2011

Local Food 9/17/2011

The market was very sparse this weekend thanks to both the county fair and the ridiculous amounts of rain we’ve been getting.  Many of the farmers were at the fair showing off their animals or doing other things to benefit the fair.  And, while rain is good, we’ve had so much that vegetables are exploding on the vine due to being waterlogged. 

We did come away with some kale, which I will attempt to turn into chips before I completely give up on it, a butternut squash, potatoes, quick breads, little teeny onions, peachy chutney, spiced heirloom tomato preserves, and eggs. 

The cat was already ours.  She has decided that she loves the cardboard egg crates.

Local Food 9/10/2011

For the first time in I don’t even know how long, I got to go to the market today.  YAY!  The market is a very important part of my life and I have so missed my weekly outings.  While I’m always grateful that Art has the capability to go without me and return with delicious produce, I really enjoy going too!  I miss my farmer friends, I miss seeing what’s available, and I just miss everything.  Today was a very happy day! 

We picked up two dozen eggs, a bunch of potatoes, 6 ears of bi-colour corn, some yellow zucchini, and small loaves of zucchini and chocolate bread. 

This picture is also Mia’s introduction to Manger à Trois!  Our sweet little cat hasn’t ventured far from the laundry room since she moved in 3 years ago and it is only within the last few weeks that she seems to have become fed up with her self-imposed seclusion.  She has been spending more and more time on the table and is slowly losing her skittishness.  Today she decided to investigate all the produce as we unpacked and sniffed it all over to ensure it was safe for her humans. 

We also picked up some nice tomatoes  (most of the tomatoes have gotten too much water in the area, so we haven’t seen many at the market), garlic, a red bell pepper, a white onion, and some jalapenos for Art to stuff and devour. 

Mia was interested in the produce on this side of the table as well.

Local Food 9/3/2011

Tomatoes, potatoes, more tomatoes, and yellow zucchini!  Pickings were slim at the market today due to both Art’s late arrival and Irene’s earlier arrival.  But I have tomatoes, which means life is good.

Local Food 9/1/2011

We got two dozen eggs this week!  I was running low in the fridge so it’s nice to have a restock. 

Art picked up two HUGE briskets and two skirt steaks, neither were in the CSA.  The CSA came with chip steak, a mock tender, and a steak that I can’t read from the picture. 

Overall, the CSA has been a fun experience.  We’ve gotten to try out lots of new cuts of meat that I wasn’t aware of previously and some of them have been great.  It’s been nice to get new things every week and I’m glad we tried it out. 

That said, I don’t think we’ll be doing this in the future, at least not with any regularity.  We get better prices when buying an entire half cow or pig in bulk, and we have control over the cuts we end up with.  Since we have the freezer room, this makes more sense for us. 

The CSA was a bit cow-heavy, but that’s just a result of slaughter times I believe.  CSAs during other seasons would have more pig if the season coincided with pig slaughtering times. 

If I had my choice for the future, I’d want to stick with just chickens and eggs and buy pigs, cows and lambs in bulk.  If you’re someone who doesn’t have a lot of freezer space, though, this could be an ideal experience for you!

Local Food 8/25/2011

Again, no eggs.  I’m not sure how we missed so many eggs from our share.  I’ve always had plenty in my fridge, so it’s no big deal, but it would have been nice to have gotten them all. 

We did get more hot dogs, ground beef, a small ham, and a chuck steak.

Local Food 8/18/2011

Yet again, no eggs.  However we did get a chicken, two packs of beef bones, pork chops, and ground beef.

Local Food 8/13/2011

This was a light week at the market.  I asked Art to get tomatoes and potatoes and he also came home with delicious zucchini and sweet potatoes.  Yum!

Local Food 8/11/2011

We didn’t get eggs again this week due to an accident, but we did come home with ground beef, hot dogs, and a beef chuck roast.

Local Food 8/7/2011

Art also picked up our meat CSA this week.  He decided that we already had too many eggs in the fridge, so he opted to skip those. 

We got a chicken, a package of ground beef, and a huge sirloin tip roast.

Local Food 8/6/2011

Since I was out of town for the weekend, Art went to the market without me.  I gave him very few instructions and left him to his own devices. 

He picked up a few pints of little tomatoes, a bag of freestone peaches, three heirloom tomatoes, potatoes, tons of little onions, garlic, super hot peppers, and beef jerky.