Week 5 of Allandale CSA

It's week 5 of my farmshare from Allandale Farm, and I am loving it! Read about week 1 here.

Week 2: sugar snap peas, fennel, lettuce, kale, swiss chard, scallions, and spring garlic
Week 3: garlic scapes, green garlic, cilantro, dill, mesclun mix, scallions, lettuce, kale, sugar snap peas, broccoli, and collard greens
Week 4: cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, beets, sugar snap peas, hakurei turnips, lettuce and garlic scapes

And here is week 5:

This week feels so abundant! It overflowed out of my extra large grocery bag. If you start with the kale in the upper left corner, here's what I got:
Purple kale, cabbage, cauliflower, romanesco, lettuce, spring onions, carrots, basil, beets, sugar snap peas, and fennel!

Last week, I used the bounty to make a new collard chips recipe and a white bean dip with dill & garlic scapes. Yum! More recipes to come soon :)

Our Neighborhood's First Farmer's Market

Saturday was this year's first farmer's market! I could not have been more excited. I love being able to walk less than half a mile to the village square and get fresh produce that was often picked within the last few hours! I also love being able to support local farmers and businesses by purchasing their goods.

This year, there are 4 farmers (last year, there were only 2) and lots of vendors. One of my best finds was a huge head of red leaf lettuce for $1.50. I also bought organic bok choy, strawberries, fresh mint, and a funny looking cucumber.

I also found a gluten-free, dairy-free baked item! I was talking to a new vendor who had lots of delectable looking treats, and mentioned I couldn't eat wheat or dairy. He said the lemon bar is made with almond flour and even had an ingredient list to double-check that there was no dairy or soy. And it was really good! I loved being able to share it was my son (and my husband, who loves anything lemon). Be sure to look for them if you're in the area; their name is Baked Orchard.

They had a clown and Bear kept popping his balloons and then crying. Poor guy! So his dad made him a "balloon" out of an empty, unused dog waste disposal bag :) Very creative!

Clafoutis & Produce Deals

We went back to Haymarket today, and I scored some more deals! We do have an organic fruit delivery on Tuesday, and since we get 2/3 veggies, 1/3 fruit, I mainly stocked up on fruit.

This is what I got for $8.50:
4 or 5 white peaches
4 gala apples
4 purple plums & 5 red plums
1 coconut
2 pounds of sweet potatoes
3 pounds of bananas
4 pears
1 coconut

The clafoutis from the other day was awesome! I've got another baking right now. I couldn't find any more of those Italian plums today, so I made it with 1 white peach, 1 red plum & 1 purple plum. I also used a little less sugar this time because I thought it was a tiny bit too sweet.

Produce Extravaganza & Peach Vegan "Ice Cream"

I had a rehearsal downtown today which got out early, so I headed over to Haymarket, a fruit & veggie open-air market I've mentioned before, and stocked up.

This is what I got for $9.50:
4 lbs of green cabbage
2 lbs of bok choy
4 cucumbers
8 peaches
3 gala apples
2 pounds of prune plums
3 oranges
1 head of cauliflower
About 10 heads of garlic

Wow! I wish I lived closer so I could go at least every other week :) I would have purchased more, but the bag was heavy and Roy had just bought some produce at the farmer's market and produce store.

The peaches got a little beat up, so we ate some, froze some and made ice cream out of some! I made a variation on this Strawberry Vegan Ice Cream from last weekend. This time, I used the entire teaspoon of xanthan gum, which was too much. Next time, I'll stick with 1/2 a teaspoon. We made banana splits with vegan chocolate sauce (1 part rice milk, heated, with 2 parts chocolate chips) and pumpkin seeds. Yum!

Blogs, Weather & Produce

Do you ever click on the "Next Blog" feature at the top of Blogspot blogs? I did for the 1st time today, and the first 3 or 4 blogs that came up were not in English :) I wonder if that's an accurate sampling of what is out there on Blogspot.

The weather here has been awful - rainy, thunderstorms, etc., which is not conducive to exercise. In fact, it's supposed to rain Thursday & Friday. I did go for a run yesterday, probably about 3 miles, and a long walk today with Noodles & Bear, which was probably about 4.5-5 miles. Usually Noodles puckers out after 2-3 miles, but he kept going strong the whole time. I probably helped that he kept finding wet places to rub in, and I brought along some water for him.

I'm also getting back into the green smoothie habit after only having 3 or 4 last week. I even subjected my mother to some :) She actually seemed to like it! After we picked up my mom at the train on Saturday, we headed over to Haymarket, where they have a huge fruit & veggie open-air market on Fridays & Saturdays. None of it is organic, unfortunately, but is it ever cheap! Most of it is quite ripe, so you need to either freeze it or use it quickly. I stocked up on bananas (4 pounds for $1!) for making smoothies & ice cream, as well as sweet potatoes for Bear, lettuce (green leaf & romaine), apples, peaches, raspberries, blueberries & strawberries. We even splurged & got some of those yellow cherries at $1.50 a pound. Altogether, I only spent $17.50! I wish it were closer to home, as I'd go more often.

I've been quite cold lately. The temperature has been hovering in the low 70's, and my body doesn't know what to do with that. Right now, it's 75, and I'm wearing a hooded sweatshirt. My fingers are freezing & I'd make a cup of tea if Bear & I weren't upstairs.

Brrrrrr......isn't it supposed to be summer?