Local Food This Week

For several years now, I've documented some of the local foods that we purchase through local bounty posts. A couple of years ago, I would pick up beautiful and interesting foods each week from the farmers' markets or local farms. Those veggies/fruits might have been a nice addition to a meal that we were having, but they certainly weren't the bulk of what we were eating. Over time we've slowly added more and more local foods into our kitchen and onto our table. So instead of showcasing just one local food every now and then, I thought you might like to see what we now buy and how we use it. My meals are not glamorous. We do eat differently than a lot of people. I'm not a food blogger by any means, nor do I desire to be. But, the meals are real and hopefully they'll help inspire you to use more local foods, too. 

This week I picked up from the Community Farmers' market...

our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) basket which contained-

 carrots, kale, radishes, swiss chard, and strawberries (from Sunny Point Gardens).

We also picked up...

 honey, coconut oil, beef stew meat (from River Cottage Farm)

2 bags of Meg's Black Bean cookies (from Festina Lente- these are gluten/dairy free and delicious)

lard (from Stoney Creek Farm)

pulled pork (from Hillbilly Grillers)

lettuce (from Need More Acres)

rhubarb (from Summer Garden Memories)

 asparagus (from Crooked Creek Farms)

1 Community Farmers' Market sticker to go on our new to us car

 

 Using those ingredients along with some others, here are a few of the meals, desserts, and snacks that we've eaten this week...

 {pulled pork from Hillbilly Grillers, mashed potatoes made using coconut milk, chipotle Tabasco sauce, salad- lettuce from Need More Acres, carrots and radishes from Sunny Point, homemade dressing using honey and olive oil from River Cottage Farm)

 {pork meatballs- pork from the 1/2 pig we purchased in December from Crooked Creek, sweet potatoes, asparagus from Crooked Creek, strawberries from Sunny Point)

 {Sausage and Kale soup- kale from Sunny Point, sausage from Stoneycreek that we had in the freezer, homemade chicken broth using chicken bones from Crooked Creek, and potatoes}

 

 {Strawberry and Rhubarb crisp- strawberries from Sunny Point, rhubarb from Summer Garden Memories, topping made with gluten free oats, honey from River Cottage, raisins, cranberries, vanilla, and salt that I buy from River Cottage}

 

{Beef Stew- beef stew meat from River Cottage, carrots from Sunny Point, potatoes, garlic,

 rosemary and thyme from the backyard}

That gets us to Tuesday where I picked up a few more things 

from the O'Daniels' at the Sky Farmers' Market. I bought...

potatoes (I really needed these earlier in the week since I used non-local organic potatoes in so many meals), beets, bratwursts, and more kale

 {leftover shredded meat I had in the freezer from a roasted chicken from Crooked Creek, certified gluten free rice, lettuce from Need More Acres, homemade salsa using tomatoes I canned last summer from Need More Acres, cilantro from the backyard, and avocado}

{green smoothie- banana, orange juice, spinach from Festina Lente, and frozen strawberries}

 {a favorite of mine: bratwurst and beet greens from the O'Daniels, organic sweet potatoes, organic apples}

 {juiced kale and carrots from Sunny Point, beets from the O'Daniels, organic lemon, organic apples}

 {eggs from the backyard, spinach from Festina Lente, Applegate organic bacon, tomato from D&D Family Produce bought at the market the week before}

 I'll see what I can come up with next week after our trip to the market!

A Derby Party in Photos

It's a few days after the actual Kentucky Derby, 

but we enjoyed a morning with friends at a Derby Party, 

which is becoming an annual tradition.
Here are a few of my favorite photos from our morning of fun...

 (the candy cane was used as one of the stick horses, and I just loved this one)

Preschool at Home: Week 14

This past week we learned about the letter N, the number 14, and about Naaman and Naomi from the Bible. We didn't have a specific nursery rhyme or song. 

 Here's a look at our board:

 

 We put numbers on the letter "N."

 We talked about night and made an easy picture using some star stickers and a white crayon.

 Seth practiced hammering in nails with a small hammer...

 and then removing them.

