Maple Creek Farm Share 2010

Here is a slideshow of the share produce for 2010. My thoughts on this year's share follow the slideshow.



The CSA season is over and I must admit I am not too disappointed about it.

For some reason, I found the share to be more stressful for me this year. I didn't feel in the mood every Wednesday to pick up the share, clean and store the veggies and then prep them for use during the week or to store them in the freezer for use during winter. Last year was the opposite, I felt like every Wednesday was like Christmas picking up my share.

It wasn't that I felt the quality of the share was any less than last year, because I thought it was good considering they hardly had any rain all summer.  We got A LOT of peppers, I would guess it was because it was what they had to give us considering the difficulties with rain.  The tomatoes we got this year were FANTASTIC!!  We had fun eating the many varieties we got through the season.

I am not sure if I am going to be a member of Maple Creek or any share next year for a few reasons. One, I feel like a break.  Two, I go to the farmer's market every week anyway, so I can just pick up what I really wanted there without all the stress of getting things I do not feel like cooking each week.  And Thirdly, we enlarged our garden (which we lovingly refer to as Tuscany, since it is a garden on a hill) for next year and I think we will get a decent amount of produce out of it next summer.  But time will tell, and I will be sure to let you know!

Maple Creek Farm Share ~ Week 13

The weather was already telling me that fall was here and today's share proved it. We got our first acorn and butternut squash.

The basil smelled wonderful and smelled up the whole porch at our pickup site! I already made some yummy pesto out of it.

Everything else looks absolutely fabulously fresh (how's that for too many adjectives) and I can't wait to cook with it this week!

Maple Creek Farm Share ~ Week 12

Week 12 Looks Good!  I've already chopped the peppers for freezing, made pesto out of the lemon basil and chopped and frozen the cilantro in one of those little frozen herb cube trays from Trader Joes.

It was a nice surprise to get some apples today and the Swiss Chard looks absolutely gorgeous.  I treated those watermelons like crystal because the last time we got them I split one open by accident by setting it on the counter (the sign of a truly ripe melon).

I must admit I was happy to not get any green beans.  They tasted really good, but it is not my favorite vegetable and I will be happy to something else as a side for the coming week.

The zucchini is piling up and I must do something with it soon.  I don't have problems thinking of things to do with all my zucchini, I have problems finding the time to do something with it.  Feels like just can't find enough time the last couple of weeks.

Maple Creek Farm Share ~ Week 11

Wow, is the only word I can use to describe this week's share!  Look at all of that goodness!  Melons, tomatoes, onions, squash, green beans, corn, peppers, kohlrabi (yeah!), basil and cabbages.  And don't they all look gorgeous!?!



The kids are back at school, and although I love them to pieces, I was very excited to pick up the share without them because their job was to pick out our share of tomatoes and they always liked to find the smallest ones they could.  It was nice to have the freedom to choose my own size tomatoes this week!

The tomatoes alone make this week's share worth the money we spent on the share.  Last weekend at Whole Foods my husband saw an old heirloom tomato that he wanted to try.  At $3.99/lb that one tomato cost us about $7!

I hope you are all enjoying the bounty of the season as well!  Guten Appetit!

Share Roundup, Week 8, 9 & 10

August has gone so fast.  I haven't forgotten about taking my share pictures, I just haven't gotten around to posting them.  Here are the pictures from the last three weeks.  Week 8's picture is a little weak because I was in Traverse City  and my husband picked up the share and took the picture with his Blackberry.

Week 8




Week 9




Week 10

Trying some Grain Free Alternatives

The more I read about grains and specifically wheat.  The more I am convinced that our family should limit the consumption of them whether they are whole, sprouted, soaked, etc.  While I think that we can get by pretty well on meat, veggies, fruits and dairy, I would still like to have the option of making a muffin or a pancake for the kids every so often.  And I should say with the exception of the few cavities our family has, we are not suffering any ill-health affects because of our consumption of grains, so if the kids have a cupcake or some corn chips at a birthday party, I really don't care.  I just feel that in the long-term minimizing our consumption of them is best for our family.

