I never intended for my blog to be a food blog or a garden blog or any kind of blog, but since garden season is upon us and food is in the news, it’s where I’m at.



For the locals:



Mrs. Chicken emailed and asked about local CSA opportunities. It might be a little late to buy shares (though it seems like spring will never come and stuff will never get planted and I know shares are available), but there are three locally that I know of: Prairieland CSA, Brackett CSA, and Tomahnous Farm. Each one has something different to offer - all of these farmers are growers at the Market, so you may be familiar with what they do already. Check it out - it’s a great way to get fresh produce every week if you don’t grow your own (and even if you do!) and you want local produce in season.



There’s a cookbook to help out with all this CSA/seasonal produce stuff - Farmer John’s Cookbook. Farmer John is also a movie star, and you can rent the DVD locally. Oh - speaking of the Market, it opens for the 2008 season on May 10, rain or shine. There also might be a few plant sales going on around town (I know of at least one), so if the weather’s good, it’ll be a great way to usher in the growing/eating season.







I started seeds last weekend - tomatoes, peppers, herbs, some strawflowers. I don’t have the variety I’d like in my seed collection right now and my tight belt didn’t permit any ordering, so I made do… and it wasn’t bad making-do, with 5 varieties of tomatoes and two of peppers and a zillion basil and parsley plants I can sell or swap for other plants. I had the best intentions last year, but I wasted so much produce in my garden last year due to poor time management and lack of necessary equipment. I toy with the idea of investing in one of these to help me manage the tomatoes and the beans and whatever else I grow/come into. The pressure canner I own is vintage - 40s? 50s? - and while it’s a cool artifact and I’m definitely hanging on to it (because… I don’t know?), I have been unable to find parts to make it safe again.



It’s been raining so damn much that I’m considering investing in a decent umbrella, since I usually walk home from work (soon I’ll be walking to work, too). We used to have the cheap IKEA umbrellas (kids love ‘em), but they weren’t exactly built to last.



Links I’m following:



I think I love this Lawns to Gardens blog, which is way more than its title There are some of you garden/food dweebs out there who will die when you see this website - here’s a taste (the illustration above is one of many cartoons appearing in this book) This is freakin’ awesome as well, though probably for the dweebier of the dweebs. We’re talking access to journals from the 40s about biodynamic agriculture, people.