Farm Share, Week #3

We're already on the third week of our farm share (aka CSA - Community Supported Agriculture) from Parker Farm. This week brought us carrots, kale, turnips, beets, raab, and strawberries. Note: The cat (look closely at right corner of above photo) did not come with the farm share drop off.

So, the night we picked up the farm share I decided to adapt a recipe on Epicurious to make kale and whole wheat fettuccine with locally-made chicken sausage. On the side, we used lettuce and sugar snap peas left over from last week's farm share drop-off to make a salad.

And, dessert was rhubarb sorbet, made at home earlier in the week using farmer's market rhubarb, topped with strawberries from the farm share.

Progress

The plants have been growing so fast lately that it makes me do double takes. I've set up a Flickr page with more photos of the progress on the balcony.

I must now go to eat some homemade rhubarb sorbet. More updates to come within the next few days.

Just a few tidbits

Tidbit 1: There was a recent article in the Boston Globe about the increase of urban gardening. Yay! I love walking around my neighborhood and seeing tomato plants in people's yards. There are also a couple of community gardens nearby, and I like passing by to see what's growing.

Tidbit 2: I just have a few seedlings inside still, and my plan is to get them all out this weekend. Mr. Foliage's tomatoes still need to go out, and I think he's going to do that this weekend as well. I have a whole tray of extra tomato seedlings, and a friend is picking them up next week to take them home. Soon the indoor seedling shelf will be empty!

Tidbit 3: Our first farm share pick up is on Tuesday. Our farmer sent out an email letting us know what to expect: sugar snap peas, pea tendrils, arugula, a lot of spinach (record setting crop this year), and possibly lettuce and a few other greens. I am very excited! Seeing this list makes me think of a pasta salad with arugula pesto, topped with peas and pea tendrils. Yum.

Tidbit 4: We just got an indoor composter. I was a bit nervous about indoor composting, but a friend has been using this same type of composter for a few months with no problems or smells. So, we're taking the plunge into the exciting world of home composting. We'll be using a microbial inoculant to actually pickle our compost. Wow!

That's it for today's tidbits. I'm now off to face the heat wave that is starting here today. We're expecting highs in the upper 80s and into the 90s for the next few days. Ugh.

Unruly

The seedlings have gone from small and mild-mannered to overgrown and unruly. In fact, the seedling shelf was quite out of hand.

Some tomato plants were so large that it was becoming quite ridiculous to still have them inside. I put off transferring plants outside for a long time, in part due to the up and down weather we've been having. It seems that every recent warm day has also included extreme wind or the chance of thundershowers. These are not such good conditions for throwing seedings out into the world.

But, there are also potential hazards inside. It was only a matter of time before the cats became aware of the delicious, green snacks looming above their heads.

So, on Friday afternoon, I transferred most of the seedlings outdoors. More will make the move outside today.

Future posts coming up (if I write this here, perhaps I'll actually do these): list of perrenials, weekly photo updates, soybean failure.