 I gave him this activity to see if he could figure out how to assemble the paper plate bird.

 He did all of his own cutting and I helped him staple the pieces together.

 Then he made a nest for his bird.

We also read the story of Naaman and the story of 

Naomi and Ruth from our children's Bible 

during our nightly family time.

For the remainder of the alphabet we are going to focus on two letters a week. We want to be done with the alphabet by the time our preschool co-op starts in August (more on that later). So next week we'll focus on the letters "O" and "P."

If You Had Told Me One Year Ago...

So many things have changed over the last year. Changing the way we eat made a huge impact on the way we live. Sometimes the changes still baffle us. Here are a few examples...

If you had told me one year ago that Bryan would finish his brussels sprouts before his grassfed steak, I wouldn’t have believed you.

If you had told me there would be 7 chickens in my backyard, I wouldn’t have believed you.

If you had told me that I would not be shopping at Wal-Mart anymore, I wouldn’t have believed you.

If you had told me that we would be going to Nashville to Whole Foods at least once a month to buy the groceries that we couldn't get from a local farmer, I wouldn’t have believed you.

If you had told me that we would intentionally take the long way and roads less traveled on trips, I wouldn’t have believed you.

If you had told me that our garden would take up a quarter of our back yard, I wouldn’t have believed you.

If you had told me that I would enjoy watching a documentary of any kind on Netflix, I wouldn’t have believed you.

If you had told me that I would care about the ingredients in my makeup, I wouldn’t have believed you.

If you had told me that my last drink of coke would have been on April 25, 2012, I wouldn’t have believed you.

If you had told me that I would not wear polish on my toenails anymore, even while wearing flip flops or sandals, I wouldn’t have believed you.

If you had told me that I would do laundry during the warm months according to the weather forecast so that we could use the clothesline, I wouldn’t have believed you.

If you had told me that I would be 50 pounds lighter than a year ago, I wouldn't have believed you.

If you had told me that we would dream of living in a house in the country where we could raise lots of animals and grow lots of food, I wouldn’t have believed you.

There are so many other changes, too. My, how our lives are so different than just one year ago.

Our Favorite Seasoning Blend

We grill out year round, 

but we hit it into high gear during the warmer months. 

Here's our current favorite seasoning blend. We put this on meats and veggies. 

It's simple to make and it's super tasty!

Ingredients

1 tablespoon Sea Salt

1 tablespoon Black Pepper

1/2 tablespoon Paprika

1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper

1 teaspoon Onion Powder

1 teaspoon Garlic Powder

a dash of Cinnamon

a sprinkling of Rosemary

Place all the ingredients in a jar. Shake. Enjoy!

{Gratitude} Lately

Every day I look around in amazement at all the 

beautiful, yet simple, things that I'm so thankful for.

Lately I've been grateful for...

a lot of spicy goodness...

 

 a ribbon cutting and blessing service for a community garden...

 hummingbird feeders and all the fun they bring to the backyard...

 

a husband that drives the car and 

leaves it with a full tank of gas...

 

 and beautiful strawberries from the farmers' market

 

Arbor Day: Be Prepared for a Transplant

There is a saying that I love, "Grow where you're planted." I have to constantly remind myself of that right now, because I am having a hard time living and growing where I'm planted. You see, we live in the middle of the city. We don't have a huge yard. I am very content with the house that we have made into a cozy home, but we need and want more land. We don't plan to stay here forever, but a lot of things have to happen before we can move. Bryan mentioned something the other day that I really needed to hear. We need to "grow where we're planted, but be prepared for a transplant."
So when it came to Arbor Day, we had to get a little creative. We wanted something that could be transplanted. I already had a two year old blueberry bush growing in a pot. This year I added a raspberry bush, a kiwi tree, and a brown turkey fig tree to the mix. They are all in pots and ready to be transplanted when we eventually make the move to the country.

Every time I go outside and see these bushes and trees on the deck, 

I'm reminded to grow where I'm planted. 

They are a reminder that it's the best I can do right now.