1917

This poster by the Committee of Public Safety in Pennsylvania borrowed its look from USFA posters by the artist Frederic G. Cooper, c.1917.

Source: Special Collections, National Agricultural Library

There are many, many more posters here. While it is miraculous and wonderful that we are not embroiled in a war of the magnitude of WWs I & II, why is it that if we asked Americans to cinch the waistbands of their food budget, we would surely hear protests? Elevating the importance of not wasting food is a need for the world, let alone America, but we don't push it in propaganda. Why? Why is it a luxury to have enough to eat instead of a duty to share the wealth?

I love that our CSA, Abbondanza, donates a portion of each crop to Community Food Share (rather than sell to restaurants for a profit) and if someone fails to pick up their share, that too is donated. How else can I (we) help? With this simple poster, I have all the tools I need. Here's to 1917 and the US Government's involvement. I love all the work Michele Obama is doing to encourage us all to grow our own, eat healthier and not waste. But how cool would it be if posters like this were on the highways instead of ads for geico or Toyota? Anyway. Spread the word!!!

food, training & knitting!

I took my first knitting class on Wednesday. It was really fun. I made a little square. My homework is to finish it into a scarf. I am having a hard time making it loose enough yet tight enough so that it doesn't slip off the needles (size 11). All in all, I love it. I can't wait for the 4 week class that starts up next month.

In food news, I am a recipe follower. I do not deviate. To that end, I have 4 sets of measuring spoons. Today, with copious CSA veggies in the fridge waiting to be used up, and a hungry tummy, I set to work - creating lunch. I have done stir frys and egg scrambles, my only forays into recipe-free cooking. So, I decided to make a veggie bake, with an egg base. I sliced up some zucchini, onion, eggplant (from the CSA) and layered them into a square pyrex. I poured 3 whisked eggs over top and then a thick layer of Parmesan cheese, then topped that with sliced cherry tomatoes (from our garden) and some salt and pepper. It baked for 30 minutes at 350 and is delicious! Hooray hooray! I served it over a hodgepodge of leftover rice and quinoa and am so proud of my efforts.

Today's CSA pickup included potatoes!!! I'm so excited for our first Aloo Gobi of the season. I'm also going to do a Bengan Bharta with the scruptious eggplant.

And, my "off season" maintenance program is shaping up over at Flatirons Athletic Club. My swim class (Intro to Swim Training) meets on Tuesday and Thursday nights; I'll also run Tue/Thu mornings. I'll take the 9am Wednesday and 8am Saturday spin classes (unless the weather is good and then I'll bike outside.) Monday and Friday will be rest days; Sunday will be a long run. Hooray hooray! I love routine and structure.

P.S. I found a pic from the Half Marathon!

Summer

We are squeezing the last few drops out of summer around here. Our CSA 5 pounds of peaches were already getting overripe - even with Ted the peach lover in the house. So I baked a peach crisp - sooo delicious. The epitome of late summer, I think.

Paul helped turn our humongous CSA sweet cabbage into cole slaw. Delicious, crunchy and perfect as an accompaniment to grilled salmon.

Happy last few days of summer.

Meals for the Week

This was a fun-filled weekend and it's not over yet! Saturday we went to the Science museum to see the new exhibit about weather. Sam LOVED it, especially the little room where you're INSIDE the tornado. And where you can create your own volcano, based on the variables of goo and gas. Very fun. 

Then today I took Ted and Mae, with Alex and Adam, to Sunday school while Wendy went on a bike ride (after she had already done an early morning swim. Triathletes are NUTS I tell you.). After Sunday school she took Ted's 7 year pictures and then took him swimming with her boys. This made for a refreshingly quiet afternoon. It doesn't matter which two children are together; two children are so much quieter than three. Period. 

I went through my freezer stash (on paper this year, so I didn't have to literally fall into the freezer to see what was in there) and have this week's meals at the ready. I'm saving most of the greens (we are very greens-heavy this year) for when the meals run out and I cook rice and beans alot...then we can just pop in some greens and it'll be fantabulous! I hope to post Ted's pics soon ... she took some truly gorgeous ones as always. 

