I LOVE my CSG!

This was the bi-weekly distribution from my CSG (Community Supported Garden) last Friday.

WOW!

We got 2 Acorn Squash, 1 1/2 lbs potatoes, 1 1/2 lbs carrots, 2 Daikon Radish, 1 head curly endive, 2 heads radiccio (there were other options on the salad front - those were my selections)

a head of chinese cabbage(again there were options), a green pepper, broccoli shoots, a small head of cauliflower, 4 radishes, 1 1/2 lbs onions, a head of garlic, and 1 1/2 lbs of cooking greens - I chose .5 lb of kale, .5 lb Collards and .5 lb of braising greens, 6 turnips with their greens, and fruit!

Yes, again we got apples & paw-paw - which I'll be turning into fruit sauce at my house....

AND my favorite autumn treat - hearty Kiwi!

They are a PYO item and WELL worth it.

The orchard is on the hill behind the distribution house and is BEAUTIFUL.

I can remember the first time I picked kiwi...with Ronnie in the snuggli 6 months old.

The memories just make them sweeter!

This time Evan was with me - running around the orchard and exploring the paths.

The CSG is awesome because even when we get one veggie that doesn't do so well - this year the tomatoes - generally there's something else that balances it out. This year we've been getting truckloads of greens. Over the winter we get to try all sorts of root veggies. Sometimes it's hard finding ways to use it, but soup is usually a good fallback :)

I could never grow the variety we get from the farm in my own home garden...

Over the past couple of years additional pay-in items have been appearing on the CSG shelves....we were bequeathed an adjacent property...another small farm...and with the additional space, our farmer has been busy!

We can now purchase WW flour grown on the farm and we can purchase eggs from our own hens! We used to be able to buy eggs from another farmer who would bring them on distribution days...but this is even better!

We've already eaten half of the eggs. They are quite delicious!

Samhain 07

Since Halloween fell on Wednesday this year, and the boys are still little enough to be pretty cranky if you try to let them stay up late....especially if its a mostly adult thing they're staying up for....we celebrated Samhain on Sunday.

This year's group was back down to "the usual" friends/family- a gathering of 9 including the kids. Not the extended group we had experimented with last year. It had just gotten too crazy.

Samhain is one holiday I have maintained tradition with for about 10-12 years now. I use the same ritual every year - it's one that the friends I started celebrating with had adapted for use with their kids. It's short and to the point - and everyone gets to light at least one candle to represent the people/pets they want to remember. The celebration uses the symbols of the apple (death with the promise of rebirth - star inside when cut crosswise) and the pomegranate ( life who's shadow is death - seeds kept Persephone in Hades).

This ritual is also closely linked with dinner - so things usually go like this :
I'm busy preparing dinner and I ask my husband to print out the ritual - I know it's the one we always use, so I haven't even looked at it since last year. I run around picking the ancestor pictures from among the others around the house; try to find candles and other things we'll need for the altar...folks start arriving.
We get the ritual going around the dinner table and are calling directions when I remember that South and West are switched from the way we usually call the directions and think - "Oh well I'll fix it for next year".
I get choked up on reading about remembering family and frieds who have passed through the veil.
Someone inevitably has trouble lighting a candle - this year it was DH who commented that his ancestors probably wanted to tell him to pay them more attention!

This year we replaced the usual candle altar - I've used an old vanity mirror/tray and free-standing votive candles for a long time. It was great if you wanted to try and scry in the patterns of the candle wax - however it was a MESS to deal with. Several years it "leaked" the candle wax onto the tablecloth below it and last year the mirror cracked when I was trying to clean it up. It's still in my holiday bucket, but this year I purchased a candle chandelier which can hang or sit on the table - each candle is enclosed in glass. We sat it on the table during ritual and then hung it from the ceiling while we moved on to dinner.

We set the usual ancestor spot and gave them a little of everything we were having...Turkey, stuffing, pasta primavera, and cranberry apple pie. A bit more traditional than the Morroccan style Mabon celebration!

As usual it was good food, good friends and a celebration of the season. Right now, the boys don't participate much - even as far as listening to the stories of their grandparents & great-grandparents, but it is good practice for years when they will finally take an interest and ask questions about those who have gone before us and who played such an inportant role in making us who we are today.

Another thing to mention in relation to the holiday, serendipity etc...
We had recieved a forecast for the first frost - for Sunday or Monday night, so - appropriately - I went out Sunday with the ladies and we harvested the last of the tomatoes and peppers in the garden - two large baskets of green and lightly-colored tomatoes and a couple of bell peppers.

Blessed Be!

Breif Update

Haven't had much time to blog lately...so update on life:
Work - project my department has been working on for a year has gone live and we're shaking out the bugs....so work has been unpleasant. The big "sport" at my company is finger pointing. Although there are errors and missing details in every area - we can't possibly work as a team to make it right...we have to spend as much time and energy as possible pointing out the other guy's flaws.
Home - garden is still pretty much as stated in the last blog. Squash Basil and tomatoes coming in - tomatoes did take a hit in a particularly nasty storm. They had grown over top of the cages and the storm knocked them down a bit....but they have finally started to ripen. LARGE bunches of basil and 2-4 med squash are being picked 2-3x a week. We had a great play-date with an old work buddy of mine ( we were preggo together twice so kids are same ages). She decided to stay home after #2.
Kids - Daycare - NIGHTMARE - I will actually need to devote a WHOLE post to this subject in the next week or so. For now just let me say I've visited 8-10 places this week....before work, after work, lunch time.....hence no time to blog.
More later.

Happy May Day!

Our family has been celebrating the coming of SPRING for the past two weeks.
With frequent evening as well as weekend forrays outside, much garden/landscape sprucing and even dining al fresco.
The kids have been intoxicated by the breezes running and playing and "helping" with the gardening.
Sunday they helped fling grass seed and chanted words of welcome to the season.
Now that spring is officially here we wish everyone a happy WARM (not HOT) season to enjoy the birds and the bees , outdoor activity and relaxation!
How do you celebrate the season????

April 22, 2007 - Song for this Earth

as the waters rise
and take back
dry land
while the sun still attracts
our planet
as we spin
round her core

and as the layers
that protect us
are vanishing

I sing a song
for this earth

as our friends the mammals
the fish, the bees, the snakes
all sea and land creatures
all things furry and
with legs and wings
in whose eyes
there is a knowing
far deeper than ours

are threatened
in their specieshood daily
their millennial existence
annihilated in our split seconds

I sing a song
for this earth

~Mary Steel 2005