CSA Swag!

Another Wednesday, another fabulous bag of goodies from Fifth Crow Farm. When I open the big box, nigh-overflowing with farm-fresh goodness, I sometimes think to myself, "All this for only $25 a week?" Yesterday evening I picked up:

3 heads baby lettuce

1 giant bunch of lacinato (dinosaur!) kale

a bunch of little red radishes

3 yellow onions

2 baskets of strawberries

a bag (maybe a pound?) of wheatberries

4 baby zucchini

a basil plant

The basil came roots and all, which I've set in a jar of water so that it will stay alive for the next week or so and I can have fresh basil every day. Or, since I also get a 1/2 dozen eggs, I'm thinking of an omelette with sun-dried tomatoes, zucchini, and lots of fresh basil. If you've never had eggs from pastured chickens before, seriously--they're amazing. Factory-farmed eggs pale in comparison, literally. I should do some side-by-side photographs to show the difference between a bright yellow pastured egg, bursting with sunny goodness, and a plain factory egg, where the chickens are supplemented with beta carotene to get an artificial yellow color and it's still not enough.

Given that I have dino kale and cattle beans (from last week's CSA box), plus some fabulous goat cheese from Achadinha, it's time to make my favorite recipe for beans and greens. I have so many onions right now that it is a good thing most of my recipes for ordinary home cooking begin with "saute an onion". In order to get the most nutrition out of the wheatberries, I'm planning to sprout them. I've never sprouted a grain before, so it will be an experiment. Yay, experiment!

Jumped right out of bed when the alarm went off (didn't even hit snooze), put on some walking clothes, and headed out on my usual 2-mile route. Everything was lovely this morning--I think the neighborhood dog-walkers are more pleasant in the morning than the evening, at least most of them. Plus, I saw two young deer. They were obviously rather accustomed to humans, because they simply froze and watched me walk by, rather than bounding away at first glance. It's so amazing, being able to walk outside in my neighborhood and see deer. I can't get enough of it.

Delicious breakfast!

This morning I created (and devoured!) what turned out to be a fantastic oatmeal parfait. The following ingredients were layered in a coconut oil jar:

1 diced aprium

1/2 serving of cooked oatmeal

spoonful of homemade almond butter

spoonful of chia seeds

the other 1/2 serving of cooked oatmeal

1 diced apricot

about 1/4 to 1/3 C homemade yogurt

The aprium (an apricot-plum cross, like a pluot, but more apricot than plum) and apricot were purchased yesterday after work at the Tuesday afternoon farmers' market. So fresh and sweet and delicious!

Eating across the layers was definitely fun. Like digging for pirate treasure!

Here's hoping that today is the tail end of the heat wave. My little house has no a/c and no air circulating system, so the heat just stays contained. Last night I had to open all the windows I could in order for it to be cool enough to sleep. The sudden and excessive afternoon heat has also limited my ability to go for long, vigorous hikes, though another contributor has been my need to run lots of errands right after work, like a busy little bee.

Fortunately, I was able to enjoy a nice walk yesterday evening with my boyfriend. We were out a little later than I'd intended, and did most of the 2nd mile in the dark. During the 1st mile, coming around a curve, I saw ahead of me a deer on the road. Not only a deer--a 3-point buck with a fantastic set of antlers. This was the first time I'd seen a mature buck in the area, and I thought it was particularly fitting to have seen it on the evening of the summer solstice.

CSA Haul

Here's what was waiting for me in my CSA box yesterday:

2 baskets strawberries

3 heads baby lettuce

1 bunch radishes (red, long and skinny)

1 bag spinach

1 bunch of giant collard greens

1 bunch of green garlic

a small bag of dried beans (I don't remember the type)

One head of lettuce and a couple of radishes ended up in my lunch box today. Most, if not all, of the spinach is going to be sauteed with garlic tonight, since my boyfriend will be over and that is one of his favorite dishes in all the world, second only perhaps to pumpkin pie. A few of the strawberries will get eaten tonight for dessert.

