Our first CSA Pickup!

Scapes?  Huh? 

Greg and I are really excited that we've been able to join a CSA this year: Land's Sake Farm in Weston, MA.  CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, a model where before the growing season, you can purchase a share of the farm's produce for the upcoming season.  They received our money in advance of the season, helping them to purchase seeds and equipment and maintain the farm when they don't have much cash coming in during the winter months.  Because they had our money in advance, they could use it when they needed it most, and they knew up front that they'd sold that share of their produce.  We help share the risk with the farm, because if it's a slow growing season weather-wise, we'll get less produce for the same amount of money than if it's a wonderful year.  (Guess what happens then - a great deal for us!)

I'm excited about our CSA because it's a way to vote with our dollars and help encourage local farming by consuming as much local agriculture as possible.  The farm doesn't use any synthetic chemicals, we get produce that was picked only hours before we bring it home, and this food doesn't have to travel thousands of miles before we eat it.

I'm also excited because I'll be getting the most seasonal produce I can, things that are growing well now.  While we'll have some choices from week to week, it won't be the same selection we're used to in the grocery store.  And I'm excited about that, too.  It'll be like when chefs on those food network competitions get a mystery basket and have to cook with all those ingredients - an opportunity to cook with produce I might not normally buy, or combinations I might not be used to.  Instead of brainstorming the menu first and shopping second, the ingredients themselves will be my inspiration.  What do you do with three different types of leafy greens, or an abundance of peppers, radishes and onions?  I'm looking forward to being motivated to try new produce, find new recipes, and maybe have a reason to finally learn how to jar my own preserves when it becomes clear that two adults and a toddler can't eat everything we've gotten.  (Of course, it'll be a good reason to share food with friends, too!)

Our first CSA pickup!  We didn't even bring home the arugula!

Things That Grow

I'm not just talking about seedlings, although this is a post about gardening.  My kids are growing too, faster than I even realize sometimes.  Will is at that fun stage where he's learning to talk, and it's becoming very clear that he understands so much more of what's being said than he can verbalize.  He can follow instructions like "Go get Mr. Monkey from behind the couch!", or "Where's the red ball?  Can you bring it to Dad?"

So when it was time to sow the seeds for our summer vegetable garden, I thought we should do it together. I expected Will to try to eat the dirt and seeds, dump the watering can on himself, and wander off, but I figured I'd explain what I was doing and give him a chance to help.

And you know what?  He did!

He helped push the peas down into the soil after I showed him, carefully pressing each one into the dirt.

                                                 He watered the seeds and not himself.

He helped carry the seed packets.  He even tried to help turn the soil, but seemed to realize that the shovel was kind of heavy.

The result?  Our seed distribution may be a little special this year, and, well, there were a couple areas that got watered perhaps more than necessary.  But we had a ton of fun, and we really did do it together.  I didn't really know until we tried that Will would be able to copy me and push the seeds into the soil, or help use the watering can.  But he did, and he only ate one, even though peas are his favorite vegetable.  (That's why we're planting them.)

It made me realize that in order to find out what Will was capable of, I needed to give him the opportunity to show me.  If I hadn't thought that he could help plant the seeds, and shown him how, I wouldn't have gotten to see him push those peas into the dirt with such focus.

And now, when we go out every day (even in the rain) to check and see if our seeds have sprouted, I wonder if maybe he really knows what we're doing.  Either way, we're both having fun!

A big difference from the little guy who watched us build our garden bed from a blanket last year :)  Here's to spring, and all the wonderful things that grow!

                                                              Will and me in April of 2011






UPDATE: Our seedlings have sprouted, and the spinach definitely needs to be thinned!  This made me laugh :)  

Cherry Tomatoes!

We've got cherry tomatoes! This is the first year we've grown tomatoes, and I love going out each morning to pick the ripened fruit. Greg and one of his coworkers made "earthtainers" this year, and the plants responded by growing like CRAZY! (For more on earthtainers, check out the website, http://www.earthtainer.org/ where you can find free blue prints to make your own.)


Greg, Will, and one of Greg's amazing earthtainers growing cherry tomatoes. That's one tomato plant, which was only four inches tall when we brought it home from Volante Farms!

At first I was worried that we'd have too many tomatoes, but now I'm starting to wonder if there is such a thing. I love cooking with these! We've had mozzarella, basil and tomato salad, pasta with fresh tomato and white wine sauce, Tofu Bhuna Masala, and my grandmother's amazing vegetable soup, all made with fresh tomatoes from the garden. I haven't even had to make sauce and freeze it yet, and we've eaten over 150 cherry tomatoes from this plant! (Not exaggerating or joking. Look at that thing, it's a monster!) Of course it helps that I have six basil plants in my herb garden that I started from seed in April. Now if only there was such a thing as a mozzarella plant...

