Farm Box: Week 5

This week's farm box contained:

3 lbs Satsuma Mandarins (Much better quality again than a couple weeks ago)
2 lbs Navel Oranges
1 bu Carrots
1 bu Collards
½ lb Romanesco
1 lb Broccoli
1 bu Scarlet Queen Turnips with greens (these are the small red ones that look like radishes)
3 lbs Assorted Roots (this included parsnips, rutabega, and large white turnips, all without greens)

The romanesco was gorgeous. It tastes like a cross between broccoli and cauliflower, and has this amazing fractal pattern. Like this:

It was a tough week for using up the produce for a few reasons. First, 5 lbs more freakin' oranges! I hadn't even finished last week's oranges! I love getting fruit in the box, but I kind of wish I was getting a mix of citrus or some apples too, instead of all oranges. Also, Josh was out of town for 3 days. And the weather was really warm, which made me not want roasted veggies -- not so great for a week when the box had a ton of root veg.

Wednesday: We had stir-fry, based on this recipe from the Pioneer Woman, using broccoli from the farm box, along with some carrots. The broccoli this week was absolutely delicious. Very fresh and so green tasting. Yum! I ate this stir-fry leftover for lunch the next day, too.

Thursday: I was feeling a little under the weather Thursday, so I made healthy comfort food -- greens and broth. I sauteed thin ribbons of collard and turnip greens, and then tossed in homemade veg broth, cooked white beans, some parm cheese rinds, garlic, and ginger. Let it all simmer for a while and then slurped it up. It was exactly what my body needed.

Friday and Saturday: I confess, I didn't touch stuff from the farm box either of these nights. Friday I was really craving this pasta, which I make with pork sausage rather than the spicy salami. So I made that for dinner Friday night, and ate it as leftovers for Saturday lunch and dinner, with salad on the side. Carbo loading before my big race on Sunday!

Sunday dinner: I ran a half marathon Sunday morning, so I was pretty freakin' exhausted by Sunday night. And since J. wasn't home from Aspen yet, I was on for my dinner. I had roasted romanesco from the box (tossed with olive oil, salt, sumac (which has a lemony flavor), and a touch of chili powder), a Trader Joe's chicken sausage and a salad. It was all I could manage.

Monday dinner: We did roasted lamb sausages with a root veggie gratin (potatoes from a couple weeks ago, turnips, rutabaga, parsnip, all sliced thin, parboiled, then combined with garlic, onions, milk, flour and cheese. Baked at 400 or so for 30 minutes. YUM! ) and also sauteed kale, since J. had it in the fridge already.

Tuesday dinner: Red curry noodles with broccoli and collards along with other veg I had around the house -- mushrooms, shallots, garlic.

This week, we still have a lot left over from the box, unfortunately:

-- Nearly all of the oranges from last week
-- about half of last week's root veggies
-- 1 or 2 scarlet queen turnips
-- nearly a full bunch of carrots
-- That cabbage from a couple weeks ago

Farm Box Week 4, update

Almost time for our first February farm box to arrive. But first, here's an update of what we've done with the rest of our last January box.

Leftover:

2 potatoes
a few carrots
1 green cabbage from a couple weeks ago
1 lb broccoli
a crapload of mandarins and navel oranges (and I'm getting 5 more lbs tomorrow!)


Saturday Lunch: Leftover risotto from Friday, which had Rapini from the farm box, formed into patties with some bread crumbs and lightly pan-fried.

Saturday dinner: J. was up in Tahoe skiing so HE had In N Out for dinner. I had poached eggs, polenta, and chard. My whole meal turned a lovely pink color from the brightly-colored stems of the chard.

Sunday lunch: More risotto cakes, with a big farmer's market salad.

Sunday Dinner: Roast chicken with potatoes and carrots. These carrots are seriously the best I've ever eaten. They get so sweet and rich when you roast them that I'd just about stab someone with my fork if they tried to snatch one off my plate. Kale on the side for Josh, salad for me (I was craving crunchy greens).

Monday Dinner: Butternut squash soup with parmesan toast. This has become a real staple this winter.

