CSA hauls #17 and 18

Our last post saw the last of the winter hauls and I thought we were going to have a couple weeks off. We were gone over Memorial Day weekend and there was no pick-up for shares.

Last weekend we went to do our work share, pulling turnips out of the ground for two hours, but figured we would have no share again.

Ha!

We got blueberries and squash from our friendly neighbor farmer John, plus 2 lbs of onions and 1 lb of garlic.

Summer is here!

This week we kicked dirt around looking for any potatoes left behind after Marie had turned the soil. We found quite a few.

It was really fun, like a treasure hunt or an archaeology expedition! Plus we came home with 5 lbs of potatoes and 1 more lb of onions. Good gracious, we have a lot of onions!

And just because we're so special, Marie sent us home with this beauty of a tomato,

a "mortgage lifter".

They're just starting to ripen so there aren't enough for everyone. There are definitely perks to being a work share!

CSA haul #16

This is the last haul of the cold season. It looks a lot like last weeks, which is great because we really enjoyed it.

Above: 2 red cabbage "heads", snow peas, braising greens (mostly turnip and chard), and 5 onions with greens!

Below: Spring salad mix, a lot of lamb's quarter (Guy loves that stuff!), and "green" garlic
I'm excited to try the garlic. We received garlic greens earlier this year, but these are our first heads. They are pretty small, so they should be mild, but hopefully tasty.

Today at the farm was a lot of fun. We harvested onions and snow peas and cabbage with a fellow work-sharer. It was really laid back and the weather was beautiful!

Tomorrow is the annual CSA member potluck at the farm. We'll be bringing mashed potatoes made with our onions and garlic from the farm.

CSA haul #15

From top left, anticlockwise: cabbage, several small onions, snow peas, braising greens, radishes with greens, and a lettuce mix

This is quite a haul!

We also had a good time working really hard on the farm with other work shares, harvesting onions and mulching between rows. What a workout!

CSA haul #14

Guy had a stilts gig this weekend and I had a lot of work to do so we missed our work share. I did drop by and pick up our haul though.

From top left, anticlockwise: salad greens, 5 small onions with greens; snow peas; braising greens including turnip, kale, and chard.

Another Day on the Farm

Project: Food Budget: Week 8

Budget: 70$

Actual Spent: 74$

Bought:

• Tomatoes
• Bell pepper
• Onion
• Habaneros
• ginger
• turkey deli meat
• chicken breasts
• bread
• Brianna's honey mustard dressing
• Jell-o
• a couple frozen meals
• a frozen pizza
• Chipotle burrito (split between us for our special "eat out" day)
• wine

Another week when moms and friends fed us pretty often. Yay! One of our friends made us the most delicious short ribs with a celeriac-potato puree. I'm still salivating from that meal. Yum.

CSA: Salads are a staple at our home. More salads!

Meals eaten:

We basically ate sandwiches, salads, and frozen meals all week, except when our friends or family fed us amazingly delicious food.

What we learned:

Over the past two months of watching our budget, I've noticed how lazy Guy and I have been about meal planning and our food choices. Even though it may look as though our eating has gotten much worse, we have actually learned a lot. We've learned about how we deal with stress, what our other options are, how saving money and eating healthy can go together but don't always. We've learned more about who were are as people and even learned something about the families we grew up in.

Although this will be my last Project: Food Budget entry, all this learning will not go to waste. I'm taking away from this several lessons and a homework assignment. Over the next month, each week I'm going to try to take a favorite food or recipe of ours and make it healthier, cheaper, and easier. We are lazy people and food needs to be easy for us, but I also want it to be nutritious and affordable.

For more details on Project: Food Budget, click here.

Participating blogs:

• Emily Levenson
• Maria Marz
• Veggie Converter
• Dairy-Free Cooking
• Motor City Girl in the Steel City
• Veggie Burgher
• The Happy Cactus
• Test Kitchen Tuesday
• Newly Vegan
• Always Sick & Tired
• Veggie on the Cheap
• MeloMeals: Vegan For $3.33 A Day
• A Guy, a Girl, and a Dinner Plate (Yours truly!)
• The Amateur Low Carb Flexitarian
• The Veggie Life
• Caroline Cain: Holistic Health
• Under the Apple Tree

CSA haul #13

Lucky number 13.

This week there was not an official weekly share this week because it was Earth day and Marie was busy. The lettuce and greens also needed a week to rest if we want a share next week. But Marie allowed any of the members to come out and cut a little greens if they wanted some.

Since we were out there working (smishing caterpillars and weeding tomatoes), we grabbed some lettuce mix and a ridiculous amount of lamb's quarter, which was way overgrown.