Bok Choy

In this week's veggie box there was a different sort of vegetable. I'd seen it before, but couldn't remember it's name.

So I consulted The Book...

and looked at everything we had in our box...

It wasn't in there.

So I googled it.

Why didn't I do that first?

It was Bok Choy.

The sad news is: most of these veggies weren't consumed. 

A stomach flu went through our whole family,

and by the time our family was ready for real food

the veggies were 

wilting

and 

molding

and

dying.

Womp. Womp.

The not quite as sad news: we composted most of them. 

And that makes it less like wasting.

 ...I guess.

"Give it and feel love."

“Being tender and open is beautiful. As a woman, I feel continually shhh’ed. Too sensitive. Too mushy. Too wishy-washy. Blah blah. Don’t let someone steal your tenderness. Don’t allow the coldness and fear of others to tarnish your perfectly vulnerable beating heart. Nothing is more powerful than allowing yourself to truly be affected by things. Whether it’s a song, a stranger, a mountain, a rain drop, a tea kettle, an article, a sentence, a footstep…feel it all – look around you. All of this is for you. Take it and have gratitude. Give it and feel love.”

(Zooey Deschanel)

A Saturday in May

Everything is growing so fast!

Tomatoes. Herbs. Peaches. Garden. Boys.

J's tomato plant, ready for transplanting.

Hot Box for hardening seedlings. Never fear the cold nights again, just close the lid.

Teeny weeny strawberry plants. I may go buy some mature ones- I want garden strawberries this year!

Sow your carrots atop the soil lined in a row, ordered the directions.
I complied.
Down comes the rain to distribute the carrots everywhere.
Ah. Well.

Salad greens! I'm having success with everything except that kale...

Arugula- sooo good!

Fence in progress. Then probably some gravel down and more stepping stones.

Future melons and pumpkins. Just gotta finish digging it out and add the top soil. I'm waaay behind on it! Eecks!

Fields of clover- best thing about May.

PEACHES!!!

Should be ripe in June!

We have an apple tree now too, but there were no blossoms this year. Maybe next year...

Mommy's helper.

J running.
("RUN! RUN!")

L running.
"RAH! RAH!"

Races.

I weeded this little path way and showed the boys all the worms I found.
The little one (L) said, "Ssssss!" every time.

Somebody's graduated to the top of the tire swing...

Daddy's shoulders.

Since he's now a big boy, he's a bit resistant to going back under the tire swing.....

Gorgeous day in May!

Eating the Rainbow

I recently discovered The Farm Bus. Aside from the food being a superior choice ethically (eating local supports the local economy, gives more money directly to the farmers-not big business, is more or less guaranteed free of GMOs, uses a smidgeon of fuel, travels in terms of minutes rather than days, is sprayed with hardly any pesticides and comes from earth that hasn't been depleted and exploited), the food fresh from the garden is delicious. There's nothing like it. Boom! Bam! Flavor! I haven't had to use hardly any spices, sauces or herbs these past two weeks.

Another plus to eating local (right now we're at the as-local-as-possible level) is that our family is eating a wider variety of foods. You *have* to eat the radishes- they came in your veggie box. They're in season. They're fresh, they're local. They're surprisingly good.  I wouldn't have tried them if I had the world's choices before me in the grocery store. But now, I bought them. So, I go for it- but not before asking for some recipes on my facebook page.

 Eat the rainbow!

Our salad was the "side" to go along with sauteed asparagus and spicy sausage,
all purchased from Farm 2 Family.

Our first veggie box included: Red Leaf Lettuce, leeks, 2 types of mushroom, radishes, strawberries, Golden Delicious apples, Swiss Chard, asparagus. 9 varieties of fresh produce for $30. That works out to $3.33 per food. Marvelous!

We're on day 5 and still have some fresh veggies left over. Anything that goes bad in the process gets composted, but not before the okay-ish bits get cut off and fed to the chickens. Nothing gets wasted- it either becomes fertilizer for the garden to produce more food, or goes into our chickens to become eggs.

Speaking of chickens, the other day our white one, Merryweather, gulped down a snake. She's the same chickie that went after a pit bull. She's no joke.

Anyway, I can't wait to get more veggies!

Give Love

Here we are, at House With the Big Yard listening to this song and loving it excessively. It's such a great message, concise, uplifting, and true. Don't forget to share your love with someone- anyone, today. There's not a person alive who doesn't need it.


"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves isborn of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, forGod is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent Hisonly begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love,not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also."

I John 4:7-21 (NASB)