The Suburban Farmer - Homeschool Blogger

I joined a CSA

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 22:30:00 -0500

http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa/

I got my first box today. I ordered a "small" box (usually a family of 2) for $28 and this what I got.

ALL are organic and many are local.

Mushrooms - 2 bags of 6 oz each (I chose not to receive mint and instead get a double portion of mushrooms.
Salad mix (green and purple stuff) 5 oz
Cabbage - medium to large head (maybe 2.5lbs?)
Kale - 10oz bunch
Peas - 13oz (they are in the pod, but you don't eat the pod)
Carrots - a bunch of 7 - weighing 14oz
Green onion - one bunch (3oz)
Honey Dew melon - small about the size of a large grapefruit
Zucchini - two, weighing a total of 13oz
Tomato - two large, weighing 14oz
Oranges - 4, weighing 2lbs (I chose these in place of limes)
Peaches - 4, weighing 14oz total
Nectarines - 4, weighing 1lb total

My best estimate is that these would have cost my $32-$35 at the store - although I've not seen all those products in organic at the store.

Each week you can chose three items to omit and select from a small list of replacements. The boxes are dropped at various points in the community and you are given a window of time within which to pick it up (Wednesdays 3-7pm). My drop point is not much past my closest grocery store, and is actually closer than the "good" grocer.

Another benefit is that the prescribed box 'forces' me to try to new things, or to 'indulge' in things that I would otherwise go without. Today we had linguine with sausage and kale. Ymmm...

More gardening

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 21:42:00 -0500

I spent two hours outside today and got all of the tomatos, peppers, cucumbers and herbs set out. I still have 44 little broccoli waiting for my attention, but they look okay in their nursery pots. Good thing, because I won't get them in the dirt until Monday.

I hilled the earth up around my volunteer potato plants, and gave them some compost as well.

I'm just fascinated by compost: one takes garbage and it becomes 'brown gold'. It's wonderful. I will plan to do a whole entry on compost at a later date. Anyone with a patch of yard can (and IMO should) make compost - if nothing else, one can spread it on one's lawn or around one's flowers; it's not just for vegetables.

Lastly, I moved a 'volunteer' pumpkin plant to where I want pumpkins to grow. It didn't look so good, but hopefully, it will perk up tomorrow.

Tribute to my kids' dad

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 02:01:00 -0500

He answers to many names, among them are: Honey, Daddy, TiVo King and (the coveted) Happy Fun Dad. Once when Rachel was about 18 months old, she called him, "Honey-Daddy."

Daddy wears several hats: Bread-winner, Lawn-mower, Thingy figure-outer, Chief dishwasher, Leader of adventures, and (reluctantly) Substitute duck-feeder.

He takes our daughters to classes and lessons; he attends recitals and performances.

Happy Fun Dad has taught our children to high-five, 'clink' glasses for a toast, and tie their shoes.

He lets them 'drive' his truck in the driveway and he is showing them the proper use of power tools.

When the girls find a dead bird, snake, or rodent, guess who helps them to bury it and even conducts a service for the dearly departed! That's right: Daddy.

He is also the best loose-tooth-puller in the house.

When our cat died, my dear husband stood in the rain, breaking frozen ground to dig her grave.

If a child has occasion to cry over a disappointment, he cries with them (but tries to hide it).

Daddy takes the girls with him when he votes.

He takes them to Memorial Day and Veteran's Day services.

Daddy teaches the children to honor our community's first responders and our nation's soldiers.

He's a great dad!

And I love him.

Did some gardening today...

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 20:01:00 -0500

I set out all my herb starts, seven of the tomato plants, and a dozen of the pepper plants. My mom came over to help (we only had about an hour and a half) and she pulled weeds and levelled things, and started planting pea seeds. I also watered all the other starts that are still straining in their little plastic cages.

As I was setting out the transplants, I had the first-time joy of giving each plant a large handful of my own homemade compost. What a delight that is! It even looks and smells rich. :)

I have three potato plants that are 'volunteers' from last year. Since I was unable to get seed potatoes, I'm certainly doing to let these grow. I think I'll save them for seed for next year. I doubt they'll be enough for more than a meal or two, if we just ate them now. By saving them, I'm guaranteed at least some seed next time.

Went to the nursery yesterday...

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 23:28:00 -0500

The fence is up around the garden plot, and yesterday, I went to the nursery. I needed to buy all my stuff for this year at one time because I had a terrific 20% off coupon! I'm so excited!

I got most of what I needed. It's too late for strawberries and they were completely out of seed potatoes. Some of the other things, I didn't get exactly the variety of plant that I had originally intended, but what I did get should work just fine. I was actually pretty pleased by the selection, despite the late date.

I bought:

Vegetable starts: 2 grape tomato, 21 sauce tomato, 4 cucumber (I haven't grown cukes before), 16 bell pepper, 4 jalapeno pepper, and 44 broccoli (I wanted more, but that was all they had left).

Herbs (in 3.5-inch pots): 2 English thyme, 2 Greek oregano, 2 Genovese basil, 1 BBQ rosemary, 1 Arp rosemary, 1 Tricolor sage, 1 Berggarten sage, and 1 dill. Herbs are all new to my garden, but I have a nice area set aside for the perennials.

