Hi everyone, due to popular demand from our CSA members, we are replacing this blog with a Facebook page. Please visit us there to share questions, comments, recipes, photos and more!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Foxtail-Community-Farm/322919677731100
It’s sunny and seasonably warm out today, but recent wintry weather (about 11″ of snow here!) expedited the move of our animals into their winter quarters.
While the snow flew, Eric quickly completed the new section of greenhouse, then moved in the entire chicken hoop-coop. During the day, the coop door is opened and the chickens have free roam of the inside of the sunny and airy greenhouse. When the weather permits, we pull back the greenhouse flap and they can head out into the barn yard.
The final addition was moving Katie (our rabbit) into the greenhouse as well. She’s been a bit tentative to hang out with the birds, but seems to enjoy being able to hop around the cozy greenhouse. So far everyone seems pretty happy!
After several postponements due to continued post-storm clean-up across Greene County, school finally started this week. Back to the routine of homework, instrument practice and normal bedtimes. And some exciting changes – Clara boarded the bus for kindergarten, Garrett rules the elementary school as a 5th grader, and Malcolm started his first school sports team with daily after school soccer practice and navigating the “late bus”.
And of course, back to planning lunches every day. Our kids tend toward a mix of buying and bringing. We are fortunate to have a school district food director committed to healthy and interesting menus with items like “chef’s homemade soup”, “roasted vegetable barley pilaf” and “Farm to School vegetable”. When those don’t appeal, we try to squeeze some convenient and portable nutrition into the lunchboxes. Veggies and dip, apple slices with peanut butter, and soup in a thermos are favorites of our family. And I have a goal of my own this fall to start bringing better lunches, since most days I find myself at my desk between meetings stuffing down some crackers. Maybe a Hello Kitty lunchbox would inspire me!
Join Foxtail Farm in the NY Locavore Challenge. Sponsored by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA–NY), this is a month-long campaign aimed at engaging consumers across the state in making healthy and ethical food choices, while supporting local sustainable farms and food businesses. The goal is to involve 5,000 people in this year’s challenge. There is no charge to join, though NOFA welcomes donations. You register on-line and sign up for either a Bite-Sized, Meal-Sized or a Feast-Sized Challenge. Within these challenge scopes, you choose from a variety of different mini-challenges or events in which to participate across three categories: Grow, Cook, Eat; Join the Movement; and Take Action.
You can find much more information and register on-line at:
Today I came home from work tired. Really tired, that wooden- limbs-can’t-quite-form-full-sentences kind of tired. I have no good excuse – I had Monday and Tuesday off this week, and only worked until 3 pm today – but nevertheless, there it was. And it was my dinner night, with a full share box waiting on the counter. The last thing I felt like doing was cooking. I opened the share box, opened the cupboard, opened the fridge. My hand went to a box of Zatarain’s beans and rice.
I imagine most of you are familiar with Zatarain’s from some phase of your life. It’s the staple box mix of the single man’s apartment or camping trip. Eric still buys it once in awhile for those occasional nights when the rest of us aren’t around. But tonight, it would be the basis of a family meal.
While Garrett made corn bread (isn’t 5th grade a wonderful age!), I got the rice and beans mix cooking while I chopped and sauteed a red pepper, a yellow pepper, half an onion, a big handful of carrots, the last Jamaican jerk chicken breast from our Caribbean weekend feast, and a couple of cooked breakfast sausages (hey, it was a box mix of rice and beans, let’s not get snooty here!). In the last five minutes, all of this got stirred together in that
special slightly spicy Zatarain’s sauce. Raw veggies and dip and a sliced cantaloupe were the sides.
Not my proudest dinner, but it worked and the level of effort was about all I could muster. And go figure, this was the best reviewed dinner I’ve made in some time, with all five plates cleaned.
So that’s my story – what’s yours? What quick and easy but healthy-ish meals do you turn to when you have a box of veggies to use but lack the energy for a more glamorous meal? Everyone who shares a comment by Monday September 5th will be entered in a drawing to win a Foxtail T-shirt or tote bag!
Our little (big) boy is 12 today! It is hard to believe – those years went by in a flash.
In our house, the birthday boy or girl gets to choose whatever they want to eat. Breakfast was Belgian waffles with strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream and cantaloupe on the side. Dinner will be bean and cheese burritos (with Eric’s famous hand-made tortillas) and two kinds of salsa. The birthday cake will be carrot cake. Gratifying that all his choices include fresh fruits and veggies grown on our own or neighboring farms!
We are giving him the day off from farm duty : )
Sue Hodum! Malcolm chose this week’s winner at random from those who posted comments on last week’s post.
Congratulations to Sue, who is now the owner of a Foxtail T-shirt or tote bag. And thanks to everyone who joined in this week’s conversation!
Check back for more posts…or better yet, start one of your own. To initiate your own posts, simply create a member profile by clicking on the tab marked “register” to the left, below. (Anyone can make comments on other posts.)
Not a ton of veggies here, but not zero either, and in the spirit that it’s always good if your kids try something new… Elise (almost 5) loves the basil pesto I make. She’ll eat it just as a snack. Evelyn (7) won’t touch it, though there is no clear reason other than I think she’s suspicious of most things I make, favoring Mom’s cooking. I can understand.
Now, here’s to hoping we win that free T-shirt!
R&E: I like your new blog post system. I’ll have to look at it more, as Melinda and I have always enjoyed reading what’s up with you and the farm via Notes From the Pea Patch.
Even with a bounty of fresh produce available, it’s not always easy to make sure we eat enough fruits and vegetables. I’m always looking for ways to incorporate more of them in our meals in ways that my family (especially our three kids, who seem to go through unpredictable phases of pickiness) will enjoy, or at least tolerate. So today I made a veggie-rich breakfast – some obvious, some hidden. Here’s what we had:
- Sunshine muffins (my own recipe – in this week’s newsletter) with zucchini, carrots and peaches
- Scrambled eggs with diced sweet red peppers, red onions, garlic, and cheese
- Peach-Banana-OJ smoothies, to which I surreptitiously added some steamed carrots and a generous handful of red and yellow cherry tomatoes.
It was a modest success. A dozen muffins were gone in under 10 minutes. Two of four family members (including Eric) ate the eggs, and three of four drank their smoothie (Clara said she “wasn’t thirsty”, so who knows what that means).
So my question is – How do all of you get veggies into your family’s diet? Do you have any favorite approaches, techniques, stand-by dishes or tricks to make sure that everyone gets enough? Please share them here. Everyone who posts a comment by 10:00 am next Saturday August 20th will be entered in a drawing to win a Foxtail Farm T-shirt or Tote Bag!!
Julie Sasso!
Congratulations to Julie, whose name was selected at random from amongst all those who posted comments in response to last week’s question. Julie can now show off her love for CSA in style with a Foxtail Farm T-shirt or Tote bag! Check out all the comments posted for some great ideas and recipes from other members for what’s in-season now.
