CSA Harvest Box: week 3

boy, this week was some what of a blur!  I didn't take any pictures except this one- and it was kind of an odd week as far as our schedule goes so I didn't cook dinner as often as usual/ or it was super-fast meals.  But that's life, right? Well in this week's "box" (it really comes in a reusable cloth bag) we got lettuce, cabbage, broccoli,a sample of the first of the summer squash, edible pea pods, rhubarb, purple or orange carrots, and an herb plant.  Our herb plant happened to be Moroccan mint, otherwise known as spearmint, which I actually despise.  I unintentionally left it on the back patio without watering it all week- so, if anyone likes Moroccan mint tea, the leaves are already nice and dry! hahaha.  I didn't realize there would be different potted herbs until I got home and got my email from the farm saying that there were various potted herbs in each share.  I was bummed I got the mint plant.  Oh well! :o)  Anywho- as far as what I used this week....  the lettuce of course made a delicious salad, the broccoli and zucchini I just used as normal (we eat those all the time)  and the rhubarb made it into round two of the rhubarb custard pie.  Which turned out really yummy this time, I might say.  Way less sugar than the recipe called for.  We haven't used the fantastic looking purple carrots yet, or the pea pods- I'm planning on sauteing those bad boys up for lunch today!  If you do get fresh carrots from the farm,  make sure you cut the stems off right away.  They make the carrots go bad much faster.  I used half the cabbage with last week's dried beans in the crock pot since we had some nice cool weather.  It was super good. Here's the recipe if you're interested!  I'd post the original recipe from allrecipes.com, but I changed it so much it's really just the "sauce" that's the same. :o)

Sweet Sausage 'n' Beans

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup thinly sliced carrots (used one of the big farm carrots)
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 4 cups mixed beans (picked over, rinsed, soaked over night, and drained)
• 1/2 head cabbage, chopped
• 1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage, crumbled
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon prepared mustard
• 
  

• DIRECTIONS

  1. In a slow cooker, layer carrots, onion, beans, green beans, and sausage. Combine ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar and mustard; pour over beans. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or until vegetables are tender. Stir in the cabbage for the last half hour or so before serving.
     

CSA Harvest Box: week 1

in an email I received from Sun Gold Farms:

This week in your shares you should find lettuce, rhubarb, strawberries, pinto beans, onions, kohlrabi, and a calendula plant. Please double rinse the lettuce (remember the storm?). Refrigerate and use the berries as soon as possible. Since we do not spray fungicides on the berry fields, they do not have a very long shelf life. The pintos and onions are last fall's crop from storage and will go great in the crock pot on these cooler almost summer days. Use your favorite baked bean recipe, or find yourself a ham bone. When using a crock pot on slow, it is not necessary to soak the beans overnight. But you will still want to wash and sort them. The kohlrabi is best just peeled and eaten raw.  Do not cook it.  Treat as a carrot stick. Dip in sauce if you must.  The calendula plant should be potted into a larger pot or put right into your garden. It is an edible flower that looks and tastes great in your tossed salads. Use the flower petals. 
We haven't tried the calendula petals yet; I planted it in our garden and the flower wilted the next day, so we'll try the next bloom. :o)  We did try the kohlrabi just like she said: peeled and chopped up and dipped in ranch!  It was pretty tasty- reminded me a bit of turnips.  A little bit crunchy and pretty bland.  Not really worth all the work it took to peel it, though!  Look at all that tough skin vs. the little pile of veggies in the bowl!  I left one peeled but un-cut so you could see. It's the thing that looks like a peeled potato on the bottom.  At any rate, it made a nice addition to our lunch on Saturday after being at the market!

The pinto beans I used to make probably our favorite bean recipe. Pardon the ugly picture- they really are so yummy. Recipe follows!
Rowen also enjoyed his first taste of pinto beans!  He's been eating them up as finger food all week.

We're not big rhubarb fans, but I found a pie recipe that actually turned out pretty good.  A little too sweet, and I thought it might be by the ingredients but I just went ahead and made the recipe exactly as stated (what?!? me?!? not mess with a recipe!?) well- pies can be a bit of a mystery to me.  So if we end up with rhubarb again, I've made note of the changes I'd make for next time :o)  We served it with strawberry ice cream.  Maybe next time, I'd serve it with BARELY sweetened whipped cream. Or a really light homemade vanilla ice cream. Hm.... the whole wheat crust was fantastic with it, though! Recipe follows-

Sweet Potato Burritos

adapted From Allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups dried pinto beans
• 2 tablespoons "better than bouillon" chicken base (optional)
• 3 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 4 teaspoons prepared mustard
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes
• 12 whole wheat tortillas, warmed
• Shredded Cheddar & Jack cheeses