For that reason, I recently ordered some books and alternative flours to help us on our grain reduction journey.

Grain-free Books:
Almond Flour Cookbook
Cooking with Coconut Flour
Everyday Grain-free Gourmet
Eat Well Feel Well (this one follows the Specific Carbohydrate Diet Recommendations for people trying to heal their gut based on the book Breaking the Vicious Cycle)

Grain-free Flour:
Coconut Flour
Almond Flour (it is bleached, but I emailed the company to see how they bleach it and they remove the Almond skins by quickly steaming them.)

There are other grain-free flour options available, but I choose these two because they had cookbook accompaniments I could use to guide me as I start cooking with them.  I should also say that I only bought these to use occasionally.  I wonder what would happen if we all started consuming as much almond and coconut flour as we do wheat, I can imagine that too much of these flours could be bad too...but that is just a guess.

I got the books a couple of weeks ago, but today the flours arrived:





I am super excited to try these alternative flours and look forward to sharing the results here.  The only problem is I am heading up to beautiful Traverse City next week and won't be have the time to try them until I get back.  Adios Amigos!

Maple Creek Farm Share ~ Week 7

Yum!  This week we got some goodies that we have already enjoyed.

Corn - Had some for dinner last night, will have some more tonight.


Zucchini- Made some grilled cheese sandwiches with this.  We sliced it thin and put it right inside with the cheese.  Very good.


Peppers - Not sure what I am going to do with these.  Will probably make some veggie dip so we can dip them in it for snacks.


Onions - Saving them for use during the week.


Cabbage - Will store and use for a salad later on in the week.


Cucumbers - Made a Salad with it and the ....


Tomatoes - My daughter thought it was fun to pick the smallest tomatoes out ;-)  Ohh well.

Maple Creek Farm Share ~ Week 6

This week we got:

Lettuce: Will use for salads during the week.

Tomatoes: Will eat on our salads or give to the kids for a snack during the week.  I always ask them if they want it cut up like a "farmers market sample" which means I chop it up and give them toothpicks to eat it with.

Potatoes: Yum!  These were good I slow roasted them in my mini-slow cooker.  Had a few leftover that I will put in the kid's eggs in the morning.

Green Beans: Will use as a side veggie for dinner.  This Peanut Butter Green Bean Recipe is a fun side dish that is pretty kid-friendly that I have made in the past.

Broccoli:  Will use as a side veggie for dinner.  I usually just steam them.

Green Peppers:  Not sure what I am going to do with these, the black bean soup recipe from How to Eat Supper is AMAZING and calls for green peppers, I might chop them up and freeze them for use with the recipe over winter.

Onions: I put them in my storage bin and will use them through the week for cooking as needed.  I just bought some of these vegetable keepers from reuseablebags.com that are in the mail.  I can't wait to get them and hang them up in my kitchen to store my garlic, onions, and potatoes in!

Mentioned Products:
  

Favorite Things: Reuseit.com

Usually I reserve my favorite things posts for individual items, but today I wanted share with you some of my favorite things, from my favorite online store, reuseit.com.  The store is chock full of environmentally friendly products for your use at the home, office and while out and about.  They are constantly adding new items and have frequent sales, so there is always something new to buy ;-)

You can view pictures of many of the items I have purchase from reuseit.com on my flickr set for them,

Or, if you are more of a video person, watch the videos below where I talk about some of my favorite items.

Litter Free Lunch Napkins


Insulated Lunch Bag (Made in the USA)


Reusable Wrapping Paper


Reuseit.com has a HUGE selection of items like the ones I reviewed, hop on over there to check it out.

Cut Tomatoes Fast

A short video for you on the evolution of how I cut my tomatoes.



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