CSA Week 2 (our first pick-up)

Last year was our first experience with a CSA, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it again. Part of the problem was that our old CSA (which I loved for many, many reasons) was about a 35 minute drive from home, and the pick-up interfered with other Wednesday night activities. After a long winter without fresh vegetables, we broke down and joined a (different) CSA this year. The pickup location for our new CSA is much closer to home (it is a 7 block walk). The prices were a little bit lower as well, but the format of the CSA is different. Last year we had a half share, which meant we got half of a box of produce every week. This year we signed up for an every other week share (which seems more typical, based on the CSAs we looked at) and we get a full box of produce every other week. Last week was the first official week of our CSA, but we're even-week EOW customers, so today was our first pick-up.

We got lettuce, green onions, chives, and radishes. I'm ready for salad!

If only I had saved a few strawberries from the farmers' market . . .

Farmers' Market Haul

Once upon a time, more than 15 years ago, I found myself with a few quarts of strawberries and a ripe rhubarb plant in the back yard. I decided to make a pie. I pulled out my mom's old yellowed falling-apart Betty Crocker cookbook and searched for a strawberry rhubarb pie recipe. I couldn't find one, so I used an apple cranberry pie recipe instead.

My uncles raved about that pie, so I must have served it to them.

One uncle said I'm make a good wife someday due to my pie-making abilities.

What he didn't know was that I'd used a Betty Crocker premade crust for the pie.

Now I know how to make my own crusts from scratch - and I have a rolling pin to make them with. All I needed were the berries and the rhubarb.

On Saturday morning I headed to Madison. When I arrived, my dad was reading the paper in his usual breakfast spot and he announced that strawberry season was officially open. Hurray!

We headed down to a nearby farmers' market where I picked up a pound of heirloom rhubarb ($3.00), a quart of strawberries ($6 - but you'll pay that for the first berries of the season!), a bag of washed spinach ($3) and a container of whole milk yogurt ($2.75). I didn't want to go too crazy because I knew our first CSA pickup of the summer was coming up in a few days.

I had lunch with my mom, ran into a good friend at the little bakery that made my wedding cake, and did some gardening/yardwork with my dad.

Saturday night I went to a friend's wedding reception, so there wasn't time to bake a pie, but by Sunday afternoon the berries were calling to me.

It tastes as good as it looks.

Lost & Found

I forgot I had taken these pictures of the girls (and the food they ate) while they were here in March.

Hmm . . . my computer has been *really* finicky lately and right now Blogger won't let me change the order of these pictures, so I guess I'll just label them as they are rather than trying to put them in order.Here's Adele eating a big spoonful of applesauce with lunch one day. (I think I was at work.)
Here's Adele earlier in the day eating scones for breakfast. This may have been on a non-work day. MMM.
Another picture of Adele eating a scone. She actually ate the whole thing. And the grown-ups may have had more than one each. They're really good. (In fact, I almost put a handful of frozen blueberries into a smoothie yesterday but decided to keep them for scones instead.)
Anna also loved her scone. When we took it away (because we thought she was done) she cried for more.
Yes, this is the same picture. I accidentally loaded it twice and can't delete it. At least it is an adorable picture!
More Anna with her scone.
Adele with a mostly empty bowl of applesauce in the foreground and an also nearly empty bowl of Kraft mac and cheese with bison hotdogs. Her mom didn't care for them but the rest of us thought they were pretty good.
Anna liked that lunch too. (I don't know if she got bison dogs or not.)

We had a big chicken dinner one night. My dad made mashed potatoes, my mom made gravy, and I can't remember what else we served.
Ideally this would be the first picture in this post. I love this scone recipe.



MMM.

The last afternoon that my sister was here she helped me make squash soup. When I got home from work she had already started chopping up a beautiful butternut squash from the garden that had been chilling in my dad's basement for the winter. The soup was delicious and even the little girls liked it. I don't seem to have any pictures of it, though.

I found a farmer at my local farmers' market who sells all beef hot dogs without nitrates or nitrites. Maybe I can convince my sister to bring the girls back for a visit this summer. We have a river in the back yard and America's Largest Waterpark about 30 minutes away . . .

Phew

Last night was the first since the last time I posted that I did not have a stack of papers to grade. Such is the life of an English teacher. And it's a life I hope I get to continue living when school starts again in August. (Or September, depending on which district, if any, decides to hire me.)

I have many applications still out, there are some jobs that haven't been posted yet, but which I intend to apply for as soon as the school board makes a decision to hire someone, and I am waiting for a call about an interview I had last week. (A word of advice: If you are going to have seven finals back to back over the next 2 days, try not to have a job interview during your only prep period.) I hope to hear good news from that principal, not just because it would mean full time employment but because it's actually my dream job. I cried when I saw the job posting over my three day spring break. I spent the whole break writing my cover letter and tweaking my resume. I was supposed to spend those three days grading research papers, but it's interesting how life turns out sometimes.

Anyway, now that school is done and my dad and I have the garden started (which seemed unlikely to happen for a while there during this frigid spring) I plan to post more frequently on here!

There's also this little matter of my computer being super-finicky ever since I downloaded the software for a camera that I can use to skype with my nieces. The thing is, the camera only works when my computer does, which has not been often lately! As long as my computer keeps up its end of the bargain, I should be around more often.

And now I'm off to bed so I can get a good night's sleep before tomorrow's farmers' market!