DIRECTIONS

1. Rinse, pick through, and soak beans 8 hours or overnight.
2. heat oil (i used a dutch oven, but any big pot will work,) and saute onion and garlic until soft. Drain beans, and them to the pot. Gradually stir in enough water to cover the beans by 2 inches, and bring to a low simmer. (no lid) Stir in the chili powder, cumin, mustard, and cayenne pepper.  Simmer about an hour, or until soft.  You may need to add more water to keep the beans covered, but not too much.
3. When beans are soft, add chicken base if using and soy sauce. Adjust spices to taste and mash 'em up a bit.
4. Divide bean mixture and mashed sweet potatoes evenly between the warm flour tortillas. Top with cheese. Fold up tortillas burrito style, and place on a baking sheet.
5. Bake for 12 minutes in a 350 degree oven, or fry in a lightly oiled skillet and serve with sour cream and sliced green onions. Ooooooh so yummy.
6. Freeze the rest for later!

Rhubarb Custard Pie

filling recipe from "A Taste of Oregon"

Crust:

1 Cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, cold - cut in cubes

3/4 cups ice water

1. cut butter into flour & salt in a food processor until it resembles cornmeal.  Form into a ball, adding drops of ice water as needed.  Form into one flat (about an inch thick) disk and one flat rectangle, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least one hour.

2. remove dough from the fridge and let sit at room temperature until barely workable.  Roll out disk into a round, and place in the bottom of your pie pan.  Roll the rectangle into a 13x10" rectangle (roll it bigger so you can trim the ends and make the edges perfect) on a sheet of parchment paper.  Put the dough into a cookie sheet, and use a ruler as a guide to cut it into 8 13" strips and put the sheet in the freezer while you make the custard.

For the Custard:

4 beaten eggs

6 T flour

1/3 tsp salt

3/4 tsp nutmeg

3 cups sugar (if I make this again, I will reduce the sugar to 2 cups!)

2 T sugar (again, will reduce sugar to 1 T - there was a solid sugar crystal lining the bottom of the pie! Kind of tasty... but sooooo much sugar.....)

1 T flour (I'd probably use 2 T, mine was still a little runny.  Not too bad, though...)

6 cups chopped rhubarb (stalks should be no thicker than your thumb or else they need to be peeled. I didn't measure: just used what I had.  I'm sure it was less than 6 cups, though.)

butter

Mix together eggs, 6 T flour, salt, nutmeg, and 3 C sugar.  Sprinkle 2 T sugar and 1 T flour on bottom of prepared crust.  Add rhubarb to egg mixture and pour into crust.  Dot with butter.  

Back to the crust:

remove the strips from the freezer and place four on top of the pie about one inch apart.  Weave the remaining four into them to form a lattice.  Wait a few minutes for the dough to soften up a bit, and then trim the extra off with scissors and tuck it under the bottom crust.

To Bake:

Put a large cookie sheet on the bottom rack of the oven to catch drips, and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, reduce oven to 325 degrees and bake for 45 minutes longer or until set.

A Visit to Sun Gold Farm

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go and visit the farm who is providing our harvest box!  (Just two more weeks until our first box!)  I thought I had written a post about us doing a CSA harvest box this year, but I can't find it in the archives so I guess I never did.  SO- if you don't know, CSA stands for "community supported agriculture" and basically, we paid in advance for a share of Sun Gold Farm's crop.  They pack up boxes of vegetables, fruits, cut flowers, beans, herbs, whatever they're harvesting every week and we pick it up at the beaverton farmers market on Saturdays.  We get fresh, local, organic produce every week at a great price, and they get to stay in business as a small family farm.  Neat, huh?  Anyway, they had an "open house" yesterday and we took advantage of it.  It turned out to be such a beautiful afternoon- we went for a tractor-pulled hay ride and learned a little about the farm and got to walk through the fields and orchard and greenhouses and see what was growing! Everything is still cute little sprouts :o) (except for the strawberries, which smelled sooooo good ripening in the sun!)

Can't wait to share with you what comes in the boxes and what we decide to do with it all summer!  Oh, how I love food.

