black beans and rice.

I had a few ingredients for nachos on hand tonight as that was a meal Mark and I wanted to eat a few weeks ago but, sadly, no onions or garlic. Making something that has good flavor without these two ingredients was pretty challenging so I was surprised how much I loved what I came up with. Sadly, Mark was at a friend's house so I didn't have anyone else to enjoy it with but I also didn't have to share so I had seconds. :)

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1 cup rice
1 can black beans, drained
1 chopped red pepper
1 chopped tomato
1 chopped jalepeno pepper
2 chopped green onions
1 cup chopped cabbage
1/4 cup goat cheese crumbles
1 teaspoon cumin
salt to taste
3 cloves garlic* (*I didn't have any so I used garlic powder to taste)

Prepare rice per directions. Saute garlic and peppers a few minutes and add tomato, black beans, salt and cumin for a few minutes until warm. Puree until blended but still a little chunky. Pour over rice. Spread diced cabbage, green onion and goat cheese crumbles over the top. Enjoy!

best.pizza.ever?

I really think that EVERY time I make a pizza. The recipe for crust I have is SO easy, doesn't require yeast and makes two portions so I can't help but make it once a week. It's a great way to throw on random ingredients.

We're getting onions and garlic at the farmer's market now, which I'm loving. In our CSA basket this week we got sunflowers (which are on the dining room table and are SO pretty - wish the ones I planted would have worked out!), patty pan squash, purple bunch onions, sungold cherry tomatoes, green and red summer crisp lettuce and zucchini.

Mark's out of town so I'm motivated to eat in as much as possible. Last week half of my lettuce went bad and I am always disappointed to see something go into the compost pile when it could have been food. Hopefully, that won't happen this week!!

Tonight I roasted beets, zucchini and carrots on the grill for 30 minutes, wrapped in foil, tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, sage and thyme. I had that along with the best pizza ever (this week): italian, goat, parmesan cheeses, yellow onion, purple bunch onions, garlic and sungold cherry tomatoes.

NO YEAST PIZZA DOUGH (from the cookbook "Vegetarian Times"):
2-1/2 cups of flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoons salt

Mix together in a bowl.

4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces

Mix the butter in (with the fingers is best) and press into the dry ingredients until it crumbles.

1 cup milk

Mix the milk slowly into the other ingredients. Sprinkle corn meal (I find this works best) or flour onto a flat surface and divide the dough into two sections. Roll the dough pretty thin and top with desired ingredients.

On the grill, cook over medium-high heat for 5-8 minutes until the bottom is browned.

fresh food. frozen food.

A few months ago, "Eating Well" magazine (one of my favorite reads, along with "Vegetarian Times" - an amazing gift from my sister), featured how to freeze a lot of fresh produce to be used in the winter. The chart features about 10-15 foods and has the recommended blanching time before freezing, along with the dethawing time when you are ready to eat them. I cut it out and put it on the fridge in anticipation of the (hopeful) overflow from our garden and CSA produce.

I'm trying to get started now with freezing a bit at a time so in the winter, if I want to grill some asparagus, I'll have some handy in the freezer. I'm taking small portions of what I have now and saving it for later.

This morning I made an asparagus and wild rice frittata, sort of a hodge podge of a few recipes I had. I took the rest of the asparagus and with my new $3.99 Ziploc vacuum freezing pump (that I was way too giddy about for some reason and couldn't stop vacuum suctioning air out of an empty bag for last night) and froze the rest. When I took the trash out this morning, I noticed that I now had 7 more red tomatoes...on just four of the five plants. I forgot to check the other one. I gave two away to my neighbor, kept two for a pasta sauce I want to make this week and froze the remaining three.

I know it's just two small bags of food but envisioning the freezer drawers slowly filling with fresh food is making me happy. I'm also going to make a turnip/carrot soup and vegan vegetable soup this week and freeze them as well. Here's to a happy, frozen food winter...

csa basket - week 6.