Next week is a big one. It's testing week. Ted is still unsure whether he'll test. He can do it, but he's not sure he can. It could be that he'll end up giving it a shot and seeing how it goes. His party is at TKD on Saturday, so for his sake I hope whatever happens on Friday night is ok with him. 

Here are the meals. What a wonderful lazy week.

Monday: Tofu Mizuna StirFry

Tuesday: late night at TKD, leftovers

Wednesday: leftovers (Paul 6:30 soccer game)

Thursday: Moraccan Lentil Stew

Friday: testing, out for dinner

Saturday: post bday party = leftover GFDF pizza

Sunday: Baked Asian Tofu

Monday: Acorn Squash Soup

To bake: 2 batches of zucchini bread

remaining 6 squash from CSA, puree and freeze

Raisin Bran muffins (batter in freezer from late July ... hmm..)

Besides turning on the rice cooker and remembering to defrost, this should be an easy week! And a yummy one! 

Operation Clean Out has begun

It happens every year. I stock and stock the freezers and we don't eat the bounty, because it feels safer to hoard. Well, this year I'm going to break the tradition! From now on, our dinners will come from the freezer. When the larder is bare, I can go back to cooking up some late winter stews and soups from our bean supply. Mmm mmm. How is your winter going, those of you who stock up all summer and fall? 

getting organized

All the hours I've spent after putting the kids to bed early these last few days has helped me get organized! I'm signed up for 3 5K races which will (force) help me stick with running when it gets cold and miserable. I'm looking forward to them! World Running Day is Nov.9, the Panicking Poultry is Nov.16, and the Colder Bolder is Dec.2.

I've also discovered Google Calendar. Since doing the 2 week menu planning, I decided I needed a system to automatically repeat for me, rather than me rewrite all the dates etc. Google Calendar lets you set events to repeat weekly, or twice a month, etc. So now I've entered all our meals, all our activities, as well as special occasions like conferences and doctor's appointments, to Google, which will then email and text me reminders. (Yes, I am secretly trying to determine if an iPhone would really be worth the cost. Since up-to-the-minute emails are part of what attracts me to it, I'm hoping reminders will help me in the same way. (And no, I can't get email on my phone, although I could with my old phone. But since I don't pay for this one, you won't hear me complaining. Too much. ahem.)

Our Keeper Share, which starts up next week (5 pickups total and they are always GIGANTIC. We had frozen soups all the way into June this year!) will include a Fruit Share and a Coffee Share! Woot! I was so excited to get this email this morning:

Keeper Fruit is a go! It's a beautiful offering including cider, storage apples, fruit butters and jams. The coffee share comes in one pound bags per each pick up - this provides for one mighty tasty cup of java.

I just yesterday opened our last jar of Rocky Mountain Farm jam (gooseberry I believe) and made a mental note to take a trip out there to stock up again, and now I don't have to! Paul will be thrilled to have a steady supply of coffee; I don't drink it anymore so it's not on my radar to purchase...he has made do with some pretty lame pre-ground stuff that we found lying around lately. I hope the Keeper Share will be as generous with dried beans, dried corn and tea leaves as last year. Yum!

Well, in the spirit of all this preparedness (and since I can't go on a run because Paul's not home yet...ahem...), I'm off to prep dinner, a delicious Crock Pot Veggie Chili for which I actually remembered to pre-soak the beans! Have a productive and happy week, all!

Thursday!