I think I'm going to cook the collard greens simply: sauteed and steamed in my cast iron pan with some garlic and onion plus crushed red pepper. Maybe with a bit of cardamom and ginger, too, to make them more like Ethiopian Ye'abesha Gomen.

Need to see what should be done with green garlic. I still have lots of kale and leeks left over from last week's CSA box, so all these green things must get eaten!

Did not sleep well last night. I kept dreaming that the auditions were happening for Dickens Christmas Fair and I was totally unprepared. Eventually, when the alarm went off at 6:15, instead of snoozing for an extra 20 minutes, I actually got out of bed, put some clothes on, and went for a dawn walk. It was lovely--the air so fresh, the birds all singing, the cocks crowing. (There is, in fact, one house nearby that keeps chickens, and that cock was really going at it.) I'm hoping to make this a regular occurrence throughout the warm days of summer.

Functional Exercise

So you've got to go grocery shopping. However, you also need to go exercise. Both take time--and you only have so much of that. What to do?

Combine the two!

Yesterday, after work, I hitched my backpack onto my shoulders and headed down the hill to my local grocery store. I only bought a few things--rye flour, pistachios, swiss cheese--so the load was not too heavy on the way back. The walk was over 4 3/4 miles of variable terrain, so my legs got to experience hills, stepping up and down curbs, stopping and starting at traffic corners. In addition, my brain got to experience some new scenery, and trying to remember the residential street map so I could avoid the high-traffic streets. As an interesting bonus to this all, I got to enjoy a little music to see me on the way home: the area high school marching band was giving a little concert outside the grocery store.

The only disadvantage was walking on pavement. I would step off onto dirt whenever I could. My feet are so much more energized walking on actual earth.

Since I didn't own a car until I was in graduate school, for all of college I walked around to whatever shops I needed to visit. Sometimes the load in my backpack was excessive--especially since it was filled with more canned goods than fresh foods. However, even now that I can transport myself quickly and easily in my car, it makes sense sometimes to just walk, or ride my bike. After all, I like to exercise, and I like to be efficient.

Once home, I cooked up and enjoyed a fabulous dinner: pesto mashed potatoes, leeks, peas, asparagus, salmon and a little pinot grigio. Plus a few crispy almonds for dessert.

Farmers' Market Haul

Saturday morning was yet another good day for shopping. I started as usual with Fifth Crow Farm, for pastured eggs and baby lettuces. Then it was down to the citrus pusher (long story) where I picked up navel oranges and a couple of avocados. In the next aisle I bought sauerkraut, a 4-lb bag of raw almonds (for making almond butter! and because it is more economical to buy them in bulk and just store in the freezer), and grass-fed cow and lamb parts. Eventually I finished filling up my bag with potatoes, onions, cilantro, asparagus, cucumbers, dill, cherries, and salmon. A very diverse collection, which required two trips around the entire market to find everything and compare prices.

I was actually very proud of my boyfriend. On his earliest visits to the market he would come home with salsa, pumpkin bread, ravioli, etc. That is, all prepared foods, and basically no vegetables. This time he bought for himself some strawberries, bell pepper, onions, potatoes, and asparagus. To be healthier, he's cooking for himself. Apparently there were a few glitches in the actual cooking plan last night, but yay for him for eating his own, fresh food instead of ordering pizza.

We watched the Emma Thompson/Kate Winslet "Sense and Sensibility" on Saturday night, and now my brain is filled with simple empire-waisted dresses. It's already thinking about which fabrics in my stash would be suitable. Of course, I've got a lot of sewing already on my list before I can branch off into the Regency styles, but I expect they will begin to get worked on later on this summer.

Yesterday was the "Bay to Breakers" race in San Francisco. Normally it registers in my boyfriend's brain as "can't drive north today", but since he has a newcomer, me, to show everything off to, we ended up heading down to the park to witness the race aftermath. Tons of people, in very silly costumes, and sometimes no clothes at all, turn out to see and be seen. Fortunately it was a very pleasant, sunny day, and I can think of no better way to spend a Sunday than strolling through a park. We even saw five bison down in their paddock. All told, it was 2 3/4 hours of strolling, covering 6.7 miles.