Changing the World of Cloth Diapering

On Friday, Matt, Rowen and I went down to Mother Nature's, our favorite little baby store. We had to purchase a set of "premium" sized diapers, as our teeny baby is not so teeny any more and has grown out of the "infant" sized diapers. I was in denial, but Matt convinced me. It WAS getting difficult to get the snappi on! But LOOK how much bigger the new diapers are! AFTER washing & drying four times! The new, premium diaper is underneath the green-edged infant diaper. So sad that he'll never be that little again, but so exciting to watch him grow and do new things every day!
Well- while we were at Mother Nature's, we decided to buy the much debated "diaper sprayer." We've been debating whether or not to get it from the time we first registered. (a year ago!) Will it work? Is it silly? Haven't people been just fine with the "dunk and swirl" for centuries? Then we heard good things about the sprayer from a fellow cloth diapering friend, so we made the big splurge. It's kind of spendy- $45- but hey, that's just a pack of 'sposies at Costco, right? So we figure, we've saved enough money with the cloth to have "earned" it. When we were checking out, I confessed our wishey-washyness about the sprayer to the gal at the counter who quickly told me that it was changing the world of cloth diapering! hehe- that made me feel happy about our purchase. If anyone knows about the little perks in cloth diapering, it's these gals. So- we got home and I started washing and drying the new diapers while Matt hooked up the sprayer. And let me tell you, it is ALL it's cracked up to be. (Hence the blog post about something attached to a toilet meant to help clean poop.) It blasts the "solids" right off, and at this point they're still super sticky, so I'm impressed. Even after several hours of hanging out in the diaper bag while we romped about town. It's awesome. So if you cloth diaper, I recommend it! Say goodbye forever to the dunk and swirl!

Dirty Drip Pans?

This housewife gets excited about the silliest things.....
I was making turkey stock and of course it boiled over a bit in the hours it was on the stove- leading to nasty burnt on crud in the drip pans. So I thought it would be an opportunity to share with you all this super nifty trick we learned not too long ago.
Nasty pans + baking soda + a little water + elbow grease (and not much!) =
Sparklingly beautiful pans!
That's right, just your plain ol' arm 'n' hammer.
I love when natural things clean better than chemical ones. Awesome.

First Bottle...

It's not really fun getting no sleep. It's okay- I know it's just a short period of time, and i'm not really wishing it away because I know he's going to grow up way too fast. But a 4 hour stretch of sleep wouldn't hurt! So, since he's nursing SO well, we decided to try out a bottle on Friday so that I can nurse him in the evening and then head straight to bed, and Matt can take care of the next feeding with the bottle while I sleep. Of course, little food-monster, he took all 3 ounces from Daddy without batting an eyelash. (I, on the other hand, (after taking photos) went into the bedroom very sad! Thinking ridiculous thoughts like "he doesn't need me!" and then "of course he does, that stuff does NOT come from the store!") hahaha
It's Tuesday now and we still haven't tried this trick again because my little angel has been feeding 3-4 hours at night instead of 2 for the past couple days. So I've been heading to bed early with the expressed milk ready to go for Matt, and Rowen sleeps the night away so Matt never gets a chance to feed him before heading to bed himself! Oh well :o) At least we know we can! It's amazing how much better I feel sleeping two hours at a time instead of one hour at a time. I guess our bodies just get used to what they can get! I guess God knew what He was doing when He made us "mommies."

p.s. if you were wondering, we're using the Adiri Nurser. It's way cool.

Another Diaper Post :)

Not interested? Read no further ;)




I finished my cloth wipes!! I've been making a few here and there- I now have three dozen which should be beyond enough- so I've decided I'm done! I still have so much left over fabric all cut out- but I can always make more later on if I decide I need them. I've read I'll only need 1-2 doz so I'm sure I'm good to go. Thanks to advice from Jamie, I just cut up an old flannel sheet. The measurements I found online were 4"x8" so I just went to town and cut up the whole thing in nice long strips, and then into rectangles. Easy peasy!
To make them extra absorbent, I decided a double layer would be nice. So I just put them back to back and zig-zag stitched around all the edges so they wont fray (using up random spools of thread! bonus!) and then threw them in the wash so they're all ready to go! Exciting, huh?
I've heard that all you need is water to make them moist, but I found a whole bunch of yummy wipe solution "recipes" that I'm just going to have to try. Here are some of them:

Castile Solution
Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap comes in several yummy scents!
1 tablespoon almond, apricot, or other oil
1 tablespoon Dr Bronner's Liquid Castile Soap
2 drops tea tree oil
1 drop lavender oil
1 cup water

Chamomile 'n' Honey
Brew the tea, add the honey, and drink any leftovers!
1 chamomile tea bag
1 teaspoon honey
1 cup boiling water

Fruit 'n' Veggie
1 teaspoon fruit or vegetable-based oil (apricot, olive, grapeseed, etc)
1 tablespoon vegetable-based soap (like Dr. Bronner's liquid castile)
1 teaspoon 100% aloe vera gel
1 cup water

Just One
1 chamomile tea bag
1 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon baby bath or shampoo
1 drop lavender oil
1 cup hot water