Tuesday Dinner: Scrambled eggs and toast, I'm afraid. I had a late meeting and just didn't have the energy to cook by the time I got home. The eggs were doctored with frozen kale from the freezer and the toast was served with my own home-made marmalade, at least.

We supplemented the farm box this week with 1.5 lbs of salad mix from the farmer's market (we go through a LOT of salad between Josh and I), a bunch of dino kale, mushrooms, onions, and garlic. Oh, and bananas. Those aren't exactly grown locally!

River Dog Farm Box, Week 4

On week 4 of the farm box experiment, already, and I just re-upped for next month. We've really been enjoying the veggies and I'm amazed each week by the wonderful variety get, even in the dead of winter.

Leftover from last week:

a few carrots
1 delicata squash (from a couple weeks ago)
4-5 mandarins and one navel orange
2-3 parsnips


This week's box contained:

1 bunch carrots

1 lb Broccoli.

It must be hitting good broccoli season here, because the broccoli was just lovely this week. I think it's probably going to go into a broccoli-potato soup, but it looks so lovely, we might just steam it and eat it with a squeeze of lemon and some salt.

1 bunch Rapini

The rapini was also really lovely this week. Very fresh and green, and we got a huge bunch of it. The cold weather a couple weeks ago really sweetened it up, so it was hardly bitter at all.

3 lbs Satsuma Mandarins
2 lbs Navel Oranges

Honestly, I'm getting tired of the mandarins. Last week's were kind of manky -- too big and starting to get really tough membranes and lose their super-sweetness. That meant that I didn't even finish eating last week's and was a little dismayed to see a whole new batch to eat through this week. I might just squeeze them for juice tomorrow morning and have fresh juice with my breakfast.

1 bunch chard

The chard this week was stunning. Just look at it:

Chard is actually not my favorite green. I'd usually much prefer kale. But this particular variety turned out to be just as delicious as it was beautiful. Hurray!

1½ lbs Yellow Creamer Potatoes

1 Butternut Squash

Although I've been really pleased, overall, with the variety we're getting in the box, we still haven't gotten any beets -- none for the entire month -- which is kind of disappointing. I will say, though, that those are really the only thing that I expected to get in my boxes that I haven't yet gotten. And so far, we've only gotten one thing that I didn't really like -- the bok choi a couple weeks ago. I'm just not a huge bok choi fan.

With the CSA I was a member of in Chicago, my pick-up site had a "trade box." Basically, if you got something you weren't especially fond of in your box, you could put it in the trade box and take something that someone else had put there. I wish that my pick-up site for River Dog had this. Mostly, I wouldn't use this option, but I would gladly have traded away that bok choi a couple weeks ago for another bunch of kale.

An overall note on quality. Mostly, I've been very pleased with the quality of what I've gotten in my boxes. It's been very fresh and delicious. There have been a few minor exceptions: As I mentioned above, last week's mandarins were less-than-stellar, and one navel orange was totally rotten the day after I got it -- yuck! Some of my first batch of broccoli had also gone rotten.

Anyway, here's what we've done with this week's veggies so far:

Tuesday dinner: The night before this week's box came, I used up most of what was left of the veggies from last week. I roasted carrots, turnips, and parsnips together with a chopped up lemon, olive oil, and a bunch of spices, then served it over quinoa.

Wednesday dinner: stuffed chicken breasts over polenta, based on this recipe, which has become one of our favorites. We sauteed leek from last week's box along with mushrooms, garlic, and some of that lovely chard, then folded it inside thinly pounded chicken breasts along with some fontina cheese. Yum! We served it over polenta and it was just delicious. This was also Thursday lunch for me, as leftovers.

Thursday dinner: I was on my own for Thursday dinner, since J. was at work late, so I made a simple meal -- leftover polenta, served with some of the rapini, which I blanched in boiling water for just a couple minutes and poached eggs. Super-fast and healthy, yet satisfying.

Friday dinner: Last night we made risotto with delicata squash, mushrooms, leek, and the rest of the rapini. I cut the squash into small cubes, then pre-browned it in butter on the stovetop, and blanched the rapini, before adding both at the very end of the cooking process. (If you add them too early, they just disintegrate before the rice is done. Used my home-made veggie stock, and basically followed Mark Bittman's directions for risotto from How to Cook Everything, which has been my go-to cookbook for years.

