Garden Fuss

I've been waiting all summer for these beautiful tasty squash to ripen. But, after it turned cool on us I thought for sure I'd missed the mark on these. The plants are gynormous and there were male blooms galore. However the female blooms were no-where to be seen until just a week and a half ago. Now the little she's are popping open all over the squash patch. I have been purposely not buying squash at the market as I skulked by jealosly gawking at their pleantiful trays. I didn't go so far as to wish borers on them but felt like an envious red headed step child watching the fat kids eat cake at the garden party. What is their secret? Alas my fare weather people answered that for me in the paper last week. It's all about location, location location this year. Some of us were too wet some were too dry and all of us were too hot. Not to mention slugs,boreres, and japanese beetles... Now I fall into the lucky category and have been able to actually and literally eat th

For a few years now we have heard from our closest friends all the benefits of finding a CSA and how it helps local farmers as well as the community and of course us to feed ourselves and family's. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. This is a movement that allows consumers to buy locally grown seasonal food directly from farmers by pre-purchasing shares. Shares are bundles or boxes of a variety of produce. Shares can contain everything from vegetables and fruit to meat and cheese. Now that I have become educated and in the know, I for one will stand up every chance I get to support them. However getting the DH to agree to it is an entirely different animal. (ie. think husband agree to prepay hundreds of dollars for food he can't see in fridge). Since I am the main shopper and home chef in this family I ultimately took the lead and forced the issue. We took the plunge and delved into the CSA pool early this spring. I tried very hard to be proactive and find one th

Look at some of the bounty we recieved today from the concrete beet farm. I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of the extra share items before processing them but I've been waiting for pickling day since our sour mexican gerkins turned out to be a disappointing waste of time. I can say with some sense of assurity that I will not attempt them again. This is my first year attempting relish. Though it's not as green as the relish found at the grocery store I am excited to try my favorite pickled item on a nice beef hotdog or maybe even a bratt. I'm so excited about CSA's this year and utilizing them to feed my family s well as help out some young famers in the process.... But more about that later because the kale has yet to be processed and the pesto I made from the basil needs to be frozen. 
Happy harvesting and a good night to you,
Tina

After one failed attempt I'm proud to say that my big baby didn't give up and has now successfully made tasty frozen rasberry custard icecream. A little encouragement and jesting has fueld her to concoct a treat to beat the heat straihgt from our garden. I'll have her post a recipe later. Just had to shre this beautiful pics and more praise for my future personal chef.