Lotion Potion
Baby lotion adds more softening power to this solution.
1 tablespoon baby oil
1 tablespoon baby soap
1 tablespoon baby lotion
1 cup water

Zany Apricot Solution
1 tablespoon apricot oil
1 tablespoon unscented baby wash
3 cups water

Zany Lavender Solution
1 tablespoon baby oil
1 tablespoon lavender scented baby wash
2-3 drops lavender oil
3 cups water

And a side note- I found these fabric bins at Target and I'm so excited about them because they fit PERFECTLY under the changing table like they were MEANT to go there! Even with the little laundry basket that I already had (from college!) Isn't that the coolest? Okay, okay, I know I'm a nerd... (come on- they're PERFECT!!) I can't wait to fill them with cloth diapers, covers, pins & snappies, lotion, powder, wipes, liners, doublers, onsies.... :)

ants!

Okay- so I'm putting up a poll. What's with these little invading critters? We got home last night and there they were- all marching in line across my new kitchen unit in search of the dog's bowl. Eewww....
Honestly, they don't bother me nearly as much as Matt. Why? Because ants just happen. To everyone. Or so I thought. Apparently, Matt's never gotten ants. Not since me, anyway. hahaha-
I remember as a kid that every year the ants find their way in. You take care of them, end of story. No big deal. Kind of yucky- but not like spiders or fleas or mosquitoes or something nasty that bites or even flies which have so many nasty germs- they're just harmless little sugar ants.
So- the poll. Is it just me? Or does Matt just not REMEMBER having ants as a kid? Do you get them yearly? Twice yearly when the seasons change? So often that you've begun naming them and giving them treats like family pets? Or is it really just me and no one else gets ants? We'll find out. ;)
I did discover a cool trick at the condo, however: plain ol' white vinegar. They aren't a fan of it. (who is? it stinks! but just for a minute until it dries.) Just spray it where their trail is and they wont bother going that way again. In this apartment, it seems it takes a few applications, but then they'll leave us alone. Matt wants to go out and buy ant traps right away (expensive, toxic ant traps- to put right there with the food) which to me is even worse than the ants, but hey, if the vinegar doesn't work this time, we'll resort to traps.

Update: it's Monday and we haven't seen the little suckers since! Yay for vinegar again!

Fertilizer #1

Who knows how true it is, but I read that tomato plants love a little egg-shell fertilizer. The calcium is supposed to help prevent blossom end rot, and makes them taste fabulous by helping the plants handle un-even watering. Well- we'll see!

To make your own egg-shell fertilizer:

1. Dry out several egg shells for a few days.
2. grind them up in a blender or food processor
to a fine powdery dust!

3. clean up the mess you made in the kitchen from the flying egg shells... don't forget to clean out the dog's bowl. (sorry, Rusty!)



4. Spoon a little around the base of the plant
5. dig it into the soil a bit
6. and water your sweet little tomato!

I have two cherry tomato varieties. I don't remember what they are right now- but I guess I will when they start producing fruit. I got them pretty late in the season (just last week!) so hopefully they'll do okay and we'll have a few juicy fruits for salads and such. Someday I'd love to have a big old vegetable garden with tons of big tomato plants, but for now, this will have to do on my little apartment porch :)

I too have made the switch...

to a BPA free water bottle. I've been hearing about it for years- but it seems to be getting more and more recognized as an actual problem. Tammy's entry got me thinking about it again, especially for little Rowen. When we registered two Saturday's ago at Mother Nature, we decided to go with BPA free bottles for him, even though he wont be using them very often. Then Matt was thinking about how everything I put in my body goes into his, and he suggested I switch over as well. (Since I carry around my fake Nalgene constantly.) So- after a couple weeks- he picked me up this neato camelbak from REI. Sweet, huh? I like that it's still plastic, since I'm a bit of a clutz and drop things all the time- and it's even worse with pregnancy. Hopefully this bottle is still tough!

The Stranger

A few years after I was born, my dad met a stranger who was new to our small town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on. As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind, he had a special niche. My parents were complementary instructors: Mom taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. But the stranger... he was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries, and comedies. If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future!

He took my family to the first major league ball game. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn't seem to mind. Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave...) Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions, but the stranger never felt obligated to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home... not from us, our friends or any visitors. Our longtime visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush … My dad didn't permit the liberal use of alcohol. But the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis. He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (much too freely) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing. I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced strongly by the stranger. Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked… And NEVER asked to leave...More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first. If you could walk into my parents' den today, you would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures.
His name?






We just call him "TV."

Diapers!

