Yesterday was the first distribution day for our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Above is what was in our box: a beautiful big head of romaine lettuce, a large bunch of spinach, a few garlic scapes, and the first of the peas.

CSAs are a great way to enjoy fresh, local, seasonal food directly from the farmer. “Shares” are purchased like a yearly subscription and each week throughout the growing season you receive a box of fresh produce. Each week the produce can change depending on what is being grown and ready for harvest that week. Think of it like a surprise package! Typically the boxes are small at the beginning of the season, but as summer gets into full swing your box may be overflowing.

This is the first year for our CSA; Bear Swamp Farm. Pedro is the farmer and he grows everything organically. This is turning out to be a challenging year for him with all the wet, rainy weather we’ve had. When I picked out my box yesterday and hefted that huge and beautiful head of romaine lettuce in my hand I looked at him and said “You grew this???” He grinned and proudly said “Yes, I did.” He told me how to use the garlic scapes (just use them as you would normal garlic) and we chatted a bit about how the peas were now going to take off with the warmer weather to come next week. He said to expect some different lettuces next week. How fun!

Our town of West Milford finally got its very own farmer’s market and last Wednesday was the first day. They had a really good turn-out and sold out of things very quickly. It’s a small market with not many vendors and some things were a bit pricey as farmer’s markets can tend to be. It’s not on the caliber of the Warwick market but at least it’s a start.

My favorite vendor, Pie-Eyed, had a big crowd in front of his booth. Mostly because he was cooking pizzas and giving away lots of free samples of their fresh mozzarella rolls, pizza, stuffed chicken dishes, etc. I bought a pizza which I think we’ll have tonight and a roll of fresh mozzarella stuffed with proscuitto and roasted red pepper. Okay, not exactly fresh farmer’s market produce, but fun.

Rick and I thought it would be fun to share what we get in our box each week and what we do with it. I made a caesar salad with the romaine last night and I’ll be passing that recipe on in another post. I think it will be fun to come up with different ways to use our weekly share of a farm! We haven’t decided yet whether Rick will write those posts over on his site, or if I will here on my blog, but if he ends up writing them I will add a link to his post.

When we lived in France this salad was pretty much a staple lunch at any restaurant. Lyon itself was only a 30 minute drive away.
(Lardons [or thick bacon], poached egg, frisee or spring mix lettuces, croutons, dijon vinaigrette.)

Thanks to Chef Rick for this wonderful lunch!

Yesterday we took advantage of the “warmer” day and did a much needed cleaning up of the front yard. Having trees is a wonderful thing but they do drop a lot of small branches. This is only one of the three wheelbarrowfuls of sticks that we collected. Instead of tossing them in the woods we put them in our kindling box for next year’s fire-starting stash. The way the weather has been going of late we may use some of them up this coming week!

The weather seems confused. It wants to be spring; I truly believe it does. Maybe it just doesn’t remember. Yesterday was in the high 40’s with mixed sun and clouds. A chilly breeze made it feel cooler than it actually was, but when the sun came out strong for a few minutes it felt nice and warm. Warm enough to shed our jackets while we worked.

The trees seem to think spring is imminent and have popped their buds. I hope they are not being too hasty as our temperatures are supposed to dip again this week, forcing us to wear scarves and gloves again.

After the yard work we came back inside and I made some Breakfast Bread, better known in our house as “Sylvie Bread.” (Sylvie Lallemand, a friend of ours, runs a cooking school in Provence. She made this bread for breakfast every day when we attended her school.)

A dense whole wheat bread sprinkled with sesame seeds, it’s best toasted under the broiler instead of a toaster and topped with butter and honey. (My breakfast this morning!)

Other happenings over the weekend included walks with the dogs and practicing Bella’s obedience lesson. And, it looks like I will have to start my Spanish lessons back up again since we will be returning to Mexico in early May. This time we will be visiting Rick’s parents who are staying in the old colonial town of San Miguel de Allende for a few months. Can’t wait! If you follow the link you’ll see why I am not leaving my camera at home! Olé!