Seeds: corn, shelling peas, green onion, and parsnips. I have plenty of other seeds left over.

Oops and two blueberry bushes - sorry about that, honey, someone must have slipped those into my cart...but since they're here, would you mind digging holes and planting them?

Now...to get them, and all the other seeds into the ground.

Women's Topics - not for the faint of heart

Wed, 7 Jun 2006 20:39:00 -0500

I want to tell you about two things. Some of you may be embarrassed that I even mention this stuff. My apologies to you. To the rest of you...please realize that there may be an easier way for you.

First topic: the "Diva Cup" (made from silicone) and the "Keeper" (made from latex). You can google them to find out all about them. Stays in place during all bathroom activities. It does take a couple of months to get the hang of seating it properly. I've had mine for two years and will never go back! The Diva cup offers a 90 day money back guarantee.

Second topic: Waxing away unwanted hair. I did this for the first time last summer. The only downside is the cost, so I limit it to summertime. It does hurt, but only for about 2 or 3 seconds. Then you have nice looking skin for a month. Try it!

Okay, end of discussion. :)

The Humble Fruit Bowl

Fri, 2 Jun 2006 10:29:00 -0500

Do you have trouble getting your children to eat enough fruit?

Frankly, I do not. My girls love fruit. But I recently discovered something that - for them - really increased their fruit intake. Hopefully this can help you.

I was thrift shopping and impulse purchased a beautiful glass bowl. I wanted to be able to see it regularly, so I decided to pull some fruit out of the refrigerator, put it in the bowl, and set it on the table.

On Tuesday afternoon, I put in 3 pears, 3 oranges, 3 apples and 2 bananas. By the end of lunchtime on Wednesday, the bowl was empty!That's 11 pieces of fruit between 2 kids over 3 meals! (Not to mention the vegetables that I serve at meals!) I refilled the bowl yesterday afternoon with 4 pears, 4 oranges, and 4 apples. There are now 1 pear, 1 orange and 3 apples remaining.

Somehow the visual reminder stimulates the appetite! I think this will also be great for days that Daddy is in charge. He doesn't remember to offer fruit, but with the bowl right in front of them, the girls will just ask.

Funny kid story...

Tue, 30 May 2006 10:31:00 -0500

Because of my feet problems, I recently purchased a shower bench - a little plastic seat that allows to me shower quickly, but keep weight off my feet. Rachel enjoys a long shower, so she also started using my bench as she relaxed under the spray.

Randy mentioned something about it over dinner recently and asked her if she scrubbed the bench after using it. She had not, but I said that I didn't think it was a problem, as I wasn't worried about sharing "bum germs" (as we say in our house) with her.

Rachel asked, "Well what if Daddy used your bench?"

I thought I was being funny when I replied "Eww, that would be icky! If his bare bum touched it and then my bare bum touched it, well... that would be like our bums touching! Yuk." The whole time I was looking at Randy with a little spark in my eye.

Then Rachel said "Oh, like when his p*n*s stiffens and fits comfortably into your va-Gena to make a baby?"

We were !

Now, she did not come up with this on her own...it is word-for-word straight out of Usborne Books' Pocket Scientist - Red. Which may be on your bookshelves, so watch out! :)

Procrastination

Tue, 30 May 2006 10:21:00 -0500

Oh, what a dirty word! We all do it though, don't we?

I recently learned a very good lesson about procrastination. I learned that when I avoided a small problem, in my mind, that problem became much larger than it truly was.

The problem was a sundress that needed a small patch. Last summer, I'd sewn matching dresses for the girls, but on one, the piece of the bodice had folded over and gotten caught in the stitching that connected the bodice to the skirt. It was slightly creased, and frankly, Rachel's long hair covered the flaw, but I tend toward perfectionism.

So I removed the errant stitching and replaced it correctly. Unfortunately, this left a hole in the bodice (after doing the original sewing, I had trimmed the seam allowance). I wasn't sure how to patch this hole and have it look perfect, so the dress was guiltily stuffed in my pile of things to do later.

Fast forward ten months...I've been off my feet all month and working on a lot of sewing jobs. I decided to tackle that sundress patch. After all, if I ruined it, that wouldn't be any worse than it sitting in a box unused. I was debating matching the pattern of the print fabric, because, as I recalled, that patch needed to be large enough to cover a hole about 3 inches wide by 1 inch tall.

When imagine my pleasant surprize when I looked at the dress and realized that the hole and discovered it was only about 1.5 inches wide and less than a 1/2 inch tall!

I had it fixed in less than an hour. Rachel has worn her dress twice since then.

More importantly I learned a valuable lesson about myself: the more I stew about a problem and the more time that passes, the bigger that problem becomes in my mind.

Changing the Look!

Sun, 4 Jun 2006 01:59:00 -0500

Yes, this is still me. I've just changed the look of my blog. I was finding the black letters on orange background hard to read. So, I chose a different template. :) Hope this is easier on your eyes as well.