Lovin' the CSA Life!

Everyone been enjoying the amazingly beautiful Spring weather??? I know it dipped a lil' chilly the past few days, but from what the weather man says we're heading back for more 70 degree days soon. YAY! That means Tyler, the  kids, and I have been busy in the yard getting it ready for lotsa summer fun. Last weekend was spent raking piles & piles of leaves and stacking enough sticks to build the 3 lil' pigs a new abode. Or enough sticks to keep our fire pit nice and stocked for a yummy s'more season. This weekend we get to stake out the garden and remove all the landscaping stones from the front yard flower beds. Sounds like too much fun to contain one's self, doesn't it?!?! {Hubsy is in 7th heaven with all the yard puttering, while I keep trying to think up clever excuses to go into the house.}

My best excuse has been the new addition to our clan: Father Dougal McGuire. He's an 8wk old beagle cockapoo mix. Born 1/30/12, and as of Monday weighing in at 6.4lbs. He is a spoiled pooch who has stolen all our hearts; most especially Tyler's. Hubsy SWORE up and down that no dog would ever be sleeping in our bed. Dogs belong on the floor, he says. They're dogs; not people, he ranted. Yeah, right! Guess where you'll find Dougal every night??? Sleeping between Tyler and I, snuggled up on Ty's arm. I'd post pix, but our lil' darling has yet to hold still long enough to capture a good photo. I'm hoping to get Dougal into my studio this weekend for his first official photo session. Yep- we've become those weirdos about our dog.

What about our CSA, you're wondering? Well, if you missed the Open House at the Monona Terrace, I feel badly for you. It was amazing. The kids had a blast getting faces painted, playing games, and sampling yummy recipes from the CSA cookbook. Tyler and I were overwhelmed by all the fantastic farm choices. There were so many farms we wanted to join, but we could only pick one. We settled on JenEhr Farm out of Sun Prairie, thanks to the help of Sarah. She was fabulous at answering all our questions and even gave us a welcome bag full of tasty goodies from the farm. It had spinach, celeriac, a Black Spanish radish {also known as a winter radish}, and garlic in it. Thanks to the CSA cookbook we purchased that day, we had feasted on the whole bag for dinner that night.

We also visited JenEhr this past Sunday for Spinach Days. Farmer Paul gave us a great tour of the farm and we got to pick up more yummy veggies, as well as some chicken. The kids were thrilled to eat a whole Sunday dinner directly from their farm. And, they ate everything...yep, my picky eaters ate everything...even the stuff they deemed weird. The 3 lil' ones can hardly wait to start getting our weekly boxes. I'm excited that our farm offers strawberries and blueberries, too. It's gonna be a great summer of gourmet eating around here!

Here are a few of our favorite recipes thus far from our CSA adventure:
Mashed Potatoes and Celeriac 
1 good sized celeriac bulb, peeled and cut into chunks
1lb potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/2c heavy cream, buttermilk, or 1/2 & 1/2
4tbsp. butter
salt and pepper to taste
Combine the celeriac and potato chunks into a pot, along with the garlic, and fill it with water until the veggies are just covered. Bring to a boil, until celeriac and potatoes are just tender. Drain, and return veggies to the pot. Add in the cream, butter, salt & pepper, and mash.

Spanish Radish and Carrot Salad
1 good sized Black Spanish radish, peeled
4 whole carrots, peeled
8oz. feta cheese
1/4c olive oil
2-3tbsp. rice vinegar
2tbsp. dill
1tbsp. parsely
salt & pepper to taste
Shred radishes and carrots with a grater {or if you're lucky like me, your Ninja}. Toss with remaining ingredients. Chill.
*My kids ate seconds and thirds of this...which if you know them, is a HUGE shocker!!!*

Carrot Cake
3/4c. white sugar
3/4c. brown sugar
1/2c. canola oil
1/2c. coconut oil
1 snack sized container vanilla yogurt
3 large eggs
2c. all purpose unbleached flour
2tsp. ground cinnamon
1tsp. baking soda
1/2tsp. salt
3c. shredded carrots
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13x9" pan. Beat sugars, oils, and eggs until blended. Add remaining ingredients and beat, except carrots, for 1 minute. Stir in carrots shreds. Pour into pan and bake for 40-45 minutes. Cool about 1 hour and frost. {I use my secret cream cheese frosting recipe, but this cake is so sweet and moist you could even just pour a light glaze on it.}

PS- the deodorant recipe I posted works AMAZING! I will never go back to store bought again. Just as an FYI, melt your coconut oil and pour it into your dry mix slowly.

It's FINALLY Spring-ish!

