Odds and Ends

So this week I picked up my second CSA box. This is the first time that I've subscribed to a CSA farm, and I'm liking it thus far. I'd always wanted to join since I first started reading about it years ago, but I was never settled enough. But now I finally have a routine (of sorts) and that makes it easier to remember to pick the box up and to cook regularly.

So, as I've been writing, this summer took FOREVER to get going. Gloom and clouds straight through to the end of June. Since my little farm is located nearby, just over the border in Washington (it's a little organic farm run by two women), it has gotten off to a bit of a late start in the veg department. Last week the first box contained radishes, arugula, 2 small heads of butter lettuce, chives, 3-4 garlic scapes, chinese broccoli, and a small pint of watery strawberries. I was a tad disappointed, but I understand. The NW has been under a cloud of grayness and drowned in water, so everything is growing slowly. It is actually a nice reminder that food actually comes out of the ground and is affected by the local weather. I know that with 2 New Seasons (the greatest grocery stores ever in the world) just a few minutes away, I get to feeling like I should have just about anything in abundance any time that I want. And that is not the way to cultivate gratitude for the food that you eat. So am I am glad to be paying a little bit more for organic food grown nearby. (At least that is what I keep telling myself. :-) This week had carrots, lettuce, chives, arugula, cilantro, and a big bag of apricot/plum things. Yay! (I see a galette in my future! Maybe for Shabbat!)

But it really is nice to have someone else choosing your produce for you. I don't know about you, but I tend to buy a lot of the things I know I like (zucchini, kale, tomatoes). So it is nice to have different things in the fridge to inspire me. I've been eating great salads at work. See below:

It is made mostly from my recent box. Lettuce, tiny heirloom carrots, arugula, chives, radish (from last week), onion, zucchini, canellini beans. The container on top has a fantastic blue cheese dressing that I made last week for shabbos from the stinkiest, grossest blue cheese ever, shallots, chives, champagne vinegar, garlic, parsley, basil, smoked salt, and sour cream (of course).

With each box, I get a big bunch of flowers. It has been asiatic lilies the last couple of times. Absolutely gorgeous. (These are last weeks, they last forever! It's like a fireworks show as they open up.)

And while I'm here, I got this awesome little blue gee-gaw from this tiny shop in Cannon Beach called The Butler Did It. It is made from french blue glass. I. Love. It.

The sweet little fu-dog tea light holder is from a little place down the street that is chock full of cool junks. And it is only open on Saturday.

These are this weeks flowers:

I've very excited to see them bloom. Yellow!