I can't believe this is our 6th week of receiving fresh food from Beaverdam Creek Farms. Truly amazing...even more so considering it's not even technically summer yet, although the heat makes it feel like August.

I just realized that we paid $450 to receive a basket of fresh produce for 20 weeks. It's crazy to think that anyone WOULDN'T do this! Our family is great and we are so happy with the food we are getting. They are still selling prorated shares so it's not too late to get in on some fresh food for 3-1/2 months as a pro-rated rate. And if you can't make it to Franklin every week, WE can and you can pick it up at our house. Please, please, please think about it. Even if you have a garden yourself, I personally find it to be an awesome way to support local farms and keep them in business (although, it boggles my mind on how you make money selling a 1/2 share for $450 for 20 weeks of food!! CRAZY). Anyway, I'm stepping off my soapbox but we NEED to keep local farmers in business and CSAs are a great - and tasty - way to do it. (Plus, most produce can be frozen and/or canned and you can eat the food later this winter when everything is gray and sad...okay, I'm really stepping down now)

I want to remember what I'm getting every week in my basket so I can plan even better next year and will start posting pictures of the basket before it gets unloaded into the fridge.

Today we received...
- turnips
- cilantro
- galisse lettuce
- cabbage
- broccoli
- zucchini
- rainbow swiss chard
...enough to fill our bottom crisper drawer every week

We also managed to snap some yukon gold and truffle ravioli, angel hair pasta, blackberries, red potatoes and shallots at the farmer's market. I'm going to work on the aformentioned asparagus/wild rice quiche today along with freezing some produce. I'm also thinking about making a blackberry/cherry cobbler this weekend but that will probably come later as I want to purchase a cherry pitter first.

Along with mowing the lawn, cleaning the house, gardening and some work to do with my main job, this weekend seems almost over already!

asparagus bread pudding.

Our friend's gave us some GORGEOUS asparagus from their garden - huge stalks, some red, some green. I want to start on my asparagus plant next year and even then I know I won't get good produce like that for at least three years. It was nice to have someone supplement in the meantime. Plus, the asparagus season is so short, it was nice to get some while we can. They gave me another bag and I plan on using half and freezing half. Hopefully I'll have a freezer full of summer treats when it's cold and dreary outside. I'll post later how my first freezing (sans the pesto earlier in the month) goes.

I got the bread pudding idea from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (I know, shock...probably the biggest shock of all is that I'm still not done with the - especially for those who know that I read (probably too) fast. I hope to finish today but I've been taking my time and trying to soak it all in, although it will probably join my shelves as a yearly read. It's also making me want to read The Poisonwood Bible again...but I digress)

It was AWESOME! In her book, she puts morels in it but as I'm trying to get 90% of my produce at the farmer's market, mushrooms were not a delicacy I had at hand. I left them out and it was still delicious. We ate it that night with a fresh salad and the next few mornings as breakfast - so, so good. I'll probably make something simliar with the asparagus I have now...perhaps a wild rice/asparagus quiche. Yum.

Digressing again...here's the recipe:

3 cups milk
1 cup chopped spring onions with green shoots
Add onions to milk in saucepan and bring to a boil; remove from heat and set aside to steep.

1 loaf stale or toasted multigrain bread (I used an oatmeal molasses bread we buy from a lady at the farmer's market), broken into crouton-sized pieces
Pour milk over crumbs and allow bread to soak

1 pound asparagus
Chop into 1/2-inch pieces and simmer in boiling water until bright green.

2 tablespoons butter
1 pound morels (or other wild mushrooms)
Salt and pepper to taste
Melt butter in skillet, cook mushrooms until tender, add salt and pepper, and set aside

4 eggs
1/2 cup chopped parsley
3 tablespoons oregano
3 cups grated Swiss cheese
Break eggs and beat until smooth, add herbs and plenty of salt and pepper, add bread crumbs with remaining milk, asparagus, mushrooms with their juices, and 2/3 of the cheese. Mix thoroughly and pour into a greased 8 by 12-inch baking dish; sprinkle remaining cheese on top and bake at 350 for 45 minutes (until puffy and golden)

first tomato! 6-12-10

It was an exciting day at the Bond house last weekend when we found our first red tomato! It actually worked out perfectly as we had a few friends visiting and were in the process of making pizzas to grill out.