Well, apparently I really suck at regular posting to the blog. I mean to sit down and write something, but inevitably some kid calls for me or I realize there is a load of laundry I forgot to throw in. Maybe it's time Tyler make good on his plans to write once in a while. :)

As usual, we have been busy with tons of projects. Spring it seems has finally arrived in Wisconsin- my windows are even open today. However, I say that tentatively, knowing a snow storm could hit at any moment. And, can I just say how much I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE daylight savings time?! I really do. It's light out longer; and it means sleeping with windows open, sipping sangria on the porch, and nights of grilling on the patio are soon upon us. YAY!!!

Last weekend Tyler got busy and made our vermicomposter bin. I had meant to take pictures to post as directions for anyone who wants to make one, but he did it while I was busy making vegan cupcakes for our daughter's sleepover. Honestly though, it's soooo simple I bet a monkey could do it. Seriously! First order your red wiggler worms online. Get two of those plastic storage tubs; one needs a tight snapping lid. Drill about 6 small holes into the bottom of the bin with the lid. Line the bottom with cardboard and place it inside the other bin without the lid. Next add a few sheets of shredded/ripped newspaper to the bottom of your bin. Spritz it with a spray bottle so it's nice and damp. Don't soak it! Your wormies will be very unhappy if their environment is too wet or too dry. Add a layer of nice organic top soil (about 4-5c). Last, top it off with whatever rotted veggies forgotten in your fridge crisper, egg shells, coffee grinds and filters, apple cores, etc you have saved up. We added our worms into the bin once everything was in place and gave the whole thing another good spritz of water. Now it's up to the worms to do the rest and make us great compost for our garden. Make sure to check your bin every few days, spritzing with water as needed and adding your household scraps and newspaper shreds. We're keeping our bin out in our 3 Season room until it is warm enough for them to go outside.

{Note: Don't put meat, eggs, dairy or fatty/greasy things into your vermicopmoster. It will make your wormies unhappy and cause a foul stink}

Where did we get out wormies you wonder? Vericompsters require Red Wiggler worms, so you can't  go dig some worms up outta your backyard. I called the UW-Extension of Agriculture to get their advice on where to go. Every company I saw on the internet I could order Red Wigglers was either from Canada or down South. I wanted local, and I really wanted not to have them shipped. The UW-Extension did help us find a worm farm in Wisconsin, but I ended up having to order them. We used Wisconsin Worm Farm (www.wisconsinwormfarm.com). You order your worms by the pound, and there are approx 1,000 per pound. Yep, 1,000. The total price, including shipping, was $31.34. I ordered them Friday afternoon, they shipped Saturday, and by last night our new pets were all happy in their new home. Now the hard part...coming up with 1,000 names and keeping them all straight. ;)

We also got the garden started this weekend in 4 72 ct. seed starter boxes. Our hopes and plan for this garden have grown a lot larger than originally thought. For two people who have never had a successful garden before, we are most likely over doing it. Our veggie garden plans include:

kohlrabi, lemon cucumbers, a carnival sweet pepper mix, heirloom tomatoes, regular cucumbers, zucchini, scallions, garden beans, casper pumpkins, and a hot pepper mix. Our herb garden plans include: lavender, chives, sweet basil, cilantro, thyme, and catnip & cat grass for our lovely kitties. We also seeded some flowers for our front yard and window boxes. Those include: black eyes susans, red hot pokers, ornamental grass, painted daisies, sunflowers, and a wildflower mix. Fingers crossed we are even mildly successful growing any of these this season.

A reminder to all our Madison readers that the CSA Open House is coming up this Sunday at the Monona Terrace from 1-4pm. Join a local farm and get a box of veggies delivered to you each week during the growing season. Several farms have events and picnics for members, and some even let you camp on the farm over night. There are also options to get cheese, eggs, meat, and fruit, or get your veggies delivered every other week. The CSA coalition offers assistance for those who are low income & even take food stamps for payment. You can also agree to work one four hour shift a week at many farms to receive your share free. Several health insurance companies offer their clients rebates for joining {Dean, GHC, Unity, and Physicians Plus}. Check out the CSA website for more info about the farms, pricing, and rebates {www.csacoalition.org}. And good luck choosing a farm, cuz they are all awesome! We've been trying to pick just one for over a week.

Lastly, thinking about putting in a rain barrel like us to water your garden over the summer? May 12th at the Alliant Enegy Center you can go purchase one from the city of Madison. The sale runs from 9am-3pm. The rain barrels are $55, and come with everything you need to attach them to your gutter. They even have a faucet you can attach a garden hose to.