Our CSA

This year Ricardo and I used some of our tax refund to buy a CSA share (community supported agriculture). If you're not familiar with this, basically you pay an upfront amount to a farm, and then every week during harvest, you get a share of what the farm is able to produce. There's no guarantee that you'll get certain foods, or how much you get, it's up to mother nature. But, for about $26 a week for 28 weeks, I get a box of organic produce -- and that seems like a pretty good deal to me.

I chose this CSA (there are over a hundred local CSAs here in DC), because the pick up day & location: Saturday morning in Silver Spring. The Silver Spring market isn't as huge as the one I'm used to in Dupont Circle, but it's not nearly as crowded, either -- and they have lots of the same vendors.

My farm is Spiral Path, a family farm in Pennsylvania. Here's the truck they drive down to our area once a week.

And here are the stacks of CSA boxes. All I have to do each week is check my name off a list, and grab a box. It's that easy - I paid upfront in February. In the box is also a nice newsletter that lets you know what's going on at the farm and a few recipes for what's in your box.

You never know what you'll get each week, and to me that's part of the fun. Here's what we got one week: 2 kinds of lettuce, green beans, heirloom tomatoes, sunsugar cherry tomatoes (Ricardo's favorite), cucumber, zuchinni, summer squash, and swiss chard.

Of course, while I'm at the farmer's market, I tend to pick up some other stuff. I went a little crazy this week. Ricardo loves the scones and baguettes, and I'm partial to the fresh ricotta and mozzarella.

We really love our CSA -- we'll definitely do it again next year. It keeps us eating healthy!

Bonnie & Clyde get collars

Our porch kitties, Bonnie & Clyde, have been wandering around the neighborhood for a long time with no collars -- and we decided we should put collars and tags on them cause we've grown so attached to them

Here's Clyde, my supermodel cat, posing on the porch railing showing just a hint of his new striped collar.

And here's another angle with a little bit of the silver tag showing -- he's such a tease!

"Yawn! Enough with the camera, Mom!"

We got beans!

This year I planted a whole bunch of beans cause they were so good last year, and it was too cool to eat my own homegrown beans for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.

Here's my wall of pole beans -- there are 3 varieties here. I have two more poles in other parts of my yard, but this is the big sucker that gets full sun.

I planted an early crop of bush beans in containers.

We didn't get a big harvest (maybe because it was cold and rainy for so long?), but what we did get was delish -- and there's a bag in the freezer that will be heaven on a cold winter night.

Tomato update

The tomatoes are growing like crazy -- it won't be long until we're eating the 1st tomato salad of the season -- can't wait!

It looks like I planted them too close together again this year. The new tomato ladders seem to help control them, but they keep trying to escape, and its gettting impossible to tell which branch is from which plant.

Heirloom tomatoes...

supersweet cherry tomatoes...

and roma tomatoes.

Nighttime visitor

Rocky raccoon paid us a visit, and didn't mind being photographed one bit -- he was actually quite a ham!

"Sniff-sniff... what do we have here? Kitty kibble?"

"You don't mind if I help myself, do you?"

"I'm still hungry -- do you got anymore?"

You asked for it

Okay, Okay, I know I haven't posted in a long time, and I have no excuses. Here's a photo that sums up the current state of affairs.

I've been gardening like crazy, Ricardo installed some new AC units, and Johnny has been enjoying the warm weather.

Front yard make-over

Last year we did a ton of work removing bushes and planting grass, but it's been looking a little unkept, and I've been dying to fix it up. I finally had a day off in May with perfect weather, so here we go.


This is what it looked like when Ricardo left for work in the morning -- I just had the brick border layed out. (The border matches the ones we put in last summer in the backyard.)

The last border I put in came out a little crooked, and I was determined not to let that happen again. I got out my trusty twine, and stretched in tight to form a straight guide line.

After I got the border put in, I had to remove all the overgrown grass and weeds -- that was not the fun part of the job.

Then I planted a bunch of bright-colored impatients. I planted begonias in the same spot last year, and wanted a change.

Two bags of mulch later, and I'm finally done! My shoulders were sore for two days, but I smile everytime I come home and admire my hard work.

You gotta make this bread!

I had read about a "no-knead" bread recipe from the New York Times out on on the blogosphere, but I was a non-believer. Then one of my favorite bloggers wrote about it, I just had to try it for myself.

Even since I got my KitchenAid in December, I've been trying to find the perfect bread recipe, and most of the time I was disapointed with my results. Who woulda thunk that a recipe this simple would be so fabulous?

I've seen several variations on the recipe, but I followed this one, where the blogger shows her 4-year-old son making the bread to prove how easy it is:

3 cups bread flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
3/4 tablespoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups warm water

You mix up those ingredients in a big bowl with a wooden spoon. That's it. It's not pretty, it's not supposed to be.

Cover with saran wrap and let it sit overnight on the counter. The recipe says 12-20 hours. I've made it twice, and both times it was more like 20 hours. I mixed the dough before going to bed. Ricardo asked what I was doing, and when I told him I was making bread, he thought I was nuts. I looked at the clock. The whole process took 4 minutes. Even I have the energy for that at 9:30 pm.

The next evening, the bread looks like this.

You take it out of the bowl, fold the ends over, and form a nice ball. Put the dough on a floured (non-terrycloth) towel.

Wrap it up and put it back on the counter for 2 hours.

At the 1.5 hour mark, turn on the oven to 450 and put your covered pot into the oven to heat. My imitation Le Crueset pot works perfect for this. I have to say, I love love love this pot, and one of these days I'll break down and buy the real thing.

When you unwrap the dough you'll notice that it's looking nice and smooth.

Drop the dough into the pot, and give it a shake to even it out. Put the cover back on and set the timer for 30 minutes

When the buzzer goes off, take off the lid and set the timer for 15 more minutes.

When you take the bread out it's beautiful and starts to crackle. Now comes the hardest part: waiting for it to cool!

Spring bulbs

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. This year there's been so many beautiful spring blooms -- it's hard to keep up.

My baby boy, Clyde, enjoying the shade of the daffodils.

One of the first tulips of the season,

White crocus.

Some kinda lilly-looking thing -- I don't know it's name but it's gorgeous.

Little purple flowers.

Several different blooms.

It's hard to tell in the photo, but this is a mini daffodil.

Purple crocus.

A white and yellow daffodil.

Another lily-like flower -- this one in coral.

A big 'ol yellow daffodil.

Pink hyacinths.

Lastly, a white and coral daffodil.

Cat found in Brightwood

1333 Tuckerman St NW

Saturday April 11, 2009
young, very friendly, thin, female
gray with splotches of beige and white
gray nose, yellow/green eyes

e-mail mlfwbw@earthlink.net

phone 202.723.3134 (home)
703.302.6906 (work)