Jul 102011
Breakfast
oats with peaches, milk, peanut butter, cinnamonLyn
One Saturday a month during the growing season, several of the CSA farmers open up their farms for an open house. We can go out and see the produce being grown, meat being raised and meet the farmers. Today, we had an opportunity to see 3 farms. We also stopped at Geauga Farms Country Meats.
We met Lester Miller first. They have a “hobby farm” and are raising 4 cattle.
Sally and Nick really liked the chicken coop.
The farm was so picturesque today. The weather was perfect for a visit. The porch swing in the shade was welcome after our time in the sun.
Next we headed to the farm of Tom Byler. One advantage of having my husband along is I end up with photos of me.
We took a look at the fields, saw a few animals, bought a loaf of bread ($3) and a plate of molasses cookies ($3), and enjoyed a cold drink. The bread was still warm when Mrs. Byler brought it out. It doesn’t get much fresher than that!
Next, we were off to see Jonas Byler. I got really lost trying to find this farm last year. I was happy to have better directions and the Welcome CSA member sign at the road was a nice addition for all of the visits this year. Jonas is mostly growing sweet corn and tomatoes. Since there isn’t much to look at with the corn, we enjoyed some time in the tomato house.
The tomato plants are huge. He offered a few for picking. Nick jumped at the opportunity. When we get cherry tomatoes in our pick up, they don’t even last a day at home.
Although it was a bit of a drive from the farms, we ended our day at Geauga Farms Country Meats. We purchased a $70 frozen box of meat. We have a roast, 2 rib eye steaks, 2 sirloin steaks and 11 pounds of ground beef. We had brought a cooler with ice packs to help keep it frozen on the drive home. We’re looking forward to trying it.
We saw a few others out at the farms, but none of them were busy while we were there. I hope others got to take advantage of the beautiful day and enjoy the scenery.
Today, we continued our U-Pick adventures at Voytko Farms. It took us about 40 minutes to get there from Mayfield Heights. This time of year, it’s all about blueberries. This farm also has currants and raspberries, but we didn’t even check out their current ripening status.
There is a huge sign as you approach the farm. It would be hard to pass them up! There’s a barn to check in and get information on picking and a board with prices and locations. Out back, there’s a bucket washing station and a port-a-jon.
It’s just a short walk to the blueberry bushes. Some of them are quite large.
Sally was fascinated with the buckets. It doesn’t take much to entertain her. Nick was enjoying a snack. I asked him if there were any in his bucket. He replied, “I’m eating them so my tummy can carry them.” It just doesn’t get better than the rationale of a 3 year old.
Even though Sally has been walking more, I still like to have the stroller in case she gets tired. Today, it was useful for carrying our berries, water and supplies. I use a bungee cord to attach the bucket to the stroller handle. It makes for great hands free picking. Luckily, the kids didn’t tip the stroller. We had a close call.
Our friends from the J joined us again today. We picked for a little over an hour The kids weren’t as into it today as some, but we still left with some berries. We made it home just in time to see the last shuttle take off. The radio was counting down from 2 minutes when we were a block away from home. Our timing was great!
We ended up with 3.25 pounds of blueberries for $4.88. They were $1.50 a pound. I also picked up another quart of maple syrup. It was $17.00. I’ve seen it in the $15-$18 range and I like the support the local farms that have U-Pick whenever I can.
The blueberries went straight into the freezer. Hopefully, we’ll be able to pick quite a few more before this season ends. I’d love to have 3 gallons frozen before we move to the next crop.
Voytko Farms is located at 11391 Franks Road, Auburn Township, OH 44023.
Today was the 6th pick up for the Fresh Fork CSA. We were expecting the following items. Trevor is good at sending us a detailed list. We usually get it on Tuesday for our Thursday pick up. It works out well because Tuesday is when I pick up my Geauga Family Farms CSA and then I can plan dishes and meals for the next few days. This week, I was particularly glad to see the pasta on the list, since it makes a tasty quick dinner on days when we are running late.
Small CSA:
Here is what we received:
We were able to request beans instead of peas. That worked out well for us since we got peas on Tueday. We didn’t receive cilantro or zucchini, but we have an extra cucumber. I don’t usually know if these are packing errors or if the order was shorted. So, I’ll email to ask about it. I am surprised that we didn’t get lettuce this week, but it’s also starting to get hot, so we can expect a few weeks without it at some point until the weather cools off again. We’ll see what next week brings. We still have lettuce from our other CSA this week and plenty of other veggies to eat.
In addition to the above, we bought another bag of corn chips ($3) to have with our taco dinner this weekend.
Menu Planning for upcoming meals:
Except for milk and bananas, we haven’t needed anything at the grocery store lately. We love our fresh produce.
Today was fun! We had friends in town from Minnesota and we met up with them at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. It was the first time that Ging met my daughter and I hadn’t seen her or her kids in a couple of years. She’s one of my 3 decade friends. I’ve been blessed by having great long time friends in my life. We can just pick up where we left off and always have a great time. We enjoyed the museum and then had a picnic near the dinosaur. The weather was great and so was the company.
Chelsea is on a “new exercise” kick with me. We have been doing lots of ab and core exercises for the past couple of weeks. Today was no exception. I warmed up on the ESpinner for 37 minutes before my training session.
The session included:
My abs are already sore and it was a GREAT workout!
Next up: playing a cardio workout after naps tomorrow.