. As soon as we exited to the small country road, the last streak of turkey flashed to the left. Sure enough, a whole huge group of turkeys. And, of course, while at the farm, we looked at and waved at the heritage turkeys trying to stay cool on this hot fall day.

We picked up our CSA and took the back road home. A hoped to watch some farm equipment in action since it is that time of year, and sure enough, field after field with large John Deere combine harvesters, massive utility tractors with bins overflowing with corn, and semis waiting in fields to be loaded up. We had to drive behind several tractors hauling their loads from field to field, their tires as large as our car. A was ecstatic, naming make and model and waving to farmers. Of course, we also saw turkeys FIVE more times on the way home. Yep, Turkey Day!


This week in our CSA Box: Brussellini, slicing & roma tomato mix, leeks, mixed beets, celeriac, broccoli, red cabbage, carnival squash.

CSA Box This Week.

After a nice morning nature walk with several other families at our local arboretum, we headed over to pick up our CSA box at the farm. The boys found the biggest mud puddle EVER in the 1 minute it took me to transfer everything out of box and into bag - which figures, since they both had on shoes which are only a few days old...and white. :)


In our box this week: Red slicing tomatoes, yellow onion, beets, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli tips, brussel sprouts, green acorn squash, (pungent!) basil.

CSA Box This Week.

I love the drive to the farm to pick up our CSA box each week. Today, even in the heat, signs of fall were all around. Corn is brown, beans are yellow, tree tops are rust colored, and the bushes which line the highways are fiery red.

The mosquitoes were not too abundant so we all were able to go in to the outbuilding together to get our goodies.

The boys immediately found their favorite spot where the wash basin drainage hose comes out creating a bit mud puddle and gravel bed.

Today in our box we have:
Kohlrabi, tomato mix bag, beauty heart radish, beets, carrots, brussel sprouts, red kuri squash, basil.

CSA Box This Week.

Today my husband ran in to get our CSA box while I sat in the car with the boys - mosquitoes were swarming! I love the look and color and shape of vintage tractors, so I took a pic.


Ok, I quickly hung out the window, snapped several shots, and then closed it quickly as the boys shrieked MOSQUITOES COMING IN!!!!!! I love the tractor shots.


We have so many tomatoes, and with a big project this week I am behind on getting them stored! Tomorrow is food prep day - we are going to slice, cook, freeze, dehydrate, and blanch lots of stuff. Should be a perfect day for it. And then this weekend we have a tomato u-pick (yum) and hopefully go pick...APPLES!

This week in our box: Eggplant, tomato mix bag, tomatillos, radishes, cauliflower, red & yellow onion, potato medley, garlic, cilantro. There were also some yummy extras to choose from - peppers!

I love tomatillos, jalapenos, cilantro...MMMMM. None of THAT is going towards fall storage!

CSA Box This Week...

This week ... red & green lettuce, green beans, fennel, celery, red pepper medley, carrots, red potatoes, leeks, green tomatoes, Italian parsley. And I forgot to include 2 watermelon in the photo. In trying to avoid "gravity experiments" this week, I put them in my cooler pack and forgot! I will remember now though, because we want to make watermelon sorbet. MMMMMMmmmmm.

CSA Box This Week, And Yummy Stew...

A was SO excited to go to pick up our CSA box at the farm today. He has toasted 2 pairs of shoes in 2 weeks playing in the pit of mud running down from the wash station - and he KNOWS how much it has been raining...While the farm missed out on the heavy destructive flooding experienced by some in their area, they do have lots and lots and lots of mud. Miraculously, A only piddled around in the stream coming from the washing trough, and picked at a few rocks. I believe it may have even been too wet and muddy for him!

From our CSA newsletter this week: "We’re not flooded, we’re not using boats to move around the farm, we’re not having to lay off staff, no one is hurt and because of some good conservation tillage and strips of land and waterways, very little of our soil has moved. There is very little erosion, and the watershed is recharging from nearly a year of too little water."

Hurrah.


This week we have red & green lettuce, romano beans, fennel, celery, 3 types of peppers, carrots, romanesco broccoli, lacinato kale, leeks, and italian parsley.

I already made a delicious white bean & veggie stew from our goodies today. SOOO good.

CSA Box This Week - And Seed Collecting.

Today our CSA box is full of the super summer goodies. Red & green lettuce, romano beans, summer squash, eggplant, several varieties of red peppers, colored carrots, broccoli, brusselini, yellow onion, sun jewel melon, watermelon.

And yes, that is a shattered golden watermelon in the photo. My 4 year old helped carry it into the house with great care. As I unloaded the cooler, I heard a loud sound...I asked what happened and went to the living room to see it shattered on the floor and A lying UNDER the couch. He said he was "testing gravity"...lovely.


This week we had lots and lots of rain, but we did manage to bring in some seeds. A didn't mind helping with the herbs, but wasn't thrilled about the smell of the peppers as we retrieved the seeds. He has tested a few of the dill already by sprinkling the heads around, and has a bunch of new green shoots to show for it (boy the bunny loves baby dill). What he wants is to squash a pumpkin to save the seeds...he has 2 random pumpkin plants out front in the bushes that are from his squashed pumpkin "experiment" last fall, so I have a feeling we'll have many more showing up next year!

