Archive for the ‘Kids’ Category
It’s been a busy few weeks around our house. Though my husband and I are both teachers, with all summer off, we hardly end up feeling like we’ve had all summer off. We have work stuff and home stuff keeping us plenty busy.
The folks at the CSA farm have been busy, too, Many crops are in season. Lately, we’ve enjoyed a wider range of vegetables, including two varieties of cucumbers, kohlrabi, purple snap beans, sugar snap peas, and broccoli. Our household hasn’t tried the kohlrabi yet, but we have greatly enjoyed the rest of the veggies. The broccoli definitely impressed us–it was very flavorful. We learned that purple snap beans don’t stay purple once you cook them. We’ve eaten a lot of salads, but have also continued to try our hands at some fancier fare.
A success this week was Swiss Chard and Artichoke Pizza. You can find the recipe at Farmgirl Fare’s blog. We added red peppers to the saute because we enjoyed the mixing of the sweetness of the red peppers with the more bitter chard when we made chard pie. We also made a second pizza with red sauce. Our friend Shannon was visiting. Like us, she couldn’t decide which pizza she liked more. The chard went really well with the red sauce and makes me think I should make a lasagna chocked full of my next load of greens. Also, I didn’t prepare my own dough and went the lazy route, using store-bought crust instead.
I’ll leave you with this beautiful site…my oldest son liked the sugar snap peas so much that he asked for them for a snack!
Update on my youngest son: still no veggies have crossed his lips. We tried to get him excited about the sugary peas, which were just like candy, but, umm, he didn’t buy it.
Posted in I don’t like heat or sun. I blame it on being a freckled pale person. We must hate the sun as a form of natural defense. So, I was a little sad to see our mid-June weather already in the 90s as we headed to the CSA farm for one of our work days. Most CSAs have members do work days to contribute to the farming. If you are completely unable to, you can pay an extra fee to avoid the labor. Despite the hot day, we looked forward to doing our work day to learn more about the food we were eating.
The day started with picking root vegetables. My oldest son, who had accompanied my husband, enjoyed helping with this part. They pulled beets and carrots. The carrots were small orange balls, appropriately called “ball carrots.” Upon testing them, we found no difference in the taste. They were delicious!
Later in the day, I arrived and helped cut some greens. We picked arugula and endive. I keep getting endive and radicchio confused, but I think I’m learning. After the picking was done, we helped wash veggies. THIS was the job to have on the humid summer day. The CSA had a four-vat commercial sink set up, and we dunked the greens several times. Then, we placed them in mesh bags to go for a spin in the dryer. On my must-have list right now: a salad spinner or a mesh bag. You can spin the moisture off of the greens to help them keep longer.
At the end of our shift, we bagged the veggies for the rest of the members and received our weekly share. Big excitement this week: carrots and new potatoes!
Enjoy these pictures of the farm. It is a beautiful place, with hills overlooking the Finley River valley. The farm isn’t very big, which makes you appreciate how much food you could grow on an acre or two…not that we are getting any ideas. We have a couple of acres that would be perfect for a huge garden, but I have a known history of not being able to keep anything alive (I call this my “black thumb” condition) and I remind you, the last time we had a garden, we even killed the supposedly ‘unkillable’ summer squash. We appreciate that the CSA farmers have the knowledge and skills to turn their plot of land into food for so many families!
Enjoy these pictures:
Confessional note: No, my son did not act like Farmer Brown all day. He did get tired and hot pretty quickly and retreated to the porch to play Pokemon on his DS. That being said, I think it was still important for him to be there and for him to get an idea that yes, food does grow out of the ground…it doesn’t just arrive on store shelves out of nowhere.
I’ve tried some local milk and started eating my local vegetables, but I haven’t ventured into local meat yet. Well, other than at the recent wild game feast I attended with my oldest son. His Cub Scout den has a wild game feast each year, with the meat provided by the hunting lads and their dads. I like to call it the Beast Feast. This year’s feast featured deer pizza, deer summer sausage, pheasant, and red fish, as well as side dishes.
