Box Share #5

Some weeks I have no words. I'll be here eating vegetables till I turn green!

Garden Update

I showed you before pictures of our 2011 garden back in May. It has been growing steadily and this is what it looks like today.

We have lots of squash.

 Here is our green beans (a funny story to come about these), the lettuce upfront, and okra standing tall in the back.

 This is our tomato garden.

 It shares garden space with cucumbers and jalapenos.

 We have bell peppers this year!

Not to shabby, but with the farm share, we are eating only veggies!

Baby Birdies

I so wanted to knock down the bird nest the second the birds started building it. They make a mess of the front porch and leave bird poop everywhere. Today I'm ok with letting them stay one more season. Look what we found. BABIES! It's not everyday that we get to witness feeding time.

Box Share Week #4

Here is our produce for week 4.....

4 heads of lettuce, summer squash, cucumbers, scallions, broccoli, something that resembles bok choy, cabbage, and beets. It's a lot of produce for a week. We are doing our best to eat all of it.

School's out for the summer!

It was Little Miss's last day of school today. She had a wonderful Kindergarten teacher that will be missed.

I can't believe my baby will be in first grade next year!

Playing catch up

While I have a few minutes tonight, I am catching up on my posts. I post dated them so just keep scrolling down.
Enjoy!

Happy Father's Day Dads

A big Happy Father's Day to MJ, my dad, and father in law! I am truly blessed by each of you.

We celebrated on Saturday by going into the city with the girls. We took the train, which the girls loved, and had lunch at Reading Terminal Market.

 We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool. They had a great day with their dad!

A big LOVE YA to MJ who let me sit like this most of Father's Day.

He spoils me! Happy Anniversary Babe! It's been a great seven years so far.

 I wouldn't change a thing.

Strawberries

The strawberry picking at our farm share is over. But it is a happy time, not sad. Since Memorial Day we have picked 32 quarts of strawberries! I have more strawberries than we could possibly eat before they go bad. It will only be a sad day if these berries go to waste!  I have been scouring the Internet for some preserving ideas. Somewhere in my research, I read that whole frozen berries do not defrost well. They get all mushy and soggy. So I will freeze some to drop directly in smoothies, and the rest of the berries will turn into jam or oatmeal topping (if they are not eaten first).
There are lots of different recipes for strawberry jam. I am trying a few different methods this year, so I can taste them all and figure out what I like best. So far I have a freezer jam, that I am not sure set properly, we will see how it turns out once we open a jar. I also made a canned strawberry jam that set well, but we have not tasted it. The other canned jam I made is a strawberry pineapple jam that turned out excellent! We barely waited long enough to let it set before we tested it on our toast. It set well and tastes heavenly, in my humble opinion!

I also crushed some strawberries and froze them plain in jars to top our oatmeal and ice cream. Can't wait to enjoy these in the fall and winter. Now I just need a bigger pantry and a bigger freezer!

Box Share Week 3

Welcome to week 3 of our box share program.

This week we received 4 heads of lettuce, beets, zucchini, cucumbers, garlic scapes, collards, and broccoli.
I can already tell you that the cucumbers are delicious! They are also hard to resist! We still have our collards from last week, so I will be making those soon! Wish me luck! Would anyone like to try garlic scapes? I think I have more than I can use.

Blueberries and Cherries

\We have enjoyed our strawberries at the farm so much this year. It has me in the mood for more fruits. The only other fruit the farm offers is raspberries. We are looking forward to those but we were also hoping for blueberries. I did some homework on http://www.pickyourown.org/ and found a blueberry and cherry farm just south of here. It took us about 30 minutes to drive down to Mood's Farm in Mullica Hill, New Jersey. They have a beautiful farm and we enjoyed our afternoon at the farm.

There were so many blueberry bushes filled with ripe berries, it was easy for the girls to pick. Peanut fell asleep in the car on the way down, but we were just across the driveway picking berries, so we let her finish her nap in the van. She woke up a little while later and enjoyed picking with us. I think she ate more than she picked, but I couldn't really blame her. The blueberries were excellent straight from the bushes!

After we had picked our share of blueberries, we drove over to the cherry trees. They had sweet cherries to pick and we were lucky. Sweet Cherries at Mood's sell out quick. The season opened on Monday and they were nearing the end already on Wednesday. There weren't any cherries low to the ground, but they had lots of ladders around the cherry trees. The girls loved climbing up the ladders to pick the cherries. Even Peanut did it without a problem.

 Can you see all the cherries still up in the tree? Little Miss did her best to reach all the high ones. Next year, I think we are bringing Daddy!

We even picked up some apple cider donuts and a cherry pitter while at the farm. A big thank you to Mood's Farm for a "fruitfull" day! We had so much fun! Can't wait for next year.

