week eleven

The flowers from the farm have been great. This week we got to cut fifty stems. The produce on the other hand has not been as good. The farm took a beating from the weather this year.

Today we got:
onions
potatoes
tomatoes
cucumber
eggplant
squash
garlic
flowers

perfect : art

my own little cottage by mummy sam.

perfect : art

Shirley Poppy fine art photography print by Nature Mandalas

summer vacation

The summer seems to be flying by. We have been on the move filling our days with things that I hope the kids all find fun. We had a big weekend trip to DC. We have already had two trips into NYC. The first was a fast unplanned trip to meet my husband for lunch. The second was a big trip that included American Girl, FAO and a great dinner in mid-town for some Korean BBQ. We have been to the beach and next week we have a trip planned to the boardwalk (keeping my fingers crossed that it does not rain). There have been several trips into Philadelphia. One was to the Please Touch and another was for some shopping and lunch at the kids favorite Burmese restuarant, Rangoon. We have also done lots of swimming at different pools, some with friends and some without.

The summer has also been filled with lots and lots of camps. Three of the four have done soccer camp. There has also been basketball and ultimate. We still have brownie, another soccer and tennis camp to attend.

Hope your summer is going well also.

summer squash

We have gotten a ton a summer squash from the csa. We grill a lot of it along with beets, scallions, eggplant and onions to make a good grilled veggie salad. However, we had a ton and I needed to come up with something to get rid of a lot of them at once.

While reading this post from the Smitten Kitchen blog I was inspired.

I came up with a grilled summer squash pizza with fresh ricotta (I am now on a kick of making the fresh ricotta). We served it with some grilled fish and the dinner was a hit. I was albe to use up four squash for the two pizzas.

If you want the recipe post a comment and I will post it.

week ten

It was a small share from the csa this week.

We got:
cucumbers
potatoes
tomatoes
summer squash
fresh garlic
beets
snapdragons

perfect : crafts

Cityscape stamp set by Yellow Owl Workshop.

perfect : art

A day at the beach print by Tutti Studio.

perfect : jewerly

Choker by kjoo.

image by kjoo

perfect : shoes

Elan Red Peep Toe Baby Shoes by Mia Joie.

photo by Mia Joie

week nine

Our csa share this week included:
cucumbers
tomatoes
potatoes
cabbage
scallions
fresh garlic
summer squash
lettuce
and tons of cut flowers

garden

In our garden Mr. Lincoln has made a comeback and is going strong.

garden

A few weeks ago I saw that my back flower bed had been attacked by deer. If you could see where we live you would understand how gross it is that we have deer in our yard. The deer need to travel a bit to get to our yard and cross many big roads. They did a lot of damage to the flowers and ruined my hard work and wasted a ton of money.

I was annoyed about the flowers, but I was furious when I saw that they got to my vegetable garden this past weekend. They did a ton of damage to the cucumbers. Even though I hate putting it up and I hate the way it looks, I was forced to put up the deer net. Now they can go pick on someone else, the free meals are over!

blueberries

I took the kids blueberry picking last week and we picked a ton of berries. With the berries I made blueberry jam (and canned it), blueberry crumb muffins, blueberry bananna bread, blueberry boy bait from The Smitten Kitchen and tons of smoothies.

Blueberry Jam
Adapted from The Silver Spoon
Makes 5 8 ounce jars

9 cups blueberries
2 3/4 cups suar
1 lemon

In a large heavy bottomed pot bring the berries and sugar to a boil. Continue to boil for 30 minutes are until it reaches 220 degrees. Stir in the juice from the lemon and cook for a few more minutes. Remove from heat and let rest for 5 minutes.

For directions on canning you can go here.

perfect : knitting

New yarn and patterns by Spud and Chloe.

perfect : dress

Tea dress by soho mode.

photo by soho mode

week eight

It is hard to believe we are on week eight of our csa share.

This week we got:
green/snap beans
cosmos flowers
summer squash
green garlic
potatoes
lettuce
fennel
beets

in the garden

Due to the awful June weather I was not sure how much produce we would get from our garden, but it has started to produce a small amount. I am pretty sure that it will not be as much as in years past, but something is better than nothing.

in the garden

Don't forget there is still time to win a bike. Click on the link to the right to find out how. How nice would it be to ride around town in one of the bikes?

in the garden

We have seen the sun for over a week now and the garden is very happy. Everything has started to grow and there is lots of color.

cherries

I recently spotted a recipe in the June issue of Bon Appetit for a Brown Butter Raspberry Tart that looks divine. I figured that I would make it after we go raspberry picking (very soon). Earlier this week I was reading the Smitten Kitchen blog and spotted a recipe that she did that was based on the tart but easier and with cherries, which are in season right now. She mentioned that the end result was like a cherry clafoutis, a favorite of my husband, so I figured I would give it a try. It is supper easy to make, even with out the cherry pitter, and was a hit in this house.

You can get the recipe here.

week seven

Inbetween dropping off and picking up three of four kids at different camps I ran over to the farm to get our share. We are started to get a few more things besides lettuce (I think my kids are starting to get a bit sick of lettuce).

We got:
heliopsis and cosmos flowers
summer squash
green garlic
broccoli
lettuce
salad onions
beets

new

I added some new flat note sets to my etsy shop and plan to add more over the next few days.