Ted's soccer team had picture day last Saturday. Ted was a total ham at the official picture taking event but the action shots of him are great! I love how his tongue is sticking out all the time - hmmm, wonder where he got that? I'll put these all up on moeltini when Paul gets back, but in the meantime, you can see all 4 shots on flickr. We were going to take a break from soccer and do swimming over the winter, but Ted really wants to do the winter league. We shall see.
Today was a great day. We had the normal rush in the morning, but we got Ben and Peter and got all the big kids to school on time. Sam & Mae had a donut at Safeway while we killed time before preschool (I didn't want to pay the $10 early drop off fee for the extra half hour of free time!). Mae was a little hesitant but I took her to see Jeanne and she cheered right up (she was dropping in, so was in a different Butterfly class for the day). Sam apparently had a terrific day, exclaiming "Oh, snuckers!" throughout the day. Silly boy. He had a good conference and is doing better at including other kids when he and Jason are playing. We went to TKD next and Ted rocked. It was a large and unruly class today and Mr. D was displeased. At the end of class, Ted got a star (hard to do in the big kid class) and Mr. D told me, "Your son acted like a black belt the entire class. Good for him." Ted was pretty proud of himself and asked me why the big kids were goofing off.
We are set for Tournament on Saturday. Sam and Mae are going to have a big adventure with the Shoenfelds while Ted and I spend the night at a nearby hotel so we can get up at a decent hour on Saturday morning. Tiny Tiger staging is at 7:45am (he can compete as a Tiny Tiger til he's 7. In TT, all kids get a trophy. In Big Kids, you have to actually win the trophy. Much tougher! Hooray for being 6!) Afterwards all the kids have a free pass to the rec center pool (in the same building as the tournament) so depending on time we'll do that too. Sam has a bday party at 2, so we will try and be back in time for that. Whew! Busy but fun.
Oh, and how could I forget?! I blanched and froze 6 batches of greens tonight. Today we had our last CSA pickup. Keeper Share begins next week, so we may be seeing the last of those delicious hardy greens. We received 20 pounds of apples!!! Holy moly! Applesauce anyone? Mmmm... I have a plan for the winter: rice and beans with greens two nights a week. We have plenty of greens frozen and the Keeper Share will add to our already decent supply of local beans. I'll just buy a big bag of brown rice at Costco and we'll be set for cheap, delicious and local meals in the winter! Yum.

Quick Challenge Update

I love challenges and there are a lot of them going on. I think I'm supposed to be updating so the organizers can put up recaps. Since I'll be MIA for 2 weeks, I thought I'd update here and label them, in case someone comes checking up on me.

One Local Summer: lots of local meals this week and I blanched and froze the excess for winter. Meals include:

• steamed greens (CSA) with tofu (local Boulder company),
  
• homemade (local flour) flour tortillas with eggs (Jay Hill Farms), greens (CSA), beans (CSA) and salsa (Rocky Mountain Farms),
  
• radish (Jay Hill) and marinated artichokes (Rocky Mountain Farms) salad (CSA spinach) and of course,
  
• the requisite almond butter (Justin's, local Boulder company) and jam (Rocky Mountain Farms) on homemade bread (local flour).
  
• We've been enjoying Jay Hill eggs and (local flour) pancakes with (Rocky Mountain Farm) strawberry syrup for breakfast all week too.
  
• And loads of strawberries and sugar snap peas from Jay Hill! A delicious week.

Keep Yer Cool
This one is easy so far. It is pleasant in the morning and evening. Mid-afternoon is pretty hot, in the low 90s all week. I've brought back the nap (I read this on a blog yesterday and thought it was ingenious!) Napping from 1-3 helps get through that time of day and lets me stay up later at night enjoying the cool night air. We have the AC set to go on when temps hit 86, although with Paul working at home we'll have to see if that's too hot for him. So far, he chose the hottest week to go to Iowa. I'm doing just fine being hot. It's tough in the car but luckily 2 out of 3 kids enjoy the wind in their face (can you guess who hates it?) so we are doing OK there. So far, so good.

5 Minute Shower Challenge
No problem! Having short hair and shaving infrequently make this easy for me. I think my showers average about 2-3 minutes, a bit less than 5 when I'm counting my warm up water time (caught in a bucket to water the garden, of course!) This one is a no-brainer and I'm mad at myself for not doing this earlier.