As for everything else, I suspect the squash will become soup, and the potatoes and broccoli may, too. Or, the potatoes and carrots might end as roasted veggies alongside our usual Sunday night roast (chicken or pork loin most weeks).

River Dog Farm Box, Week 3

Week 3, already, of my farm box experiment. Today was lovely because I worked from home, so I actually got to walk down to my pick-up site at lunchtime to get my box. It was was one of those gorgeous Bay Area winter days that feels like May in any place else I've ever lived: 65 degrees, softly sunny, the smell of damp earth in the air. The not-quite-a-mile walk to my pick-up site was just wonderful.

Leftover from last week:

Mostly, we just had odds and ends leftover, with the exception of the delicata. But those will keep forever, so I'm not worried about it. Here's what was left:

1 watermelon radish
A few leaves of Kale
A few broccoli leaves (we ate all the heads, though)
2 delicata squash
A couple red radishes
1 mandarin orange
1 carrot
2-3 parsnips


This week's box contained:

1 very large celery root (also known as celariac)
I've never actually cooked with celery root before, so I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. I've read the flavor is something like celery crossed with parsley, and that it mellows as it cooks. I'm thinking maybe a potato-celery root soup or maybe a gratin with potatoes and leeks?

It's a bit homely looking, no?

1 large bunch collard greens
Again, not something I've ever cooked with before. However, Josh and I both adore dark greens and eat at least one bunch, if not two, of kale every week. Usually, we saute it in a hot pan with a bit of water and salt and then spritz it with lemon juice right before serving. I'm guessing I can cook this in a similar manner and I'm sure we'll enjoy it.

1 bunch Tokyo turnips
These are the small, smooth white turnips that look like overgrown radishes, not the big purplish knobbly ones. I don't dislike turnips, but I don't ever really buy them. I suspect these are destined to be cut up and eaten as snacks, with blue cheese dip. If I make a gratin with the celery root and potatoes, maybe I'll add these. Also, my farm box said you can eat the greens, as well, just like any other dark green.

1 bunch carrots
The carrots from my boxes have been so lovely. Fat and sweet and perfectly formed. I think winter carrots are SO much better than summer ones! These will get snacked on and a few probably roasted, as well.

1 green cabbage
Frankly, I was a little dismayed to see this in my box, as Josh and I currently have a monster-sized batch of sauerkraut fermenting and a huge head of cabbage left over from J's accidental over-buy for the sauerkraut AND half a head of purple cabbage in my fridge. Luckily, cabbage keeps pretty well, so if this sits in the fridge for a few weeks before I use it up, I'm sure it'll be fine. Anyone have any good cabbage recipes?

4 leeks
These are such a staple, I'm sure I won't have a hard time using them up. I use them in eggs, soups, sauces, etc. Also, I save the tough darker green bits to use to make broth. I just keep a baggie in the freezer for odds and ends like this (mushroom stems, leek greens, chicken bones, etc) and when I have a bunch saved up, I make my own stock. So much better than anything you can buy in the store, and practically free, since I make it mostly with scraps.

2 lbs navel oranges AND 3 lbs satsuma mandarins
Glad there are some navels mixed in with the oranges this week. It's nearing the end of peak Satsuma season, I think -- they're starting to look a bit knobbly and faded.

Here's everything from the box, all laid out

I have to say, I'm not as excited about this week's box as I have been about the past two. The food all looks great, it's just that none of my favorites were included this week. I was hoping for a nice bunch of beets and more kale and winter squash. Anyway, here's what I'm thinking (farm box ingredients in italics):

Wednesday Lunch: This lunch was all about using up last week's odds and ends before going to pick up this week's box. Luckily, I worked from home, so I was able to make a more elaborate lunch than usual -- my own version of the Peanut Sesame Noodles from Smitten Kitchen. I discovered this recipe a couple of years ago, and it has become one of my staples. It's easy to whip up fast for a weeknight, it's healthy, and it allows for infinite variation -- I almost always have the ingredients for it in the house. Today's version had: shredded red cabbage, thinly sliced radishes, thinly sliced and blanched broccoli leaves, blanched ribbons of kale and bok Choi, and shredded carrots. All but the cabbage were left from last week's farm box. I also often toss in some tofu (browned in a dry pan) and some frozen peas or Trader Joes frozen "Soycatash."