The girls are begging to go back to pick sour cherries when they open next week. We will wait and see if that happens. I don't know what to do with sour cherries. Any ideas??

Pick your own week 3

The girls and I went up to the Farm one last time for pick your own strawberries. We came home with 10 quarts of strawberries, 2 quarts of green beans, and lots of herbs.

We got stuck in a rain shower but we managed to get enough strawberries to make it worthwhile. We also picked a few flowers while we were there.

Still lovin the Farm Share!

Eating Box Share week 2

Once again, we did pretty well eating the box share this week. The pile of strawberries joined the pile we already had to make jam. The bok choy I made into stir fry. The zucchini I grilled with hot dogs for a quick dinner. The herbs are drying in the dining room. We attempted to make a pesto out of the garlic scapes. I even froze some because we have so much! It is super pungent so we need to tweak that recipe. We will smell like garlic all week! The kale MJ sauteed with excellent results. The collards are the only thing we didn't get around to trying.

Patio Door

Last weekend, my new patio door arrived. MJ and our good friend Brian installed it. I now have blinds in my kitchen! The best part is they are between the glass so there is no cleaning! Love it!

Swim Team

Little Miss has decided to become a Downs Farm Dolphin this year. She joined swim team at our local swim club. This pleased MJ. He was a good swimmer, and Grandma J. was a great swimmer. I think it runs in the family blood line. I am looking forward to her really learning how to swim. We started swim practice last week. At that point, she refused to put her face in the water. We had a tough day of tears, we prayed for some courage, and then something clicked. She did it! She has a long way to go, but at least she's getting her head wet. GO DOLPHINS!!!
ps. this summer, practice starts at 8:15 for the little ones. So much for sleeping in...

Box Share Week #2

This week brought a new list of vegetables. Here is what came in our box:

Bok Choy, Collards, Garlic Scapes, Kale, Oregano, Strawberries, and Summer Squash

They gave us more strawberries! I just went to the farm and picked 8 more quarts yesterday! I really need to preserve these before they go bad. I will not be happy

with myself if that happens.

Eating our share Week #1

I think we did great at eating up all the produce in our box this week. The turnips were delicious! We just washed them and ate them. They tasted like sweet radishes. The tops on the turnips, the greens, were bitter so we ate the turnips and tossed the top.

We had lots of salads. We ate lots of strawberries. I even tried a salad with strawberries but my girls weren't impressed. They are not fans of salads as our dinner.

MJ made us creamed spinach with our dinner one night and I made sun tea with mint leaves thrown in.

A very delicious week!

Lying Low

I am once again having a hard time with my pesky sciatic nerve. Only this time, I'm not in a great deal of pain, but my left foot is constantly numb. It is to the point that it grates on me all day, and by the time poor MJ gets home from work, I am fed up. It makes for one unhappy momma. There is tightness in my leg, especially around my knee, and pain in my glute, so I finally went to visit the doctor. He sent me to have an xray, and if those images come back normal then I will have an MRI to detect what exactly is going on with my back. I am lying low, both literally and figuratively. I hope to have some answers in the next week or so. Prayers are most appreciated. Thank you!

Strawberry Trip #2

I received an email from the Farm Share today, encouraging people to come and pick strawberries. This was not in our plans for today, because my husband was working. Although, when the email said we could pick 8 quarts, I decided it was well worth the trip without him. So we piled in the car around 2:00 with hopes that they would nap on the way. It was no surprise that Peanut was the only one who snoozed.
There are so many strawberries in the fields right now! We had no problem finding all we could fit in our boxes. My girls were good little troopers about it, and only whined for half the time. Even with all the whining, I'd say it was well worth it! Look!

It just doesn't get much better than fresh sweet strawberries! If you only eat store bought strawberries, you must come over and try these. It really is nature's candy!
Have I told you how much I'm loving this farm share thing yet? LOVE IT!!!

First Boxed Share Pickup Week #1

I went and picked up our first box of veggies today. Super easy pickup, but it is a bit of a drive to Collingswood. I knew that when I signed up, so I really can't complain. I do have a friend that lives nearby that is also doing the same farm share thing, so I am hoping we will trade off on the pickups. 
Here is what I picked up...

Inside the box there was this...

There are two heads of each type of lettuce, pictured at the top. A large bag of spinach, pictured on the right. Below the lettuce, is a bunch of mint, and down front are the white turnips called Hakurei.
That's a lot to eat in one week!
I don't think I have ever eaten turnips. They say they are best eaten fresh and raw. Another thing I love about Honey Brook is the handbook they give you, with information on how you should store each vegetable. They also have lots of recipes on their website.
I'll let you know how it tastes once I try it!