(Ignore the peppers in the picture...Mark got so excited and picked them and quickly realized after biting into one, that they were CAYENNE peppers are are supposed to be red before picked...oops)

It was an awesome addition and tasted great. Since then, we've had three more red ones and I made an amazing basil-tomato pasta sauce the other day with them. Can't wait to have a bunch more to can and freeze. With five plants producing really well, hopefully we'll have enough to last us quite awhile into the winter months.

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Here are the pizzas we ended up grilling - they were delicious:

BROCCOLI PESTO-POTATO

Broccoli pesto (blended: broccoli, basil, garlic, hazelnuts, pine nuts, olive oil)
Boiled red potatoes for 10 minutes until tender
Parmesan cheese
Salt
Pepper

WHITE-TOMATO-GREEN ONION

Parmesan cheese
Asiago cheese
Swiss cheese
Green onion
TOMATO!!!
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Oregano

PASTA SAUCE:
2 tomatoes
Garlic
Salt
Pepper
Basil
Blend half and throw in the rest - partly smooth, partly chunky - DELICIOUS!!!

pesto! pesto!

I picked my basil plants tonight - I have 11 so it was time - and pulled together two bowls full. I am going to make some fettucine (from a local homeade pasta maker that we buy at the farmer's market) with pesto and freeze some to use later.

I'm also going to boil some carrots, kohlrabi and turnips - from our CSA - and mash them with a white sauce. I made this (minus the kohlrabi, which I didn't have yet) for Mark's family who was in town a few days ago and it was fantastic. I have to admit, I have never had turnips and I love them. I bet in the winter that a carrot-turnip soup would be unbelievably good. I'm going to look one up when my turnips grow and see if I can freeze it to eat in the winter.

PESTO:
basil, olive oil, pine nuts, walnuts, garlic, garlic scrapes

CREAMED TURNIPS, CARROTS and KOHL RABI:
Boil root vegetables for 15-20 minutes (until tender). Drain and mash with a potato masher. Melt one tblspoon of butter and mix with one tblspoon of flour. Meanwhile, boil one cup of milk with 2 peppercorns, 2 bay leaves and 2 cloves (start at 30 second and work your way up. As soon as it reaches a boil, remove from the microwave). Remove the bay leaves, peppercorns and cloves and mix the milk into the flour/butter. Make sure the heat is at medium and not too hot. Simmer for a few minutes and then mix into the mashed vegetables with some salt and pepper. ENJOY! It's delicious!

master gardener.

Last weekend, we stopped by the Flatrock Arts Festival down the street to visit some of the booths and say hello to Mary, a fantastic neighborhood who has been actively working to get a farmer's market in Woodbine where we live. It is all approved and will be down the street from us...literally within walking distance. We wanted to stop by her booth and buy a tshirt and let her know how much we appreciate what she is doing.

While we were there, a division of the University of Tennessee was there handing out materials about their Master Gardener classes that they offer at the Agricultural Center about 5 minutes from our house. The lady gave me some information and I called the number the first chance I had! They sent me a brochure which I sent in and more information is on the way. It is a class that runs once a week for two hours from February to April and then you have to do 40 hours of community service - helping communities build gardens, etc.

I am SO excited to learn more and would feel so blessed to be able to use my love of plants (and food) as a volunteer opportunity!

seeds are sproutin'.

Last Sunday, Mark and I picked up a "greenhouse" kit to start some seeds. After reading Kingsolver's book (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) I definitely don't want to buy seeds from Home Depot forever, but for this year, they will do the trick while I learn. We picked up carrots, bush beans, pumpkins, gourds, butternut squash, sweet corn and two flower varieties and went straight home to try it out.