Wednesday Dinner: Lively Up Yourself Lentil Soup from 101 Cookbooks (a great resource for healthy, veggie-heavy recipes). I used a combination of greens -- the greens from this week's turnips, a couple leaves of this week's collards, and the few leaves that were left from last week's kale. I never would have thought to eat the turnip greens, but the newsletter from Riverdog said you could use 'em like any other green. They were actually milder than I expected -- I guess since turnips have a sharper taste, I was expecting the greens to have the same.

Other plans for the box include some sort of gratin with the celeriac and some potatoes, collard greens as a side dish, and snacking on the turnips. This week will be a bit more of a challenge, so I'll let you know where I end up.


EDT to add:

Here's what we've done with the rest of last week's farm box:

Thursday Dinner: Baked tilapia, served with sauteed collard greens splashed with lemon (it did taste pretty much exactly like kale, only a bit less tender), and mashed potatoes and celery root. This was my first time using celery root. I found that it tastes a bit like very mild celery crossed with artichoke heart (it leaves that same sort of sweet and tangy aftertaste in the back of your throat). It was delicious boiled and mashed with potatoes, butter, sour cream, and a bit of salt and pepper.

Friday: We actually went out for dinner on Friday night, a rare occurrence since I've been trying to save my pennies for a big trip to Alaska this coming summer.

Saturday dinner: One of my favorite quick meals, rice bowls. Locally grown brown rice from Massa Family Organics (the best rice I've ever tasted!), topped with seared ahi tuna marinated in a little soy sauce, fresh ginger and garlic, then sprinkled with sesame seeds, lightly sauteed farm box carrots and turnips, plus some sauteed kale we bought to supplement the farm box.
Sunday lunch: Pasta salad with orzo, farm box carrots and turnips and leeks, kalamata olives and feta. This will also be lunch for a day or two this week.

Sunday dinner: We made our common Sunday night roast pork, this time with a gratin on the side, made with celery root, potatoes, leeks, and delicata squash (from the Week 2 farm box). The gratin was totally amazing -- I could have eaten the whole pan on my own!


What's left: As of right now, Monday mid-day, we have the following left from the boxes:

-- a couple parsnips (from 2 weeks ago)

-- 4 or 5 carrots

-- the entire cabbage

-- 1 delicata squash from a couple weeks ago

-- a few oranges, which will easily be eaten before this Wednesday's box arrives.

-- 2 turnips

-- 2 leeks

The carrots, parsnips, and turnips will get eaten tonight -- we're making sausages, roasted veggies, and eating the first of our home-fermented sauerkraut. God only knows what I'm going to do with that freakin' cabbage!

Other than that, I ended up throwing away what was left of the bok choi from a couple weeks ago, but other than a couple rotten oranges, that's the only thing I've tossed from the farm boxes. This is a HUGE change for me -- I'm notoriously bad about over-buying produce and throwing away half of what I buy. Since I started the farm boxes, the only produce I've bought is a bag of farmer's market salad a week and a couple extra bunches of kale. I've also cut my food spending by 30% (!!!) from my typical expenditures. This isn't just due to the farm box -- I've also been much more aware of my spending in general, but I think the farm box has helped. Anyway, I'd say that so far the farm box has been a resounding success. I've already sent in my check to sign up again for next month.

River Dog Farm Box, Week 2

This is the second in my series of posts about my new membership in River Dog Farms' CSA. The first one can be found here.

Left from last week's box: 1 small head cauliflower, 2 potatoes 1 carrot. Everything else got devoured, and it pretty well lasted me the week. I supplemented with salad greens and a bunch of kale from the farmer's market and also an acorn squash I already had.

This weeks' box contained:

3lbs Satsuma Mandarins
1 lb Watermelon Radishes (3 big ones) (They look like this, for those of you who aren't familiar)
1 lb parsnips
1 huge heads Bok Choi
1 bunch Red Russian Kale
1 bunch Carrots
1 bunch Spinach
1 small bunch Red radishes
1/2 lb broccoli (3 small heads, lots of leaves and stems, small heads)
3 Delicata Squash.

