We have made it to week six of our CSA.  I actually don’t know how many weeks our CSA runs for; I suppose that I should find this out at some point.  This week brought us our first CSA tomatoes.  Have I mentioned recently that I really love fresh, local tomatoes?   We’re also starting to see the first of our non-green bell peppers which makes me a very happy camper.  For some reason I love bell peppers in every colour except green.  


Tomatoes and bell peppers.  The bell pepper there in the top right is a rich shade of purple.  They’re all nice and small as well!  The peppers will be going into fajitas.  The tomatoes of this week will be going into Gazpacho, Caprese, burgers, and salads.  And my mouth.

This is the fifth week of the CSA and we received a bunch of produce we’ve seen in past weeks.  Sadly rabbits had gotten into the lettuce, so we didn’t get any salad greens this week.  I wonder how grocery store lettuces will compare to the amazing lettuces we’ve gotten these past weeks?  


Beautiful bright green swiss chard.  I’ve been enjoying just sautéing this up with garlic and bacon, but I might have to hunt down a new recipe since I’ve got two nice bunches of it this week.

This week is the fourth week of our CSA and I’m still thrilled with everything.  One of the things I’m noticing is that the amounts of vegetables I get are, indeed, smaller due to receiving a half-share.  Duh, right?  I’m going to be paying more attention to that when I’m planning meals this week and will most likely be halving the recipes using CSA veggies in order to take into account the smaller amounts of vegetables.  This will also let me have meals with two vegetable dishes, which will make it easier to make it through all of our produce each week!  


Two bunches of basil – one is regular and the other is lemon basil.  It has a distinct lemony flavor and an almost minty flavor.  There’s also more dill.

Today we picked up our third CSA box as well as a few fresh herbs to expand my potted herb garden.  Sadly, since Lance and I will be out of town next week, I had to fight the urge to buy anything other than the herbs.  I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to use up all of the gorgeous veggies from my box this week!  

This week’s CSA box included the following delicious goodies.  Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of the eggs, but I did get there early enough to get a dozen beautiful eggs.  


A big bag of salad greens and two heads of lettuce, green leaf and red leaf.

I’m not very good at growing things.  My cats make growing things inside impossible and my lack of motivation makes growing things outside difficult.  However, one of the farmer’s at our local market sells fresh herbs ready for planting and they call to me every week.  I admit, I also feel a little guilty that she has nothing I want to buy.  

After thinking, talking, and a bit of research, I decided that I was going to give herb gardening in outside pots a try.  I quickly found out that I’d need more than just one huge pot, so I opted to get smaller ones and keep my herbs separated from each other.  

Since our market is open Wednesdays and Saturdays, I stopped by today to buy some plants.  While the farmer who sells herbs on Saturdays wasn’t there, another farmer had a smaller selection.  Although I’m a bit sad I couldn’t buy 50 different herbs all at once, it’s probably a good thing that, for this initial stage of the experiment, I was limited to basil, parsley, and some hot peppers.  Sold in 4-packs, I picked up two basils, two parsleys, and one each of serrano and jalapeño.  

On the way home, I stopped by the local Lowes to get 3 12” pots, soil, and some rocks for better drainage.  The plants totaled about $6.  The supplies were quite a bit more!  

The landscaping in my back yard has some tiers and I easily found some empty space on the lowest tier to place my pots.  This has the tops of the pots at about waist height, which will make harvesting easier for my knees and back.  They’re about 15 feet away from my kitchen, which should increase the likelihood that I’ll remember to use them and care for them on a regular basis.  

I put some a few inches of rocks in each pot, filled them most of the way up with soil, and them smooshed the plants into them, patting down the dirt afterward.  

Here’s hoping that nothing dies and I’ve got delicious herbs throughout the growing months!  I’m sure I’ll be adding to my burgeoning garden in weeks to come as I fail to resist the calls of sage, thyme, oregano, mint, cilantro, chives… and so many more.