CSA Goods: Our First Crate Full!

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Hiya peeps!

Today was our first CSA pickup from Abundant Harvest Organics and were feeling so pumped about our decision to eat more local and in season.  We’ve been talking about it for over a year now after I did a write up for the local paper. We didn’t have the opportunity to make the leap until now.

Finally we’ve done so and now were committed each Saturday to pick up a large crate at 10AM.

We happened to be early birds today and from this we gained that “extras” were available for our taking.

Score!

We are not sure whether this will happen every week but it sure was a nice start!!

Here is the glorious bounty …

Doesn’t look like much but we did the tally and …

the contents contained…

1 bunch of  chard

1 bunch of spring onion

1 bunch of carrots

1 bunch of beets

3 cabbages (2 green + 1 red)

4 potatoes

5 baby artichokes

29 brussels sprouts

10 tangelos

9 lemons (eureka & meyer)

2 rutabagas

2 leeks

extras

2 green heads of cabbage

4 tangelos

4 potatoes

A pretty nice pickup of  organic fruits and veggies, don’t ya think?

We initially thought we’d be sharing a crate but we’ll easily eat up every ounce of healthy goodness a large crate contains.

Mmm!

If you have a CSA pickup in your area, check into it.

Support your local farmers- eat local, seasonal, organic foods..

all while helping to protect the planet for future generations to enjoy!

Yesterday, as I walked into the kitchen, I spotted our Italian herb sprouts popping up in their container.

They all sprouted but one and it took them exactly one week to say hello! 

Today, has been great the weather not so much! It’s windy and nasty out.

But, that didn’t stop us from taking a drive out to our local conservation district to check out what native plants, shrubs, trees and flowers we will be planting in our front yard.

We are hoping to dig out the lawn and plant edible flowers and pretty much have a water wise front  yard.

I did take some video footage but I don’t have much time to upload it…

to say the least, we came home with a California native elderberry bush!!!

super stoked.

Elderberry syrup and wine here we come!

yum. yum.

There are so many benefits to supporting local businesses and growing plants, trees and flowers  that thrive well in your area.

It puts a lot of things into perspective.

Were connecting ourselves with nature and community.

It’s magical.

I’m grateful for our CSA pickup and can’t wait for din-din because we also get to enjoy our homemade sauerkraut ( 6 days old)

YAY! 

Hope you’ve had a lovely Saturday!

Oh!  if you have a rutabaga recipe you’d like to share… feel free! 

Our trip to the Ananda Marga Organic Peach Farm

On Sunday, the hub Baby C and I drove out to the Ananda Marga Organic Farm in Lake Hughes, Ca. Which is not a far drive from our home whatsoever! The Ananda Marga Organic Farm was part of our local farmer’s market. Last weekend was the final market until next June.

I really liked the opportunity of having fresh locally grown produce at my disposal on Saturday mornings. This was the first year our town did anything like this and I thought it was successful. It was nice chatting with the farmer’s and their wives and getting to know the person who is growing the very food on your plate. It’s actually quite interesting to have a conversation with some of farmers. Especially, the ones who are growing their produce organically.

I’m sad the market was over but happy  I was able to meet and greet the local farmers each Saturday! After doing my normal chitchatting I found out the Ananda Marga Farm is open year round to visitors. I had no idea! Finding this out made my entire year. I’ve known about the farm for quite some time but did not know you could buy produce from them directly. I thought you had to be part of the CSA.

Which was definitely one of our goals this year- to get on board with Community Supported Agriculture through Abundant Harvest Organics. I’m still working on it though and visiting the Ananda Marga Farm has given me some inspiration to get something started ASAP. I haven’t really found anyone receptive enough to take on half of the load with us- but still working to find others interested in sharing a box. Keep your fingers crossed for us because it’s the next best thing to growing your own!

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Green Smoothie Rocket Pops!

I’m totally loving these popsicle molds by Tovelo. My son absolutely adores them too and has not stopped asking about them since they arrived at our door last week. We have some cheapie ones from Target as well but I’m afraid those aren’t BPA FREE. Which is why I bought these they’re not lined with BPA. Instead they’re made without the yuckies and they’re groovy.