Our most recent culinary use for cherry tomatoes was a Martha Stewart recipe for Cherry Tomato Mozzarella Zucchini pie. I followed the recipe to a T, homemade parmesan pie crust and all (Will was with Greg!) and it was pretty good. My slice would have been better if someone *cough*Will*cough* didn't steal most of my tomatoes, but it was still worth making :)

Her recipe is online here: http://www.marthastewart.com/317661/cherry-tomato-bocconcini-and-zucchini-pi

Mine doesn't look as nice as hers, but whose does?! It still tasted great :)

Garden Update - Time to Grow

There's no question that our garden is thriving - well, parts of it, at least. Turns out that I should have read a little bit more carefully about row spacing when I decided to grow cucumbers. I spaced the hills three feet apart, but I didn't give them six feet horizontally until the next crop. I gave them about two. Which means they're now alternating between strangling the lettuce, my green beans, and Greg's beautiful lawn that finally came in. Whoops.

I couldn't help but feel a little discouraged and disgusted with myself for not planning things better when I realized that they were spiraling out of control because I hadn't given them nearly enough space. One of my first thoughts was "Grampa never would have planted them like this."

Grampa Bridges, my great-grandfather, was an amazing vegetable grower. I think of him often when I'm out picking green beans or lettuce. I miss the giant sunflowers he grew next to the fence in his thriving backyard, and the tee-pee with flowering scarlet runner beans growing all the way up to the top. It was the perfect place for great-grandchildren to explore at family gatherings.

But then I realized something. By the time I was wandering through Grampa Bridge's garden in awe, he was not just a grandfather, but a GREAT grandfather. I have years and years of learning and making mistakes before I make an impression like Grampa did!

And that realization made me smile, not just about gardening, but about a lot of things. I grew up in the footsteps of some truly amazing people, whose skills I regard with awed admiration. Who else grows flowers like Grammie Ruth? Vegetables like Grampa Bridges? Has the patience and personality of my great-grandmother Mimi? The truly, truly good heart of Gram? The knitting and baking skills of my mother? Woodworking and sailing saavy like Dad?

But now I realize the trick - they weren't born that way. They worked towards becoming the wonderful people they are and who I will always remember. And they had time to do it. It'll be at least five years before Will starts really remembering my cooking, gardening, knitting, and sewing. I can have those crooked curtains fixed, and my cucumbers in a better location by then, I'm sure of it.

People always say you should never stop learning, cliche cliche, blah blah blah. But now I realize that these coming years are a true opportunity to become the person I want my children to remember me as. And then I'll have even more time to become the grandmother I want to be. It's kind of exciting.

So it's ok that my cucumbers are trying to take over the world, and I feel like laughing whenever I look at my overcrowded garden. (Didn't want to thin things out appropriately because those plants just looked so little and innocent... how can you choose which ones live? I'd rather eat crooked carrots. This year.)

I'll figure it out. I've got time.



Myself, top, with sister Elizabeth and relative Alex peeking out of Grampa's scarlet runner bean tee-pee.

Garden update

Our vegetable garden is growing!

We have carrots, leaf lettuce, cucumbers, and green beans all happily sprouting. If plants are happy. And actually our green beans appear to be getting eaten by something... but everything else is doing well!

Plant update!

My basil seedlings have sprouted! I was surprised to find that I have a one hundred percent germination rate, that's amazing! Except that I might have to thin them out, so that they have room to grow enough to be transplanted. Something I'm seriously considering having Greg do (hey, he offered) because I don't have the stomach for it.

Here they are... so cute!

Garden, here we come!

The last danger of frost in Massachusetts may not be for several weeks, but there are still plenty of gardening activities to begin! We're going to try growing vegetables this year for the first time. I am looking forward to being outdoors, the excitement of seeing things grow, and the satisfaction of eating something we've grown ourselves. It's good for us and it's good for the environment. After all, what could be more local than your backyard?

We bought M-Braces from www.artofthegarden.net which have helped us take lumber and transform it into a raised bed with no hammers or nails. I would say no sawing, but my amazingly wonderful husband Greg actually used a borrowed handsaw in the Lowe's parking lot because their equipment for cutting lumber in the store was down. So it was actually pretty labor intensive. But there was the potential for it not to have been!




We're lucky enough to live near Volante Farms, a great place in Needham that has an amazing garden center and their own brand of organic top soil. Upon their recommendation, we're combining a 75% top soil, 25% composted organic cow manure and peat moss mixture.

This year we're going to try carrots, leaf lettuce, cucumbers, green beans, and tomatoes. I've made a chart with notes on the planting, growing, and harvesting of each to help me keep track of each one.

Besides our usual container plants, I'm also going to grow some herbs along the retaining wall in our backyard. Since it's too early to plant most of them outdoors, I am working on starting some inside from seed! Chobani yogurt containers, meet scissors, sharpie, seed and soil. I cut holes in one container, and then stacked it in another to create a place for any extra water to go. (Otherwise Greg probably wouldn't let me put them on the windowsill.) If they don't grow well, I can always buy some young herb plants, but I thought it would be fun to try. For less than two dollars a packet, it's pretty inexpensive entertainment! Who knows, maybe it will become a fun spring tradition :)




We've already gotten back something from our garden - we had a wonderful day this past weekend outside with Will on a blanket in the shade, working together to create something.

Can't wait to watch things grow!