We got a Jiffy self watering kit so you just put the pods in and 10 cups of water and wait for them to expand. Once wet, you just put 2-3 seeds in each pod and wait. It's easier done on some seeds (pumpkin) that are large and really, really hard for small seeds like carrots. I couldn't tell if any went in there or if 10 did. I just proceeded anyway and hoped for the best.

I was shocked when by Wednesday, some seeds had already grown so high that they knocked the top off of the bin! I guess it wasn't totally shocking since they were mostly all the beans (which I know grow fast) but three days was impressive. I removed all of the tall ones and put them in a bin in the shade and am still waiting for the others to grow. No activity at this point, which I hope is normal.

I was able to build mounds and put the pumpkin seeds in the ground this weekend. I hope I made them deep enough but if not, I'll learn for next year. I also built mounds for the gourds but when I went to plant them, I couldn't remember which plants they were - ha! Hopefully the others that are still marked will grow so I have a comparison but, if not, I can hopefully find a plant picture on the internet.

Mark has spent all weekend building a raised bed for these seeds. I'll have two next year (with the second one containing a large trellis area for climbing plants) but since most of those are potted this year, he just finished the one. It looks great! It's 3x24 feet and will probably grow 2-3 rows of plants. We're getting the dirt this week and then I have about 6 sweet corn, 10 bean, 3 winter squash and 6 carrots to plant. Hopefully the rest of the seeds will sprout in the next week. I also have some okra that I completed planted wrong. I put them in a container with the tomatoes to replace where the romaine lettuce was earlier in th year. Some friends of ours, Matt and Libby, came over last night and told me that okra will grow to about hip height...definitely too big for a container! I'll try my best to transplant when the garden is complete.

I also started some cauliflower, kohlrabi, swiss chard and more carrots this weekend. Typically these are cool weather plants but from what I've read, you can also plant them in June-July for an early fall crop. I hope to plant a bunch of things for a fall harvest so I can start freezing them to have "fresh" food in the winter. In August, I will plant some turnips, beets and radishes for an even later fall crop.

It feels so good to have a place (other than containers) to put all of it! I'm glad we have our CSA to tie us over until some of our crops bloom. When we eat at home now, it's mostly salads - since that it what is in season - and it's great how much better we both feel about eating fresh. It's just nice to go to your fridge and have an abundance of PRODUCE to eat! Probably next week we'll have tomatoes and yellow squash that's ready for our consumption. It helps that it was warm enough to plant them early.

Yesterday when Mark was working, it got up to 104 degrees! My plants are really thirsty so a rain barrel is next on the priority list, along with a compost bin. Personally, I love the heat because I've always been a summer girl but gardening has made me appreciate what the earth provides every season. I can't believe how much I am LOVING eating in season and how spiritually fulfilling it is for me.

Mark just looked over and said "this bed isn't going anywhere" as he was drilling through all 5 layers of landscaping wood. I hope whomever purchases our house next appreciates a garden!

supper 5/30.

I probably tell everyone I know a million times - and will probably say it on here over and over - but I LOVE my CSA. The family is so kind and very passionate about the food they grow. Every week before we receive our baskets, they send out a newsletter updating everyone on what's new in their baskets and explaining what the vegetable/herb is and how to cook it, along with recipe ideas. It always gives me a good idea of what I need to purchase for the week.

Right now, we are eating the crap out of some lettuce and greens. I remember in "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" Barbara Kingsolver is talking about when her asparagus plants first start producing and everyone is so excited but then it slowly dwindled after two weeks of eating nothing else. I am starting to feel that way about salads. I like a good salad but we have seriously been eating them for almost every meal for the past month and a half, between the romaine I grew and the different varieties we are getting in our CSA baskets. Luckily the accompanying food allows for the salads to get creative. Last night I mixed in some turnips, radishes, carrots (all from the CSA) with some of the romaine (we're still eating it!) and spinach and lettuces from our CSA as well. I made a simple garlicy/balsamic dressing and mixed it all together.

