Ridiculous veg

Doesn't this carrot scream 'Rockettes'?

Good writing, close to our hearts

Tom found this article. It's genius. 2 pages long, but totally worth it.

Veg this week

Here's what we got this week:

• Asparagus
• Beets
• Broccoli sprouts
• Garlic
• Green Onions
• White Icycle Radishes
• Swiss Chard
• Squash
• Strawberries
  

If anyone has fun ideas for recipes for any of these things, put them in the comments :-)

CSA Starting

Summer Veg

It's summer in Austin, and today marks the first weekly box of veggies from our CSA from Hairston Creek Farms. For those who we haven't already bored with the description, this is the box of veggies and fruits that we get each week from a farm that is nearby - in our case, in Burnet, TX which is about 45 minutes north of Austin.

This year, we've elected to go with the every other week box since Tom is out of town every other week. We had a hard time keeping up with the veggies last year when we were both in town, so trying to have a box a week would just be way too much. Basically through the summer, we aim for this box to be the vast majority of what we eat. It helps us eat seasonally, locally and mostly plants.

This week we are getting
• Asparagus
• Beets
• Broccoli sprouts
• Lettuce
• Green Garlic
• Green Onions
• White Icicle Radishes
• French Breakfast Radishes
• Swiss Chard
• Strawberries
• Red and green lettuce

I'm going to start a project to collect recipes that I can make using the ingredients I get in the box with little else. Things that will have to be added include grains, beans and oils. There are a number of "farmer's market" type cookbooks, but they typically have vegetables combined that aren't in season at the same time in Texas. So this is what I get this week - what can I do with that?

Gardens and produce

I was a bit slow this year on starting the tomatoes from seeds. I should have done that right as I got back from my travels, but I completely forgot. Since the tomatoes have to go in the ground soon, I elected to buy some. I was pretty impressed with Lowe's right now since they had a number of heirloom varieties. It's still not perfect, since it seems silly to ship the soil around so many times, particularly when I do have the seeds, but there you go.

I got about 20 plants again (give or take). With our shade, and relatively small yield, this isn't the horrifying number that it can be for someone with a truly productive garden. I've also planted some lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, and broccoli. It doesn't seem that the spinach is going to do much where it's currently planted. As for the rest of the plants - well, at least they're growing.

Our season for the CSA at Hairston Creek Farm starts in mid-April, and we just sent in our check for the season. Sadly, we're going for every other week this year based on Tom's travel schedule. It makes sense, but it is awfully fun to get the box every week.