Lyn

Geauga Family Farms–week 14

Sep 132011

Today, we went to the “little” Whole Foods and picked up our Geauga Family Farms CSA. The kids totally know our routine. We usually need to buy something. Today, we bought yogurt. At the checkout, Nick and Sally each get a wooden nickel to donate to a charity since we bring a bag. They love putting a nickel in the slot to pick their charity. Then, they go straight to the CSA area which also is the children’s coloring area. They are also very interested in whatever we get in our box.

Here’s what we received today:

Let’s take a closer look. I couldn’t really fit everything in the photo.

Green beans, sweet corn

Potatoes, apples (Honeygold variety)

Bell peppers, dill

Poblano peppers, zucchini

Onions, hot peppers

Leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce

Eggplant, basil

Tomatoes

I’m leaving for Hawaii on Monday, so this week is all about food preservation. I’m cooking some meals for my family to enjoy while I am gone, but most of that work is done or planned. In addition to my trip, my husband is out of town tomorrow through Friday.

I’m going to blanch and freeze the green beans. I have others to freeze as well, so it’s worth the effort.

I plan to have some corn with the kids tomorrow and freeze the rest. There’s only 6 ears so that should be simple.

Unless I get ambitious, I’m going to store the potatoes. A few of the apples are already mixed in with the sauce that I was making tonight. The rest will be going into apple-plum sauce tomorrow. We picked plums yesterday, so I need to make something with them.

I’ll going to make fajitas and use some peppers and onions this week. I’ll freeze the rest.

I’m going to make some basil/olive oil cubes for the freezer with the basil. It will be handy for winter soup and tomato sauce dishes.

I already froze the tomatoes. I just washed them, cored, and quartered them. I’ll make a saucy dish with them in a couple of week.

The lettuce will get eaten in salads. I’ll either blanch and freezer the eggplant or make mini eggplant pizzas. It all depends on the rest of the items are going.

I’ll need to research the dill. Usually, I use it in pickles, but I don’t have any cucumbers.

It’s going to be a busy week here. I have a to do list that’s a mile long before my trip.

U-Pick Tour–Eddy Fruit Farm, Chesterland Ohio–Plums, Apples and Grapes

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Sep 122011

Today, we made a spur of the moment trip to Eddy Fruit Farm. I happened to read on Facebook that they were having pick your own plums and they wouldn’t last long. I called some friends and we met them at the farm at 4PM. We never go picking in the afternoon, but today it worked. The weather was great and Eddy’s is only 15 minutes from our house in Mayfield Heights. They are the closest farm to our house with pick your own.

They are just south of Wilson Mills Road on Caves Road. The photo on the left is the corner where you turn and the photo on the right is the entrance to the farm.

Nick and Sally both sampled a plum. I never saw plums growing before so I enjoyed this picking experience.

While we were there, we picked a few apples. Akane is the variety that happened to be close by. They are a somewhat tart variety.

We didn’t pick too many since I still had apples at home to process into applesauce. After the apples, we checked out the grapes. The netting is to keep the birds away. These are sweet reliance grapes. They are seedless and I think were also past their prime.

The kids were fascinated with the netting and the grapes.

We returned to the market to pay for our bounty. We also bought a few pears. We ended up with about 5.5 pounds of plums, 5.5 pounds of apples and 2 pounds of grapes. At 90 cents a pound, we paid $11.75. In addition our pears were $6. It’s hard to turn down your kids when they are begging you for fruit.

I’m thinking I’ll try a batch of jam with the plums. I’m sure everyone will enjoy eating a few along with the grapes. I’m mixing these apples in with my applesauce now. I hope they aren’t too tart since I don’t put sweetener in my sauce.

I suspect we’ll have more apple picking when I return from vacation. We’ll probably miss concord grapes since they are just coming into season now. Next time we pick grapes, I need to bring a snippers or scissors, it will be much easier.

I’m off to check on the applesauce!

Smoketember Fest

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Sep 112011

My mom is the oldest of eight kids. Growing up with a big family, we are used to large gatherings. Thanksgiving typically has 40-50 people. Everything is done well.

Last night, my Uncle Marty and Aunt Melissa hosted a party. It was extra special because some relatives were in town from Florida visiting and my brother came up from Virginia. Marty and Melissa always go above and beyond when hosting events.

This was the Smoketember Fest. The food included pulled pork, baked beans, homemade pumpkin salsa, homemade chips, macaroni salad and a plethora of desserts. It was quite the spread and was very tasty.

My uncle, brother, and cousin are talented musicians and play in The Blue Ribbon Bluegrass Band. The band performed on this stage in the back yard. Despite the rain, the show went on. An awesome concert pianist, Tat, was their opening act. Despite having cold hands, he was great! This is my brother’s girlfriend and my sister. It’s a great picture of both of them.