The One Can a Month and I'm a Bookworm are starting up on July 1, so I'll jump on those when I get back! Going from half a 32 gallon trash bin to essentially a quarter is the challenge. Try and put the trash out just once a month. I'm eager to learn even more tips on reducing our garbage output. It seems like it should be easier but we are still at 2 full kitchen sizes bags per week. Reading one eco book a month will be the push I need to plow through the Michael Pollan books, so looking forward to getting back into The Omnivore's Dilemma when I finish up Ahab's Wife for bookclub.

The Addiction challenge comes to an end in June. Mine was not eating out unless it was planned and I did great until the boys left. We ate out for girls night on Monday (planned, AOK and was my first time in a month and it was delicious!!) but then Wendy and I took the kids to Noodles after swimming on Thursday, and then I brought home some sushi (from a local restaurant in Superior) for lunch today. And now we're off for 2 weeks of probably eating out a lot. Still, it showed me the value of planning my special occasions and I do plan to pick it back up when we return in July.

The Don't Buy It - Put Your Rebate to Work rebate check is slotted to be deposited into our "Boulder House Down Payment" account. We think it will be mailed sometime after July 4, according to the site. We'll see!

I think that's it for challenges! As a general note, previous challenge buttons are moved to the bottom of the list but are on-going. So many of these are great enough (and easy enough!) to do full time.

One Local Summer Update - Week 3

Yummy week. Here are the meals that were local:

• CSA radish (and non-local tuna) salad with CSA lettuce
• homemade corn tortillas with local eggs, salsa and CSA lettuce
• Sauteed bok choi & honey baked beans (CSA bok choi, onion, garlic & beans, local honey)
• Asian Tofu & Greens Stir-Fry (CSA mizuna, Yukina, onion & garlic, local tofu)

Here is a great recipe site for Asian greens. I plan to blanch and freeze the remaining greens in this share. I hope to freeze 2-3 "bunches" of greens per week/share to ensure greens in the winter. Oh, how we missed our greens!

I am really loving the lettuce and we haven't even had our standard tofu lettuce wraps or Puree of Spring Greens Soup yet! I pick up our next share on Thursday, the day the boys leave for Iowa. Mae and I leave on Saturday, so I plan to blanch and freeze all greens possible, keeping just some spinach and/or lettuce for me for the 2 remaining days. It's funny: I have one more ziplock of soup in the freezer. Will it be gone before the first of the greens go in?

Fun Days

The nose is improving (this one's for you, Mom!) You can see I still have a teeny bit of a black eye. The nose itself is still somewhat swollen, but not bad. The incision is healing nicely, although there is a spot in the very center that is not knitting up as cleanly as Dr. Allen would like. All in all, no biggie. (click for a larger view, Mom)
Tonight Ted and I rode our bikes to Stacy's (about 2 miles) for a book club meeting. It was very uncomfortable with sunglasses so I eventually took them off and just squinted. Pressure on the nose at all is just not fun.
Ted had a blast at HHS camp today. They rode the RTD to Eben G. Fine park, then hiked Red Rocks, then went to Pearl Street to play in the fountain and have Italian Ice. He was beat!
Sam and Mae went with me to my TKD class. It's my first time back and I elected to walk, not run, my laps. Other than that, I feel fine. I'm learning Inwa I and it's cool!
Ted and I picked up our CSA share today, chock full of greens. I plan to blanch the greens and freeze them as long as the lettuce lasts. Once the lettuce is on its way out, we'll eat the greens too. There is a lot of lettuce in the early weeks of the CSA! It was great to be back and I know we'll have some delicious salads this week!
Tomorrow is everyone's last day of camp til we return from Iowa. We're going to head to Lakeshore's pool with Tara and Stacy at 4 (Sam will be so psyched. Every time we bike behind Lakeshore he begs to go swim there.) Saturday is the annual CCAI Reunion picnic and Sunday, I believe is free. I can't believe June is almost gone already! This summer s flying by!