CSA Box This Week, Preserving the Harvest.

I brought home my bounty of veggies today from the farm, washed them, and took a photo. After putting the boys to bed I intended to post my weekly CSA info. BUT. I was sucked into Live From Abbey Road on Sundance - tonight one of the featured artists was Damien Rice (#1 | #2 | #3). I have enjoyed his music for awhile, but live performance is something else. I was blown away by his stark simplicity and his raw emotional complexity (and his singing partner - wow). Yes, diametrically opposing ideas. But the melancholy beauty took my breath away and I had to watch his segment repeatedly, and then had a deep and lively discussion with my left brained husband about creativity and calculus and how our brains work and the spark that sometimes occurs with musicians that makes something more than just another song and how while some people may feel and hear the tiny bits and fractions of music, others may feel and know numbers or concepts or math. Very interesting evening!

Hmmm, back into the CSA mindset and what was in our box this week? Ah, it is coming back to me! Wax beans, 3 types of peppers, a tomato, cilantro, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and garlic!

We have been preserving the harvest of everything we are not using weekly for our CSA (which is not much), and of course, our garden. I have had out the dehydrator this week and have made several batches of sun dried tomatoes, lots of dried herbs, and even dried peppers. That, combined with our homemade yogurt, bone broth, ice cream, and my new experiments with lactic fermentation make me feel like we are progressing with our food choices, and really taking more full advantage of what there is locally. And having the boys "help out" with picking, washing, and rotating the drying trays means they are interested and participating in all of this too (now if they would only eat it!)...we have even let a few of our herbs "go to seed" and have saved the seeds for later, or have re-planted. Fun stuff. From seed to seed, such as a melody to a song.

AAAAAAAAnd, this weekend we are going berry picking - YUM!

CSA Box This Week - It is August!

This week in our CSA share we have romano beans, tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers, red cabbage, hakuri turnips, yellow onion, uncured garlic, basil.

In our garden we are cranking out the tomatoes. The boys and I must be picking 20+ sungold and yellow cherry tomatoes, and 2-4 ripe red ones (diff. varieties) daily. Our yard bunny is loving the low hanging tomatoes - we find at least 1 every few days still on the vine 1/2 eaten. We will have more than we can handle shortly, and I am anticipating freezing all kinds of yummy things for the fall and winter. The rest of the garden is becoming abundant too - all thanks to the hose...with no rain in site!

CSA and hope for rain.

As I sit here to type, the smell of basil is wafting over and filling my senses with its exotic rich warm greenness. Something about that fresh intense basil smell just is summer to me. The hot sunny days and the thick sultry nights just make its aroma intensify until it just overtakes any other smells around it.Picking up our CSA tonight the first thing I smelled was the basil. Driving down the driveway at the farm I had that deep summer feeling - the insects chirping, the birds singing, the wind rustling the trees, the air thick with heat but also the promise of cooler evening, and far off on the gently rolling hills the spray of water on the crops. Today our bounty is of the summer - peppers, tomatoes, basil, onion, cucumbers, broccoli, beans, summer squash, lettuce, potatoes, and fresh uncured garlic. And no, that is not a head of cauliflower in the pictures, it is a 4 year old boy (although he posed, intentionally silly, giggling hysterically).


Our own peppers and tomatoes have also been ripening daily, and the favorite activity of the boys is to go from plant to plant to pick whatever is ready. The minute we got in from picking up our CSA tonight I sliced through the warm tomatoes from the farm and our garden, sliced up some of that fresh basil, sprinkled it over the top of the tomatoes along with some fresh pure grey salt, and drizzled organic balsamic vinegar over the top - mmmmmmm.
We are in the midst of a drought here in south central Wisconsin. It has not rained in our immediate area in ages, it seems. Rain continues to pop up all around us, but *just* miss us here. Our lawns are all brown, but driving in the country tonight the intense green of corn, soybeans, vegetables, prairie grass and thick forests still look lush and green - but not much longer. There is a massive line of storms moving down from the north and we hope hope HOPE they do drench us tonight. So while my farm pics may look dark and gray, they are actually hopefully cloudy. Here's hoping.

What a day - and CSA This Week.

Our CSA this week was a bit anticlimactic, as the monitor on my lovely only a few months old laptop got destroyed in a freak honey jar accident by my 2 year old this afternoon. I am sitting on my chair at the desk in the room where I now have to work for who knows how many months, so that I can have my laptop, which is now just a hard drive, attach to my giant stationery monitor. I could go on about how I mainly work at night after the boys go to bed, and how the only time my husband and I have to chat and spend time with each other is when we are working on our computers side by side each night, and how now I am in here and he is in there. But I won't.

In our box this week?
Onion, peppers, carrots, swiss chard, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, parsley, squash, tomatoes, and currants. Yum!