These rocket pops remind me of the “bomb pops” I grew up on from the ice cream man.  Except that the mixtures that going into these rocket pops are100% natural! I made a green smoothie version and poured it right into the molds. Hooray for healthy treats! My mom let me borrow her VitaMix blender so I could pulverize some flax seeds and I decided I would take advantage of it’s mighty power and blend up the fresh strawberries we’d bought and make popsicles for Tristan.

Here’s what you need:

3-4 pineapples spears

1 1/2 cups of strawberries

1 banana

1 big handful of your favorite green- we used spinach and it was probably a little less than a handful. -

About a 1tsp of agave (optional)

ENJOY!

This is definitely something the kids will love to snack on for a treat. What makes it so great is that your kids will eat it right up and not care a bit about the greens AND it’s a perfect way to cool off in the summer.  My son LOVES this recipe.  Create your own and have fun with it!

What’s your favorite summer smoothie mixture?

Organic Cherries Glee =)

On Sunday, my sister’s family and I went to Leona Valley (neighboring mountain town) to pick cherries. It’s a yearly tradition and has been since we were young. Ahh, memories. I love going fruit picking. So much fun is had by all. It makes me so happy to pass this tradition onto my son’s.

This year we’d gone to our usual cherry orchards and both were closed. On the way in we saw a sign for organic cherries so we backtracked a little and headed to Leona Valley Organics cherry orchard. It was our destiny!

The cherries were so juicy and sweet we couldn’t stop popping them into our mouth as we picked. They were Bing and Rainier variety. The best part was the organic factor. No need to worry about nasty chemicals entering our system. I remember just last summer in Chico watching the crop dusters hover over the fields. I was in complete shock at how low they were and how white everything was. It was scary white. Nothing was going to survive that dusting. We were driving along the road as the airplane went back and forth across the field. For miles all you could see was white. YUCK.

This is not the case at all (crop dusting), when you’re considering an organic farmer. I had the opportunity to speak with the owners and they were very excited to talk to us about what it takes to be an organic orchard. It is their first season open and we we’re all very impressed. I’m definitely planning on returning with my husband and the kiddo’s. I was thrilled to take home a brown bag full of organic cherries and some buckwheat honey. What impressed us most about the owner was his dedication to organic farming while stressing the importance it was for his children. He recognized that being able to freely pick off a fruit tree without the worry of chemicals was key to producing a delicious yield and keeping your kids safe from toxic substances.

I’m planning to go back and interview the family for a local post in the paper! Green local businesses ROCK! We don’t have many so I get gitty when sustainable practices are being well, practiced!!!

Picking fruits or veggies is a rite of passage during the summer, no? Go outside and be with nature and your loved ones. We were filled with cherry glee!

Happiness Comes In the Form of a Jar!

Over the weekend, we visited our dear neighbor’s from my childhood- I babysat their daughter and grew up hanging out in their home. They’re the coolest people on the planet. They’re daughter graduated from UC Northridge with a degree in Journalism and we’d been invited to celebrate! Since we hadn’t seen them in awhile we decided to take them some fresh eggs.

I packed a re-used gift bag with rafia and paper shreds and layered in the eggs. A whole dozen! For as long as I’ve known them they’ve always had a garden. The tomatoes they grow are the best- EVER. In the summer they grow tomatoes and peppers and can them…boy are they delicious.

Before leaving, we received 2 jars of their famous jarred Chileno peppers and a jar of Pomegranate jelly! We were some happy people- that’s all it takes- jarred goods. I know, sad-but true! Yum! Tyler and I love Chileno peppers. LOVE THEM.

Apparently, Tristan does too because he ate the tops off of 4 yesterday. He won’t eat the end with seeds (smart boy). I really should take a picture of him eating peppers and salsa.He can tolerate the heat, it’s funny. Sometimes it’ll get to him but usually after a sip of water he’s good- thankfully, no crying incidents have occurred- yet.

Anyway, we are SO looking forward to doing some canning this year. Our 2 peach trees are putting off some serious fruit. I’m hoping to can some peaches and make some jam. Also, cherry picking season is just around the corner. I’d like to go strawberry picking but there are no close fields- the closest would be 2-2 1/2 hrs. away. We’ll see. Hopefully, I’ll have the opportunity to can tomatoes, cucumbers and beans this year.

What are you planning to can this summer? Or – what fruits and veggies will  you be picking this season?