Dark Days Challenge Completed...this year

Well, March 31 has come and gone. The Dark Days Challenge is officially over, and fittingly, since the Farmer's Market starts up this Saturday. This was a really tough challenge ... mostly because it required advance planning, not my strong suit. But, I persevered. Throughout the Fall season, I put away meals as quickly as I prepared them. We feasted all winter on soups, stews and slow cooker meals from the deep freeze. My goal is to get through the remaining 11 (eleven!!) meals still left in the freezer before May, when the produce really starts rolling in. Our CSA will start up soon, and I've increased to a full share this year. I learned the hard way that putting up greens is just as essential as freezing those luscious berries. As my boys pined for strawberries, I missed my local kale, swiss chard and spinach. This year, thanks to the Dark Days Challenge, I will do more to keep us in berries and greens all winter. This was such a wonderful challenge. And life changing too.

Our meals for the past two weeks have included Spaghetti with Homemade Pesto, Baked Potatoes with Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy, Sloppy Lentil Stew, Lentil Buttercup Soup, Aloo Gobi and Slow Cooker Vindaloo. Mmm. This week we're finishing up the Pumpkin Black Bean Soup, Carrot Soup and Chickpea Turnip Stew. I figure 3 freezer meals a week are good. Really, these late winter meals have been easier than any other season, because they're ready to go!

April 5th

The Boulder Farmer's Market will re-open on Saturday, April 5th. I can't WAIT. Still not sure when our CSA starts up again, but how exciting to know that SOON we can have some local produce! And this time, I'm ready for the lettuce!

Meanwhile, my little seedlings are doing so well! The sugar snap peas, chard and spinach are the tallest so far, but everything (save one tomato plant..hmmm) is looking good! Another 3-4 weeks inside and then we'll transfer them to the back deck during the day, to 'harden' them, suggest the experts. Then when the requisite 2 weeks are completed, they can be replanted in the garden or the container tubs. 6 weeks! Not long now.

Pumpkin Saag

Don't skip the pumpkin! This was not very good and I can't blame Isa, so I think it was my lack of pumpkin. Heh. Pumpkin Saag from Veganomicon required 2 pumpkins. I only had one (freezer) so I subbed in a buttercup squash for the other. The result was not sweet enough and too squash-y. Still good, but not great. I'll try again with canned pumpkin (I'm officially out of pumpkin! I made it to mid-February! still lots of other squash left though..mmm) because it smelled like pumpkin pie while cooking. This was an all-local meal (CSA pumpkin, buttercup, onion and garlic). Locally brewed Fat Tire beer rounded out the meal! Our other local meal this week was my favorite Roasted Kabocha Squash Soup. This time I was even lazier (if that's possible for such an easy recipe) and just used water rather than veggie broth. Big mistake...the flavor was too onion-y and just not flavorful enough. Plus without the freshly toasted squash seeds, it was even duller than usual. Some (local) goat cheese helped perk it up. Next time, veggie broth all the way! This local meal used CSA kabocha, garlic, onion and local goat cheese.

We had a deliciously lazy Saturday. Sam is sick so we indulged him with plenty of Pokemon movies, Vitamin Water and Popsicles. He seems about 90% tonight. He has a truly amazing immune system. He is hardly ever sick and when he does finally fall victim to something, he is usually over it in 48 hours. We all got good naps (Ted played by himself, a talent he has always had for which I am constantly grateful!) and plenty of book reading and computer gaming. Lazy day. Tomorrow should be more of the same. Ahhh...

Repeat...

... of one of our favorite local meals. Pumpkin Black Bean Soup with CSA pumpkin, Hopi beans, garlic and onion. Served alongside my challah, which Paul and I managed to eat in its entirety with no help from the kids. Heh. I roasted my sadly slumped CSA pumpkin today and was able to use about 80% of its flesh, so even if a squash looks like it's going the way of the compost, some if not most can still be salvaged. This soup is fabulous; I give the credit to the local beans and pumpkin. Mmmm...

I baked a batch of Dreena's SuperCharge Me! Cookies (EDBV) and they were OK but not amazing. They tasted like an oatmeal raisin cookie with chocolate chips. They are crazy healthy and don't taste weird, so that's good. But my kids wouldn't touch them. *sigh*

The Root Cellar ....

... is wilting.