Baby, it’s cold outside! Every day we add a new icicle, and every day the older icicles get longer and longer.

Yep, winter is here. The snow that I was skeptically optimistic about amounted to less than one inch. Not even enough to be cost efficient to run Johnny. Now it will probably just turn into ice with the deep freeze weather pattern we are in for the next three or four days. Just look at our weather station statistics upon my getting up this morning:

Less than 1 degree. The dogs want to go in and out like they normally do, but I won’t let them. It’s just too darn cold. Opening and closing the door only lets cold air in and all that lovely warmth emanating from the wood stove is lost. (Our new stove works great by the way.)

Even the snow shovel is wearing a sheath of ice complete with its very own set of icicles.

In times like this, comfort food is called for. How about some [what we call around our house], pork chops & beans?

I’m not sure where the recipe started; either with my Mother or my Grandmother. But since I can’t ask either one of them I am going to assume my Grandmother started it. The recipe is simple. Take bone-in pork chops, rub them with salt, pepper and a little rubbed sage. Pan fry them to brown them. Open a can of your favorite baked beans, spread them in a baking dish and put the pork chops on top of the beans. Push the chops down into the beans so that they are mostly submerged. Bake at 375 F until done, but be careful not to overcook the chops. Serve with steamed/boiled potatoes.

And eggplant parmesan. Recipe here.

Here’s hoping you stay warm wherever you are today!

There is something very sad about Christmas decorations after Christmas is over with. Just look at these reindeer in my neighbor’s yard down the street. They’ve keeled over from the stress of it all, while the one left standing looks on forlornly. I’m afraid there is no rescue for these poor little reindeer if last year is any indication. (Last year they left them up until Easter.) Take them down, put them away, and get on with life after Christmas folks!

We certainly did. On Sunday the tree and all the trimmings came down and got packed up and put away. The living room looks naked without the bedecked tree but we’ll get used to it. It’s nice to have the house back to normal again. A fresh, clean house to start the new year with.

As for the weather, it bounces back and forth. We had a bit of snow on New Year’s Eve which is still around in spotty bits, but right now it’s raining. At least I think it is but it’s too dark outside to really tell. I think it’s freezing rain. That is something I can’t quite get used to. Here it is 31 degrees F and it’s raining instead of snowing. I can see icicles and a good coating of ice on the deck’s railings. Yuck. When it gets lighter I will try and get some photos if it’s worthwhile. But by the time it’s bright enough outside to take photos the ice will probably be melting. We’ll see.

I think canoeing is out of the question, don’t you? Green Turtle Pond now belongs to the ice fishermen.

As for me, I am feeling pretty much back to normal thank goodness. Still coughing some but it’s a dry cough instead of the one I did have.

How is Bella doing, you might ask. She’s doing just great. Growing like a weed in rich soil. She weighs in at 50 pounds now at 4 months of age. I think she’s going to be a big girl. I can’t even write about her misadventures much anymore because she’s turned into a little angel. She’s really a very good puppy. Well, most of the time. She still has her moments. Like when I just now tried to take her photo and she started barking at me.

Poor thing. I just let her out to pee and it’s so icy out there her legs went in every direction trying to squat. I can see now that everything is coated with ice. Lovely.

Did I tell you that I saved a bird’s life the other day? We came home from running errands and saw Sam staring intently at a female downy woodpecker just sitting in the snow on the other side of the glass door. I knew just what to do as I’ve done it many times before when we’ve had birds stunned from flying into the glass. I put my gloves on and went out and picked her up. At first she tried to fly, but couldn’t. She soon settled down in my cupped hands, turning her head this way and that looking at me. I stroked her feathers every so lightly, trying to warm her up. After a while I opened my hands and she still just sat there. I was hoping she wasn’t hurt internally when all of a sudden she took flight. Hurray!

With the nasty weather outside I’ve decided not to go anywhere today. I am going to make this Irish stew this afternoon, complete with cheddar scones. Just the meal for a day like today, don’t you agree?