CSA + time =

This is the first year we've had a CSA share - every Friday we pick up a bag of produce from Fox Hollow Farm. Yesterday was fun, because our farmer (a man in his 20s with a European accept of some sort?) introduced the little boys to his 7 day old chicks. He'd gotten them through mail order, a box of 26 assorted fluffy babies that will be free range chickens for eggs in a few more weeks. Now they are 3 inch long gold, rust, or speckled brown fluff with their first couple of feathers at the tips of their wings. He said that he expects each to lay about 250 eggs a year. We'll visit each week with our veggie pick up to check their growth, along with walking into the fields to talk to the vegetables. Purple and green beans next week, and basil is growing fast!

The hard thing to get used to is the seasonal supply of produce. This week I've been overwhelmed since Mom dropped off their veggies too as they left town. I had 5 cabbages and lots of bunches of green onions, and what seems like an endless supply of mustard greens, kale, and swiss chard. Of course there are other things too (like the bunch of tiny beets that I roasted and secretly ate by myself because I love them), but the ones I don't love do present a challenge. I finally broke down and spent a couple of hours on the Epicurious and Cook's Illustrated websites looking for ways to make meals to freeze for the winter, and I'm now happy that my next task is going to be defrosting the deep freeze to make room for more Pyrex and Tupperware. Today I made: 18 potato-salmon cakes with green onions, 2 meals of Moroccan chicken with olives, 2 meals of sweet & sour beef and cabbage, 2 meals of chicken cobbler with cheddar-green onion biscuits, 2 meals of chicken stuffed with sausage & swiss chard, 2 blueberry pies, 2 loaves of banana date bread, and a big batch of coleslaw for a picnic tomorrow. As my chief dish-doer, Raha was a little stunned.

The other part of the day was a trip to the pool with Luke, Aaron, Sammy, PhiPhi, and Raha so that Tracey could spend some quality time on a landscaping project downtown - a vertical green wall. I was a little anxious about four kids under 6 by myself, but they were wonderful. Aaron borrowed a little inflatable ring from PhiPhi and happily swam independently. I know what to get him on my next stop at CVS, since he kept telling me, "It fun!!"

Tomorrow we had a big church picnic, which apparently includes a visit from Mr. Magic and lots of games. My friend Robin had to cancel her picnic for Ada's birthday in the evening because her kids were exposed to swine flu at summer camp and she's kind enough not to share. Poor kiddos.