One of the great things about our CSA family is that they grow unique varieties of every day foods. You don't just get "spinach" in your basket but "red cardinal spinach", a variety where the veins are so red, when you cook it, you just want to admire it for a bit before taking a bite. I am learning about vegetables I have never heard of before and am learning to spot and identify them at the farmer's market. I even have to label them from the newsletter as soon as I get the basket home because there is something every week that I have never tried before. This week it was garlic scapes...they are DELICIOUS! And so pretty - just google them and you'll see what I mean. Along with the salad, I pureed a can of white beans in with the garlic scapes and made a creamy dip.

I decided to make a flatbread for the dip and made some pizza dough from my favorite vegetarian cookbook. I was excited because the recipe actually made two flatbreads so I was able to freeze half of the dough for later. Mark was in the studio so I decided to get creative and grill the pizzas - something I have never done before, although I have heard great things so I was eager to try. I'm not the best at the grill but I thought pizza probably has to be pretty hot since the regular oven is normally 450 degrees so I light all five burners and put the bread on. The cookbook said to grill for three minutes on each side but by the time I went out to check, the entire crust was burned to a CRISP. The grill was over 500 degrees!!! I shut off all by two of the burners, got out my "spare" crust and started over with a much cooler grill. I spread olive oil, garlic, oregano and basil from my pots and a little salt and pepper on the crust and only cooked it for about 5 minutes total. It was awesome, except a bit salty. Since there is already salt in the crust, next time I won't put any on top. We dipped that into the garlic scapes/white bean dip and curled up with some Freaks and Geeks...good food and TV makes us happy.

knock outs.

Last year, Mark's family graciously helped us build some flower boxes off our deck. I knew I wanted vegetables and herbs in two of them but wanted something pretty and decorative (and a perennial!!) in the last one. Mark's sister suggested knock-out roses...pretty and easy. I received one for my birthday last year and purchased four more this year - two light pink, two dark pink and one yellow.

They are so pretty! I am excited to see them fill the space.

shady shady plants.

One of my favorite things about my backyard is when you look up, there are so many trees. Personally, trees have always been a significant soul thing and I love that Tennessee has so many. I feel lucky to be surrounded by them even within the heart of the city.

I have two in my backyard. One is huge and is next to and over my deck. I love it but I have to admit the leaves/bods/bird doo doo it brings about is a bit annoying to clean up. The other tree is along the fence and where I decided to make my first landscaping project.

Since it's shaded, the pickings for color are slim. I was disappointed - at first - when I was looking at my options and realized that (obviously) plants under trees aren't super colorful since they don't get much sunlight. I planted hostas, grasses, ferns and some ground cover and am in LOVE with my first landscaping attempt. I actually love looking at all the green colors and am happy with the variety.

The bench I found at a salvage shop nearby and the bird ornaments in September for last year for just a few bucks a piece. The other half I'm leaving for next year to see what inspires me. Right now I'm thinking an arch of sorts with ivy or another viney plant to grow up and add some depth to the landscape.

watermelon mania.

I'm almost positive I did not space these watermelons out far enough but I was limited with my border. I needed to keep the dogs out a bit and make sure Mark didn't weedeat them away. I planted two plants of three different varieties in a mere 4 ft circle but since they are runners, I'm hoping it will be okay. If not, I'm sure at least one will survive and I will enjoy it fully.

(as you can see Oma loves to be in my pictures)

The metal canister contains the wildflowers from Mark's sister's wedding that I also planted yesterday.

updates.

It has been way too long since I have posted anything, which is sad since I was hoping to use this blog as a reference point for the future.


Updates since I'm so far behind:

ROMAINE - amazing. So easy to maintain and produced an awesome amount of food for us. No issues other than a few plants dying (which is understandable since I planted as many as possible and they sort of squished each other out). The ones in the flower boxes were a bit smaller than the containers which makes sense since the boxes are much more narrow and not quite as deep. I went out of town for a few weeks and when I came back my plants had grown straight up!! I have never seen anything like that in my life (another thing I will get better at is taking pictures...) Obviously, it was completely overgrown so I picked the remaining 7ish plants down and got 3 1/2 gallon sized bags of lettuce. I gave a few bags away and am still eating some. It's starting to get pretty soggy but I'm impressed that it kept that long. Romaine will definitely be a staple in this house.

