Spring's Bounty

Well, this is the first week of the 2008 CSA season! It is very exciting for me to see my dream realized and to be sharing the abundance growing in the gardens. A reminder that the pick up will be on Thursdays at 811 Marine Drive in Granthams (the corner of Central and Marine) between 3-6pm.

The season starts with lots of greens. In your bag this week will be:

assorted salad mix a yummy mix of 5 types of salad greens, red mustard, endive, arugula
dill delicious if generously added to your salad mix, with salmon, added to your favourite soup, or make a dill dip
flat leaf parsley
a head of lettuce
kale below find a really great, easy to make, kale soup recipe that will make a kale lover out of anybody!
mizuna a really tasty green that is delicious steamed, added to salad, or included in a stirfry
radishes
and maybe fennel bulb this is almost ready and may be included this week or next

As the season progresses you will find more variety in your bag, and quantities will increase. Growing right now are carrots, snow peas, snap peas, beets, potatoes, peppers, basil, swiss chard, daikon radish, broccoli, cauliflower, celeriac, scallions, kolibri, onions, chives, zuchinni, patty pan squash, cucumber, tomatoes and just planted yesterday bush beans and edamame. Phew....no wonder I've been so busy!

The past week has, yet again, been insanely busy! Paul and I held a huge garage sale (combining our households means 2 of everything!) and then over a few days moved the rest of my stuff over to his. The move is finally done! Yeah, now my life can get back to some semblance of normality and routine perhaps.

The last few days were spent entirely in the gardens. How nice to finally write that! I pulled out all the pac choi and chinese cabbage at Tim and Wendy's that had gone to seed and replanted with peppers, tomatoes and basil. The mizuna is growing into a forest so I've cut it back to stop it going to seed. At the farm I've planted out the zuchinni and squash that I had started in the greenhouse - some are already fruiting! Yesterday I seeded two 30' rows of tri-color bush beans, 1 row of silverado swiss chard, 1 row of rainbow chard, 1 row of edamame. Gotta love the Earthway Seeder that made short work of seeding.

Today I'm off to Lee Ann's to start more carrots, lots of carrots. Of course in between plantings there are major amounts of weeding to be done. I've found that keeping on top of the weeding is the only way to go, so each time I'm at one of the gardens I spend a good hour hoeing or pulling weeds.

Oh, this week I went to see Barbara Kingsolver who was appearing at the Vancouver Writer's Festival. She appeared with her husband Stephen Hopp, they were delightful. I had already read her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle so there were no surprises, but it was fun to see her in person and listen to her thoughts on being a locavore.