Yesterday we picked up the first basket of our CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and it works by the community prepaying for the harvest. We invest in the harvest and every week, or every other week depending on your package, you receive a large or small basket of freshly picked produce.
Our large basket pictured above was beautifully displayed and clearly labeled. The basket included: carrots, beets, tomatoes, parsley, kale, green beans, basil, red leaf lettuce, red oak lettuce, romaine lettuce, buttercup squash, valencia oranges, pearlette onions, rainbow chard, peaches, plums, grapefruit, potatoes, garlic, and white beech mushrooms. South Coast Farms even emailed us suggested recipes.
I'm excited about our basket of fruits and vegetables. I was fortunate to grow up with very fresh vegetables. My Dad worked all summer long in the garden. While our family lived in Delaware we rarely had store bought produce as the growing season was so long.
There is nothing quite like a canteloupe that has been allowed to fully ripen on the vine. Fresh produce brings back wonderful memories of time spent canning and freezing vegetables with my Mom. The green bean assembly line: blanch, ice bath, bag, twist tie, box, label with grease pencil then take them to the big freezer in the basement.
Pineapple Sage, Sweet Bay and Winter Savory have entered my culinary arsenal and they are here to stay. What has really changed is I now have these plants growing on my patio. Fresh herbs ready to go whenever I need them.
For a couple years now Darin and I have had our own garden. It started very haphazardly with a plant here and a plant there. We are starting to learn what grows as well as what we regularly use. Last year I started to use a lot of our fresh basil. Fresh basil grows easily and having access to fresh basil encouraged me to integrate it into more dishes.
This year I invested more time and energy into the herb category. I claimed all the patio space for herbs. The larger garden is about 3 flights of stairs from the kitchen so I knew if I was going to incorporate fresh herbs into my cooking it better be convenient or it just wasn't going to happen.
Pineapple Sage
My intension was to buy Sage. How happy am I that this was the only Sage option at the nursery. This herb was a great find. Pineapple Sage has a wonderful pineapple scent as well as beautiful flowers which attract hummingbirds.
I am looking forward to trying the herb in lemonade and more recipes.
Bay is not new to my herb collection but my Bay was always bought from the grocery store and who knows how long it sat on the shelf in the grocery store, not to mention my cupboard.
Fresh Bay leaves are actually stronger than their dried counterparts. A live Bay plant can replace the dried Bay in your cupboard. It is a beautiful easy to care for plant and can be trimmed into a topiary or bonsai if you are so inclined.
When you need to flavor a broth or soup carefully remove an older leaf. Older leaves contain more flavor. Bay leaves are very tough and sharp and should be removed before serving. I add a Bay leaf to mashed potatoes and it has made all the difference.
Winter Savory
By far the sleeper hit of our whole herb garden is Winter Savory. A delicious addition to most any meat and potato dish. I add Winter Savory to chicken by stuffing the interior cavity with the fresh herbs. I also will gently melt butter with the herb and then baste the chicken with the savory infused butter as it cooks. The smell is like none other.
I have not found this herb in stores. That was a huge surprise once I found what an easy and delicious contribution this herb makes. Maybe your local stores will differ, but I see no other option to enjoying Savory than to grow it myself.
Another very fun thing about herbs is that they all tend to come with a story. Even through I would not have discovered Savory in my local grocery store it isn't to say that Savory hasn't been around for a long time. The Saxon's were great fans of Savory and it is said that "Virgil encouraged the planting of savory near one's beehives because of the wonderful flavor it adds to the honey." Winter Savory Recipes
I would encourage anyone with gardening and cooking aspirations to start with a simple herb garden. Start small and pick a few herbs that you can grow easily and that correspond with dishes you want to make.
Geocaching is a global treasure hunting game where participants locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors using GPS enabled devices and then share their experience online at http://www.geocaching.com/
The Geocaching iPhone Application is available in Dutch, French German and Japanese language versions. Groundspeak's Geocaching Application is best supported by the iPhone 3G but it is also compatible with the iPod Touch and 1st generation iPhones. (USE THE FORCE LUKE!)
Please note: You will need Wi-Fi access for the application to work on the iPod Touch. Also, without GPS, compass navigation will not work on the 1st generation iPhone.
iPhone Geocaching How it works
The iPhone 3G uses a combination of GPS, Wi-Fi positioning and cell towers to determine your approximate location. Groundspeak's iPhone Application then queries the Geocaching.com database in real-time and provides a list of geocaches near you. The application can also geocode addresses, search using a location from your address book, or look up a geocache or trackable item by it's GC (Geocaching.com) code.
Working on a Dream, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's new album, will debut today with an exclusive Guitar Hero World Tour free download for a limited time. The two downloads that will be available are "My Lucky Day" from the new album and classic hit "Born to Run."
Listening to gritty tales of the mean streets of the Jersey shore while living in the pastoral setting of rural Vermont it took a few years to understand some of his references.
Bruce has always been a writer for the people and a great story teller. Take a listen to his new album here at NPR.
And now for your musical treat ... straight from 1976
And just for the record Darin has promised to take me to a Springsteen concert.
Jay Walker, founder of Priceline.com and a speaker at TED, shares some the artifacts from his "Library of Human Imagination" and makes some predictions about our future. I for one would would love to be able to explore this incredible space created by Jay. Check out the full story about Jay Walkers Library of Human Imagination in Wired. What do you think was the most amazing thing you learned in 2008? Mind sharing with us?
Hope you all had a safe trip to Grams house and a Healthy Happy Thanksgiving. Did you find all the best deals on Black Friday? Because Today, Monday December 1st, is the first day back to work after Black Friday. All across America wallets are opened and credit cards are being removed. Current estimates say that 56% of workers with internet access, 70+ million people, will spend more time today shopping online than working.
CyberMonday was born.
Do you need something for your Kindle? Today sites like Amazon will offer deep discounts and see Cyber Monday traffic increases up to 26%.
So if you missed your new LCD or PLASMA deal on Friday you get a second chance today!
Looking for more Cyber Monday Deals? Don't forget to check out CyberMonday.com
Tuesday starting at 6am PST you will be able to download the full version of Zone Alarm Pro for FREE FREE FREE!!! Why? It is ZoneAlarm's Birthday and they are giving you the free gift,
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Happy Columbus Day, Get outside and find something!
iPhone Geocaching the outdoor treasure-hunting game in which we participants use the GPS receiver built into our 3G iPhones to hide and seek geocaches. There is a hidden world all around us, with treasure, trinkets, coins and bugs to find.
Step #2 Head over to Groundspeaks website, Geocaching.com and sign up for a free account,
( not required to use the app, but join up to keep track of your finds, and meet folks)
Step #3 Crank up your iPhone Geocaching App, and find a cache! don't let the Muggles catch you!
Step #4 Take a shot of the area & the cache contents with your iPhone, making sure not to give away the location of the hide.
Step #5 Go back to Geocaching.com and log your visit & share your photos, and if you found or did not find the cache.
With hundreds of thousands of caches hidden around the world you are sure to find one nearby. Being that you always have your iPhone with you, next when you find yourself with some extra time on your hands instead of plopping down in from of the television, take your family on a hunt for treasure.
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Geocaching is a global treasure hunting game where participants locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors using GPS enabled devices and then share their experience online at http://www.geocaching.com/