TOMATOES - doing GREAT! I planted five total - four share pots (2 and 2) and the fifth is all by it's lonesome. I'm impressed that the two sets together seem to be producing as much as the one my itself but they are in a bit larger pots. I have around 15 tomatoes...still green but some are the size of my fist. I believe I should be able to start eating them in the next week or so. (side note: I LOVE the smell of tomato plants. Whenever I touch them, I can't stop sniffing my fingers...similar to what I do after chopping garlic. I don't know what it is but I think they smell amazing)

CABBAGE/COLLARD GREENS - :( They did terrible for me! I came out one day and they had a few bug holes in the leaves and the next day they were covered in holes! I ended up just picking them all but yesterday at my neighborhood festival, I passed by the community garden and noticed all of their had holes in the leaves as well. I'm going to research this further and see if that's something that just happens and doesn't affect the plant but I was convinced I had cabbage worms and my crop was gone.

HERBS - doing pretty well. I remember my herbs being super impressive last year but I think that's because I planted them later - right around this time. I think that they are going to look even better when the weather gets a little warmer, although, it has been in the 90's this past week already. Great year for gardening.

SQUASH - beautiful. I think yellow squash leaves are so pretty. I have probably 20ish fruits growing. I think they will be ready to eat in 2-3 weeks and I can't WAIT.

PEPPERS - still growing! My yellow, cayenne, red and green are steadily growing but I don't see any fruits yet. I think I remember last year that my peppers produced after the tomatoes so they are right on schedule.

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I planted a little watermelon patch today that I think is so cute. I purchased 3 different varieties and one is a yellow watermelon that I think will be fun to eat. I also planted some wildflowers in a metal bucket that I got in a packets from Mark's sister's wedding recently. I'm really excited for them to come up because I have no idea what they will look like.

Yesterday, I planted some things where the romaine and cabbage had been picked. I planted some zucchini, tarragon and three basil varieties in the flower boxes and another basil variety, okra, orange, jalepeno and other peppers and mint in containers.

This year, so far, I have planted:
- 2 tomato varieties (no cherry, though! I regret that...next year!)
- okra
- lavender
- rosemary
- 2 thyme varieties
- oregano
- 5 basil varieties (sweet, thai, boxwood, globe, cinnamon)
- dill
- sage
- lemon balm
- mint
- 3 watermelon varieties
- 8 pepper plants (yellow, green, red, orange, jalepeno, cayenne and 3 other varieties I can't remember because I let Mark pick out the plants)
- parsley
- yellow squash
- zucchini squash
- pole beans
- tarragon

I already want to eat them all.

sunny day planting.

I couldn't wait any longer to plant, even though I didn't give myself much time. I feel like I have so many plans for my yard but as long as I get a little further each year, I'm okay with it. I'm also okay with planting things and having them go wrong so I can learn - such as my fiasco last year with tomatoes. The pots were too small, holes weren't drilled for drainage on the bottom, I staked them poorly...BUT I learned. And one plant produced! Not large fruit or many, but darn it - I had some tomatoes!

I purchased extra large pots this year and each one has a huge V-trellis that will support the plants much better. A lady that I made friends with at home depot said she always plants marigolds around the bottom of her tomatoes because she heard it keeps the bugs out. I'm not sure if that's true or not - or if I have a bug problem - but I'm trying it because I haven't planted marigolds from seeds before so I'm willing to try anything. I wasn't sure what I was going to plant in the deck flower boxes that were built by amazing family members last year but since that area gets full sun and my yard doesn't, I didn't want to waste the space on flowers but wanted to plant something I could eat! I bought tons of romaine lettuce and to further prove how little I know about plants, I thought the lettuce was in one huge bunch and was surprised when I went to plant that I had purchased way too many as they were all individual leaves! I had no idea how far apart to plant them or how large they will grow...I just guessed and planted the leaves (I can't get over how SMALL they are - about 4 inches apart. I'll read up tonight and see how off base I was.