Sally loved hearing the music. Nick and she danced and jumped around lots. When Sally wasn’t dancing, she enjoyed Aunt Carol time.

There were 3 fire rings going in the yard. Many people came equipped with chairs and rain gear.

Here’s a photo of me with my Aunt Melissa with my new ready for Hawaii haircut!

We left around 9PM to head home with the kids. I’m sure the party went on for a few more hours. We had a great time and it was nice to leave before we had any meltdowns.

U-Pick Tour–Patterson Fruit Farm, Chesterland Ohio–Apples

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Sep 102011

Today, I had a date with my good friend Theresa to go apple picking. We made a last minute date yesterday when she heard me say “Honey Crisp”. We headed out to Patterson Fruit Farm. Despite the rainy day, we were greeted by two friendly people manning the tent. There were U-Pick Crest Haven peaches today as well, but we were there for apples.

The apples here are priced on a scale based on how many you pick. This sign aside, Honey Crisp were advertised at $1.50 a pound. For reference, honey crisp are the most expensive apple. They were $2.29 at Giant Eagle today (and they weren’t just picked off a local tree.)

The Honey Crisp apples were just a short walk from our car. When we saw the water, we were extra glad to have our garden shoes and boots on. It really wasn’t too bad. It was just sprinkling when we actually picked and we had about 30 pounds of Honey Crisp apples from just a few trees.

After we Honey Crisp, we headed over to the Gala apples. This was actually the Buckeye Gala apple. We quickly picked about 40 pounds and then headed back to the tent to settle up. Because we had 70 pounds total and a mix of the apples, they were priced at 95 cents a pound. It worked out great. If you go with a group of people to pick, you should pay together since that way you get the best overall price. Patterson’s provides bags for picking and they hold quite a few pounds of apples.

The darker smaller red apples are the Gala and the other larger apple is the Honey Crisp.

After picking, we drove up to the market on Caves Road. We purchased apple fritters and donuts for the family and headed home. It was fun, short outing. Apple picking will last about 5 weeks depending on the farm, weather, crowds, varieties, etc. We plan to pick a few more times before the season ends.

Workout Update

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Sep 092011

It’s been a while since I posted about workouts. It’s odd since we’ve been to the J often lately. I’ve been busy writing about CSAs and picking, but I’ve managed to get some solid workouts in also.

I’ve opted to stop working out with a trainer for the time being. I love working out with Chelsea and I have 2 sessions left, but our schedules weren’t meshing. Also, my outside of the gym schedule is out of control.

So, I contacted my friend Shayna and asked her if she wanted to work out together. She’s a member of the J also and has been MIA lately between having 3 kids home for the summer and a broken foot. The kids are in school and her foot is better (not 100%). She was excited for the extra motivation of meeting someone for working out. I was also excited to have a workout partner. I am pretty good at working out on my own, but I feel like I get a much better, longer, stronger workout when I have a trainer or a partner.

For September, we are just getting into the groove. She’s still recuperating and getting in the habit of working out again and I’m going to be out of town for almost 2 weeks during the month.

We plan to be well organized and in the groove at the beginning of October. We’ll be making up our own routines based in knowledge we’ve learned from trainers, books and the internet. I know it will be GREAT!

Fresh Fork CSA–week 15

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Sep 082011

Today, we picked up week 15 of our Fresh Fork CSA.

Here’s what we were expecting to receive this week:

Small CSA:

1 lb. pumpkin sage linguini
2 lb. log of butter made from grass-grazed, organic milk
2 ct. eggplant
2 red peppers
2 ct. winter squash (varieties include butternut, acorn, spaghetti, honey bear, heart of gold, and a few more)
Approx. 1.5 lbs. heirloom tomatoes
1 lb. yellow wax beans
Quarter peck Gala apples
1 head leaf lettuce

We received notice via our weekly newsletter that the heirloom tomatoes were not in and we could expect slicing tomatoes as a substitute.

Here’s a group shot:

The lettuce will be easily eaten in salads. We got two heads on Tuesday too. I’ll miss lettuce season when it ends. I’m not a big fan of yellow wax beans. I think they might go in our vegetable soup. I used to make vegetable soup often during the summer, but now that I know what items are and how to cook them, I hardly ever make it. Since I’m going on vacation soon, I thought a batch of veggie soup would be good to leave in the freezer for my husband and father in law.

I’m super excited that it’s winter squash season. These acorn squash are beautiful! I never got sick of winter squash. I haven’t decided for sure about the eggplant. I’m either going to make eggplant pizzas (sliced eggplant baked and then topped with spice, tomato sauce and cheese and baked until the eggplant is cooked and the cheese is melted) or another veggie lasagna. The lasagna might be nice to have in the freezer for Stephen’s lunches while I’m away.