As the buffet was introduced, our lovely host told which lad’s meat contributed to each dish. I bet this made those little guys proud to provide food, not only for their families, but for their friends. Having no hunters among us, our family took a spring green salad, made of course with the remaining veggies from this week’s CSA haul. Even though we didn’t have any wild game to contribute, I thought the salad went well with the theme because it was local and hand made….and my oldest son HAD washed the lettuce.
As much as I talk about my youngest son being a picky eater, there are some areas where I am the one with food issues. I wasn’t very adventurous in my eating of the wild beasts. Instead, I took an extra serving of the good old mac & cheese.
My oldest son doing some veggie cleaning.
We were able to pick up our first ‘green bag special’ today. We were excited to officially be starting our journey. The CSA had planned a bonfire and potluck, but the April May showers drowned out that plan, so members were invited to the farm to pick up their shares. Despite the less-than-stellar weather, we enjoyed the beautiful view from the farm. We were able to see the raised beds, already overflowing with the plants that will eventually bear dozens of different vegetables. Today’s share included several types of lettuces and salad greens, as well as green onions and radishes.
We brought home our healthy haul and proceeded to investigate. My oldest son jumped right in to help clean. I was pleased to see him so eager to be involved. We had towels lined up along all of the counters, so the washed leaves could dry (see below). Though we have a half share of vegetables, it felt like a good amount. We could make two huge salads, at least.
Remember my references to mystery veggies? Well, we had some mysteries on our hands tonight. Luckily, a couple of friends had joined the same CSA, and we were able to confer on Facebook. Google Images was also handy tool. Several times tonight I googled things like “green leaves, red veins” and “green leaves, purple veins.” Thank goodness for Google!
Our bounty
After washing all that produce, we were ready to eat. I was partially interested in taking on this change in our lives in order to inspire my sons to eat more healthful foods, and tonight, I couldn’t have been prouder. After volunteering to clean the vegetables, my oldest son continued to jabber about the bounty. He was very interested in learning about each green leaf and willingly sampled them. We decided upon a salad for dinner, starting simply with our first harvest.
While preparing the salad, my oldest even recommended a type of salad dressing he enjoyed: Honey French. Our friend Google led us to a recipe, and we created homemade salad dressing to accompany our locally-grown foods…yee!
Salad, with locally-made sourdough bread
The salad was delicious. You cannot compare the pale, watery lettuce in bagged salads to what we ate. Our salad had a multitude of interesting flavors. Yum!
So, overall, I’m feeling pretty good right now. We ate well, we have a drawer full of greens for the rest of the week, and we are still excited about the weeks to come.
What about our youngest son, the picky one, you might ask? Well, he was at his grandma’s house tonight, enjoying a ham sandwich. He’ll get to participate in the next green haul.
- Offering a reward increases the likelihood of desired behavior.
Those are dreaded words whenever we are looking for a place to eat out. That means our small son has one restaurant on his radar. One and only one.
Nationally, conversations are being held about whether restaurants should give away toys in kids’ meals. Santa Clara county in California is thinking about banning them. As a mom who wants to lead my children to healthier choices, I wouldn’t mind if Happy Meal toys went extinct. I might even rejoice.
Of course, parents have the choice not to frequent such places, and I’m sure I have many friends who don’t. However, one visit is enough to ensure you will hear the refrain, “Moooommm, I want a toy” every time you are dining out. This is one of the many ways our diets are shaped by things other than hunger. Getting a toy (reward) for eating Happy Meals is definitely an example of Pavlov’s theory of classical conditioning.
There are people who are outraged by Santa Clara county’s exploration of this topic. They act as if this is an example of government controlling people’s lives. I wholeheartedly support the First Amendment, and I guess I missed this line: “Congress shall make no law prohibiting the dissemination of junky toys with children’s food.”
So, lead the way, Santa Clara county. Give me one less thing to argue about with my young son. He can whine about the mean government instead of his mean mama.