Making Some Changes

My neighborhood book club is a ton of fun and I love the variety of books we are reading. This month we are reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle. This book has honestly influenced me in a way very few books have. It is probably a combination of this book and the documentary Food inc. Both really discuss and show the way in which food is produced in the U.S. and problems within this system that make it less healthy.

In an effort to create a healthier life for my kids and family I am now making all of our bread at home, as well as making a concerted effort to eat as locally as possible. This is my happy little bread maker that has almost paid for itself now. Am I going to the lengths that Barbara does? No, we like fruit too much to let go of it until Summer. We are however making the most of our backyard garden and CSA from Great Country Farms. I have made a couple different tomato sauces to freeze, frozen some raw tomatoes and frozen some blanched corn from the farm. I even made peach freezer preserves.

CSA

This year we decided to become members of a local CSA. After researching many I decided to go with Great Country Farms because the membership also provided us with membership to the farm and bonus u-pick items each week. I thought it'd be a great activity for the kids through out the summer, and it really has been. We've been out to pick strawberries, tart cherries, black raspberries and soon we're off to pick peaches. The fruit that we've received in our boxes have seriously been the best fruit of my life. The strawberries were amazing, I'm not exaggerating, they were AMAZING. The peaches have been heavenly! But the best thing about the box is probably what Oscar worried about most. That we would get vegetables that we never eat. It's true we have gotten things that I have never made before. But it's been great, we've branched out! We've made ethopian kale called "Hamli", it was amazing. We made a "version" of my friend Monsio's grandmother's Liberian Collard greens, it was amazing. I made cabbage with beans and shrimp. I mean we are really enjoying the CSA. And much to Oscar's surprise and joy we have not wasted one single leaf of the share!

Fall Festival ~ Great Country Farms

A couple weekends ago we went out to Great Country Farms to attend their Fall Festivities and enjoy their cider tasting. The farm is huge and has a lot for the kids to do. The girls had a blast, enjoying everything from playgrounds, a big corn box (like a sandbox only kernels of corn), huge barrel slides, animals, and cider. I really liked Great Country Farms, but I was a little disappointed in their attempts to squeeze money from you at every turn. You have to pay $8 for entrance (per person) and this doesn't include everything inside the farm. I understand charging for food so I won't complain about that (though the prices were crazy) but they charge for "mining equipment" to sift for gems in the trough, they charge to ride the cow train $2 a person!, and on it went. I just felt that these little things should have been included in the entrance fee. Regardless, the girls had a great time. They loved the play houses, I took some pics so my father can see what I have in mind for him to make :) and they had these really cool horse swings made from one tire. My favorite, and Luli's were the barrel slides growing in length and height as we progressed through the farm. Luli tried each, and definitely we all enjoyed the last and largest the most. We took lots of pictures so I'll put them in a separate album and post in the left column, check back for that. I also learned more about CSA (community supported agriculture) I found a really great farm that does a year round program and I'm recruiting neighbors to join it so we can get a drop in our neighborhood! So hopefully we'll be doing that soon!