It got dark so fast since I didn't make it out until late and I was trying to plant flower seeds among the lettuce (the lady at Home Depot recommended some flowers for me to plant amongst them by seed as well...said it would make them pretty). I hope it's okay to do that but as I said before, it's all a learning period for me.

I also planted some red cabbage and Dutch collard greens in a small flower box on the end. Those aren't veggies I eat much of but will certainly indulge if they grow! Romaine - on the other hand - is a staple item around the Bond house which anyone who has had Mark's Caesar salad will understand. :)

I plan on finding a few seconds of spare time and planting rosemary, basil, thyme (same as last year) tomorrow alongside lavender and sage. The last two are news deck plants for me this year and I couldn't find oregano - apparently Home Depot doesn't have any yet. I was really disappointed that they had no varieties of basil other than sweet but I'm keeping a few containers open in case they get some in a few weeks.

I feel a lot more collected now that I got a few things done. There is still so much to do but I am excited to enjoy it...not feel overwhelmed.

local table.

Just finished reading through the Local Table magazine I picked up at Far East the other night. I wasn't even sure what the magazine was and it's amazing! It features restaurants that serve locally grown food, features farmer's markets and CSAs in the area and is a great tool for someone like me that can use any extra information on how to eat/cook and FIND local produce.

I'm really excited about The Feed Mill, an Amish Country Market I noticed advertised on one of the feature ads. I looked it up online - http://www.nolensvillefeedmill.com/ - and am planning on going in the next few weeks. My grandparents raised Belgium horses for years and sold them mainly to the Amish for field work. We had the opportunity to visit many Amish farms when I was growing up and always took an annual trip to their shops to buy candy, baked goods, cheese, etc. I noticed this market also sells antiques and Amish made furniture, which is another passion I'm getting revved up about. Mark and I really want to have a house full of "pre-loved" furniture that we don't mind getting dinged, bruised, scratched...it all just adds to the story! I've been scoping around at the flea market but it's good to know there's another place to check!

I also love the back page of this magazine. It has a seasonality chart for when produce is it's in prime growing season. Not excited for winter when it looks as if sweet potatoes, mushrooms and greens are about all there all to choose from. I'm going to become an expert at making soups! All the more motivation to get involved with canning as soon as I can! A Kitchenaid mixer and a pressure canner are two items I recently added to my birthday/wish list...along with Rosetta Stone. I want to speak Spanish while I'm making tapas. Ole!

csa.

I signed up for a CSA a few weeks ago and am enjoying reading the newsletters and letting the anticipation build! I am currently getting recipes together, planning new gadgets to purchase down the road and reading all I can about grilling, which is going to be my summer hobby. I have a really nice grill that I purchased two years ago and it has sadly been rarely used. I have officially declared Sunday to be Grill Night at the Bond house and am hoping Mark and I can get pretty good at firing it up.

I'm also plotting my mini-veggie potted garden this year. Still a bit too early to plant but I'm mapping it out. Similar herbs to last year - basil, rosemary, oregano - and I know I'm going to add lavendar to the mix. I am also planning out a tomato trellis again the garage surrounded by peppers and cucumbers. I really wish more of my yard got sun but the trees overhanging really block the light. Against my garage and on the deck are the only spots with full sun all throughout the day. I'm going to plant my herbs in pots on the deck and possibly plant in ground next to the garage...depends also if I can keep the dogs OUT. They leave the pots alone but anything in ground tends to get dug up.

I really still don't know what I'm doing as far as planting goes. Just goes to show that being a farmer's daughter still doesn't mean I know how to grow things. And being a painter's wife doesn't mean my house get fresh paint either.... :)