Something must be done, and SOON, or there will be a lot of wilted, moldy produce in my basement! One easy plan to is get roasting! Squash roasts easily in 30-60 minutes, so I plan to roast away for the next few days. Once the squash are roasted, it can be frozen til I'm ready to prepare something. The turnips and beets must be dealt with on their own asap. Thursday and Friday will involve the Ethiopian stew, sauteed beets and root salad, to be sure. I love the Punk Rock Gravy, so I think a side of mashers will be on the menu with most meals from now on. Mmm. I also thought it might be easy enough to substitute mashers for rice with some of the more stewy soups. I'll post any "cellar meals" accordingly, in case any of you have a similar case of the wilties!

Any chickpeas will be subbed out for my CSA Indian Woman Beans and black beans for my CSA Hopi or Cherokee Trail of Tears/Wax combo.

The Roots
Potatoes: Mashed Potatoes w/ Punk Rock Gravy (CSA Indian Woman beans)
Carrots: Molly Katzen's Carrot Soup
Beets: Root Salad and Sauteed Beets (from the Yoga Kitchen cookbook)
Turnips: Ethiopian Turnip Stew
Onions: (easy to use up ... in every single dish)

The Squash
2 Acorn: Roasted Acorn Squash Soup
4 Kabocha: Kabocha Spinach Soup
4 Buttercup: Lentil Buttercup Soup
1 Pumpkin: Pumpkin Black Beans Soup (CSA black beans)
1 Blue Ballet: Hubbard Squash Pie w/ Gingersnap Pie Crust
3 Spaghetti: store the spaghetti strands for later spaghetti & no-meatballs!

Sunday...NOT the day before the work week!

For our Local Meal tonight, we had a lovely winter spread. I had started the No-Knead Bread last night and spent naptime roasting (all CSA) butternut squash, red onions, garlic and apples. The resulting soup (my MIL's recipe) is warm and comforting. I also wanted to try the suggested root salad, with grated (all CSA) carrot, beet and celeriac. The bread was 2/3 whole wheat and 1/3 white this time and it got a little crisper than I remember (can't wait for the Dream Share to have access to local flour!!) but I think I can just cut the baking time a bit to adjust. The soup was more garlicly than I remember...perhaps a result of the HUGE garlic cloves the CSA provides; they are at least twice as big as the grocery store ones! I'm glad I doubled the recipe and have a batch in the deep fridge. The salad was ok...not amazing but good and crunchy. I only tossed in some lemon juice so tomorrow I'm going to try some of our favorite homemade Sesame Tahini Dressing (from VwaV) and see if that perks it up.

Today started out peacefully, with the boys playing nicely together, but quickly escalated into screaming, crying and time outs by 10am. *sigh* We got them bundled into their snow gear and went to a nearby dog park, where Ole romped with other pups while the kids played in the park. After naps, everyone was in a much better mood. Ted spent much of the afternoon cleaning the house (i.e. gathering stray toys and finding homes for them) and earned $2.50 for his endeavors! He is now obsessed with "chores" and "allowance" so we may look into that.

Tomorrow we are going to go to the Nature and Science Museum and give the Space Movie another try. Last time both Sam and Mae flipped out. It should be a rather quiet day there, I'd expect. I'm not sure how much time Paul is taking off (he can take off as much as he likes, but the reality remains that he has a lot of work to do, period) but it is a wonderful feeling to know that Monday is still a vacation day.

Tea

Phew! Teacher gifts are wrapped and ready. I just love these cute little boxes and the neato butterfly sticker suggests the tea theme (I hope...). The boxes were smaller than I expected, so everyone got 2 (fairly large, IMO) tea bags full of Holy Basil, along with instructions and a little history.

What I've learned: putting together the 'packaging' is a time drain. Next year, use simpler boxes or bags that don't require so much fuss. They won't be as cute, but it'll be easier. I love the three-dimensional sticker tags though and will seek those out for a special look. Now, I'm going to have a cup of 'my' tea! Mmm...