We ate the pasta for dinner. I made a basic white sauce (butter, whole wheat flour, pepper, milk, cheese), country sausage crumbles and red peppers to go with it. It was delicious. We’ve had this butter before. It’s good and will last us awhile.

I was glad to see apples. We got cabbage from our other CSA and I like a coleslaw recipe that uses apples. I already had the dressing ingredients, raisins and almonds that I needed for the recipe. The rest of the apples will be eaten as snacks or my oatmeal. The red peppers were used in tonight’s pasta dish.

The tomatoes look terrible. Two of them are moldy and I’ll ask for replacements next week. I’m not sure if these are heirloom, slicing or what. Either way, two of them are bad tomatoes.

The object of the game this week is to stay ahead. I’m leaving for vacation on the 19th and need to focus more on packing and prepping the household and less on veggies and the CSAs. But, I still want to do my best not to waste anything.

Cooking with Kids–tomato juice

Adventures with Nick and Sally No Responses »

Sep 072011

Nick and Sally love to help in the kitchen. Sometimes, I have a really hard time figuring out things that they can do. It’s especially hard to find things that are a real help instead of busy work.

In yesterday’s CSA, we received a couple of packs of slicing tomatoes. Although they weren’t paste tomatoes, I still wanted to make sauce. Actually, I want to make ketchup, we it all starts with juice.

I decided to set up the food mill and see what happened.

I sliced the tomatoes, Sally filled the tray and Nick pushed them through. It worked like a charm.

The kids had a great time and I was glad that this practice session worked. It’s almost applesauce time and I am hoping that they’ll be able to help.

Geauga Family Farms–week 13

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Sep 062011

Today, we picked up our Geauga Family Farms CSA. I was glad that we remembered it was Tuesday. It feels like a Monday since yesterday was the Labor Day Holiday. It’s week 13 already. I think we have 20 weeks total.

Here’s what we received:

Let’s take a closer look.

Cabbage, sweet corn

Potatoes, yummy SWEET oranges peppers

Swiss chard, watermelon!

2 varieties of leaf lettuce

Tomatoes, yellow squash

Carrots, green peppers

This week looks superb! Everything was vibrant, fresh, and we had a rainbow of colors in our box.

I’m hoping that we get apples from our other CSA this week and I can make my coleslaw recipe with the cabbage. I have all of the other ingredients on hand. I’ll be cooking the sweet corn tomorrow or Thursday.

After juicing 100 pounds of Roma tomatoes for sauce over the weekend, this amount of tomatoes doesn’t seem like very many to me. I’ll probably just use a couple in salad and juice the rest for some ketchup or BBQ sauce.

I don’t really have specific plans for the other items, but we’ll be eating well this week!

PS – Yes, we got another watermelon. Yes, I am HAPPY about it!

A Wedding in Africa

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Sep 052011

Three years ago today, I had the honor of attending the wedding of Jeanne and Aaron. The wedding was held in Dakar, Senegal in Africa. Aaron and I have been friends since seventh or eighth grade, and I was happy to act as an official witness for this very special occasion. I met Jeanne for the first time just 2 days before the wedding. She is amazing, and I knew right away that she was the one for Aaron.

Happy Anniversary Aaron and Jeanne!

The civil service:

The church service:

Wedding portrait:

The happy couple with the witnesses:

Family photo:

Aaron and Jeanne with the United States visitors:

Aaron, Jeanne and myself at the reception:

A photo of us in our African outfits in Jeanne’s home town for a celebration:

The United States visitors with Aaron and Jeanne in Thies:

I had many great experiences during my trip to Senegal. It was certainly a once in a lifetime opportunity. It’s not very often that one of your best friends gets married on another continent.

Congratulations on 3 great years!

Nick’s First Slumber Party

Adventures with Nick and Sally No Responses »

Sep 042011

Yesterday, we went to a friend’s birthday party. The birthday girl was turning 4. The party was outdoor picnic style with fun and games for the kids. Food included hot dogs, brats, veggies and fruit. The kids enjoyed a bounce house, sand box, parachute and more.

The little girl definitely loves her princesses. She couldn’t wait to put on this dress.

She helped her mom make this castle cake. It was so cute!

After the party died down. Sally and I headed home and Nick stayed at the party with Stephen to camp out in the back yard with the other kids. By then it was dark, so I don’t have any photos, but there were 4 tents set up. Stephen texted me around 9PM to tell me that they were playing with glow in the dark chalk and having a great time. Soon after, another text told me that Nick had requested to go to sleep.

Unfortunately, the night was cut short when thunderstorms rolled in. Around 2AM, I received another text that they were on their way home. They packed up enough to come home and went back this morning for the tent. Nick had a great time and already asked when the next night in a tent will be. I think his first sleep over was a success, even if it was only a few hours long.

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