It's probably too early to start thinking of all this- but it has become sort of an obsession recently. I decided a while back that I would use cloth diapers for several reasons. So now that I'm preggo I've started researching what's out there. What's the best. What's the most convenient, what's the most economical- and holy COW I didn't know what was out there! I knew cloth diapers had come a long way since even our parent's generation- but I had no idea.
Seriously my head has been spinning!

So to address those of you who are already thinking: "what on earth is she thinking? seriously? cloth diapering? Eww!" Here are my top five reasons:

1-Environmental Impact

I got started thinking about cloth in the first place from working in a day care and seeing how many trash cans of diapers we filled up every day. If you look up the stats, they're scary:
*The average baby will use 6,000-10,000 'sposies before they're potty trained - each diaper takes 2-500 years to decompose. That's one Ton of garbage per baby. Literally.
*It takes a cup full of crude oil to produce the plastic for one disposable diaper.
*One billion trees per year are destroyed to make disposable diapers---approximately 4.5 for each baby who uses them.
*disposable diapers consume 70 percent more energy than the average reusable diaper per diaper change. The extra water required to wash cloth diapers is actually less than the amount of water it takes to produce disposable diapers.

2- Expenses!

Holy cow, save your moooola!
* the average family spends $2800-3000 in disposable diapers over 3 years for one child. (crap!)
*the average cloth diapering family spends $615 on diapers over a 2.5 year period (they potty train faster) $225 for enough diapers, covers, and fasteners to wash only two to three times per week, plus $390 in washing and drying cloth diapers (270 loads of 24 diapers at $1.45 per load).
That's a savings of over $2000. And then you can use them again on child number two. And three. And then as cleaning rags around the house. Yipee!


3- A Healthy Baby Bum!

These facts may scare the crap out of you. (haha)
*Disposable diapers contain many chemicals, poisons (TBT tributyl tin), dioxins (which has been shown to cause cancer, birth defects, miscarriage, genetic damage, liver damage, and skin diseases) and even perfumes and dyes that are all harmful to your baby and lead to diaper rash. The gel that is used in disposables to absorb and hold in moisture is Sodium Polyacrylate. This substance has been found in the urinary tract of babies and may cause severe diaper rash, chemical burns, and bleeding in the perineum and scrotal tissue. Sodium Polyacrylate was removed from tampons because of its link to Toxic Shock Syndrome. There are also many studies that have been done to show a direct link between using disposable diapers and childhood asthma as well as an increase in infertility in boys.
*In 1955, 100 percent of American babies wore cloth diapers, and only seven percent experienced diaper rash. In 1991, 10 percent of American babies wore cloth diapers, 90 percent wore disposables, and 78 percent experienced diaper rash. Ouch.
*While the liner of disposable diapers is designed to keep moisture away from baby's skin, the bacteria and acids still hang around. The extended wear time allows the bacteria to multiply.
*Cloth diapers allow for the circulation of air, while disposables don't. This is important for baby's comfort and his or her developing reproductive organs-especially in boys, whose testicles are located outside their body for the precise reason of keeping them cool. A few studies have actually linked disposable diaper use with the recent worldwide decline in sperm count.
*Would you like to wear paper underwear all day? Why would you think your baby thinks any differently? Soft cotton next to a babies tender skin is much more comfortable than paper and plastic.

4- potty training!

*Babies who wear cloth feel the sensation of a wet diaper as soon as they pee, so they're more aware of their body functions. On average, a cloth-diapered baby potty trains one year sooner than her disposable-diapered counterpart, which is better for everyone!

5- look how cute they are!

homemade dishwashing detergent!

I learned another cool trick from the internet. How to make your own (cheap!) detergent for the dishwasher! It's just one part borax to one part baking soda! 1-2 Tbsp per load and your good to go! We've been using it all week and so far- it works great! Neat, huh?

Ooh, and the best part is that it's also completely natural and good for the environment (and my developing baby!)

:)

Why isn't this on the box??

So I learned recently a little info about CFL's. Matt and I have been using them for years, being the energy conscious people we are. (Well, for the most part. We're not going to go chain ourselves to a tree or anything.) Turns out, if you turn them off and on every time you walk in and out of a room, it damages them. They need to be left on for 15 minutes at a time in order to have their full life. Otherwise they'll last as long as incandescent bulbs. Huh! So here we are, shortening the life of our bulbs every day because we think it's good to turn the lights off when we leave the room! You'd think they'd put that on the box or something when you buy them. Of course, that would mean consumers would be educated and not have to buy their product nearly as often. A bummer for the business. I checked it out at energystar.gov and it's for real. So if you use CFL's and didn't know- consider yourself informed! I thought it was good to know. :)