Teacher Gifts

This year, besides the standard monetary donation towards a gift card for each teacher, I decided to also give them a (small!) token of my appreciation for all they do for my precious children. This week's CSA share really sparked my desire to gift some local finds, which will raise awareness I hope, but also, it's cool! To the more "fiery" personalities (Jeanne & Renee), I packed 5 perfect dried cayenne peppers in a little bag, complete with instructions for use and a southwestern-themed gift tag (the one at right is Renee's, obvious to those who know her.) I love it!! To the more gentle folk (Joan, Susie, Elizabeth & Pam), I plan to package some of the Holy Basil dried tea. Tomorrow I'm meeting a local Boulder tea lady to purchase some (empty) tea bags. I'll fill them with 1/8 cup dried tea, with instructions for both tea and bath use. I think each small box will hold 2 or 3 bags. Now, I just hope I haven't forgotten someone essential. Miss Holland (TKD) will receive a hand-decorated flower pot filled with assorted home-baked cookies (our project for tomorrow). I just love the peppers ... I hope the tea will be as cute.

from my farmer...

This last item (a root vegetable) has surely caused some confusion amongst some of us. No, Celeriac is not a turnip turned Rastafarian! For one thing turnips don't grow dreadlocks, and second, for those who ventured to actually taste this alien looking root, the taste is remarkably different! Celeriac is a member of the Apiaceae family, related to carrots, dill, and celery. The taste is closest to celery; in fact, another common name for celeriac is Celery Root. To use, simply peel off the long roots and the skin until you are left with a round, snow white root, and chop into small pieces or grate. Celeriac goes well cooked in soup lending it's sweet earthy flavor to the broth. It is also good grated and eaten raw in salad. You can make a root vegetable salad with grated carrots, beets, and celeriac, and a little lemon juice, or your favorite dressing. I hope that helps, it's really a wonderful mineral rich vegetable, just one of those that has fallen out of favor due to the commercialization of agriculture.

Good to know, because I had no idea!

Deep Freeze RoundUp

Today was the day to go through the deep freeze and see just what was in there. I was pleasantly surprised and more inspired than ever to keep it well stocked through the winter. One of the exciting things about looking ahead to next year is planning better ways to utilize the fresh produce. I had completely forgotten about blanching greens so I am completely lacking in them. Next year!! I also plan to try canning next year, just the hot water bath method, in an attempt to create a fruity maple syrup and apple butters that my kids will eat. They haven't liked the local ones at all, although I think they're superb! But this way, I can tweak and add more (sugar probably!) of what they prefer.

The "root cellar" is bursting at the seams. Baskets of squash, potatoes, turnips, beets, carrots, onions and garlic threaten to take over the cool, dark corner of my frigid basement. I've said it before but I'll say it again ... this is the first winter I've been looking forward to. I know it will be cold and miserable (sometimes, this is Colorado after all) but cold weather invites me into my cozy kitchen. Before, baking was all I enjoyed. I'm sure my waistline is grateful that I now enjoy preparing soups and stews, casseroles and crockpot meals, breads and sauces ...

*Feel free to stop reading now, but I feel the NEED to list the contents - bullets make me feel efficient!*

• (6) 2c black beans
• (4) 2c CSA Hopi black beans
• (1) 2c chickpeas (hooray! Just in time to bring in the Yellow Indian Woman Beans which are chickpea-esque!)
• (1) 2c basil pesto
• (4) 2c shredded zucchini (mmm...zucchini bread...)
• (1) freezer bag of sliced local peaches
  
• (2) 6c broccoli
• (2) 6c peas
• (2) 4c spinach
  
• (2) black bean loaf
• Pumpkin Black Bean Soup
• Carrot Soup
• Punk Rock ChickPea Gravy
• Sloppy Lentil Stew
• Chickpea Turnip Stew
• Lentil Squash Pot Pie (from T-day...half the huge pan...I think we'll break that out for Xmas dinner...mmm.)

I am so grateful to be in an area where the Local Movement is so alive. It is inspiring and exciting. And, most of all, it has given me the push to learn to ENJOY what I used to dread ... feeding my family delicious, home-cooked meals. Hooray!