Wednesday: Beef Stir fry with Bok Choi and Broccoli. Based on this recipe from The Pioneer Woman, which is utterly delicious and SO quick. Delicious and easy (I managed to successfully cook it after a wee bit too much wine at happy hour :-) I didn't even use half of the bok choi for it, though - there was so much.

Thursday: Mandarin oranges as snacks, red radishes in my salad at lunch. Dinner will be lamb sausage with roasted potatoes and cauliflower (leftover from last week), plus spinach and mandarin salad with this dressing.

This weekend, we'll probably make a pork roast with Honey-Glazed Roasted Carrots and Parsnips and sauteed kale.

I'm sure the oranges will get eaten, no problem, as I ate every last one from last week's box (other than the two that were rotten inside - ick!) Not quite sure what to do about the watermelon radishes. They'd be good in a cole slaw with red cabbage and maybe pecans, but that's not really very wintery. If I don't use 'em by the end of the week, I'll make them into pickles, maybe with that leftover cauliflower from last week, which I need to use up before it starts to go all spotty.

I'm thrilled, though, to see that it's mid-January and I still have quite a wide variety of produce coming in my box this week. That's pretty wonderful, and one of the joys of living in CA. The boy tells stories of going out with a steel gardening fork to dig out "winter carrots" from the garden as a kid (he grew up in Pennsylvania). I feel very fortunate that we don't have to do that!

********

EDT to add: Here's how we've continued to use up this week's box.

Friday: Roasted squash and cauliflower soup. I peeled, chopped, and roasted half an acorn squash I had in the fridge, along with a delicata from this week's farm box and the last of the cauliflower from last week's box in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes or so, then sauteed some garlic and onions in a stockpot with 1 tbs butter. Added 4 cups home-made veggie broth and the squash / cauliflower. Cooked for a little bit, then blended with an immersion blender. Served topped with crumbled bacon and a swirl of greek yogurt, bread on the side. Delicious, healthy, and super easy!

Saturday: Spaghetti and sausage with farm box kale on the side. We love, love, love kale and it could not be easier to make. Just pull the leaves off the tough stems, and saute in a hot pan with a bit of olive oil and water. It tenderizes quicker if you cover the pan. At the end, sprinkle with salt and lemon juice. YUM!

Sunday: Pork Loin roasted with farm box carrots and parsnips, salad with watermelon radish. We used this recipe, originally from Bon Appetit, which has become my absolute favorite pork recipe. Instead of the baby carrots, we used full-sized carrots and parsnips, cut into long skinny quarters. Also, I usually skip the jalapeno in the carrot part of the recipe, in favor of using extra-spicy chili powder and some smoked paprika. The carrots and parsnips were amazing -- super-flavorful and sweet, a little bit caramelized from the long cooking time. Delicious! Leftovers of this, along with salad from the grocery store, will be my lunch for the next two days.

As of today, Monday, I have left from the box: 1.5 watermelon radish (part of which I'll eat at lunch today), 3 parsnips, 1 or 2 carrots, 1/3 of a bunch of kale, 2 delicata squash, 1/2 bunch bok choi (which probably won't get eaten. I've learned that I strongly prefer baby bok choi -- the big bunches are a little overpowering for me.), a few mandarins, a few broccoli leaves (which will probably go into my next batch of broth).

River Dog Farm Box: Week 1

For the month of January, I've signed up to get a weekly CSA box from River Dog Farm. For those not in the know, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, small farms sell "shares" in the farm and when you buy one, it entitles you to a large box of produce from the farm each week.

Most places I've lived, this has been a sign-up-by-the season deal. For example, when I lived in Chicago, my roommates and I paid a few hundred bucks in advance for a share in a farm for the whole season. We got a box each week from the start of the season (May, if I'm remembering correctly) through mid-October or so. Here in the Bay Area, however, we are lucky enough to be surrounded by amazing family-run farms, so the options are much more varied and flexible. I found that most CSAs here run year-round and offer much shorter-term options -- anywhere from just needing to request a box the week you want one to committing to a few months at a go. I signed up just for the month of January to give it a test run, and it cost me $20 a week.

Every Wednesday, a box of delicious farm goodies gets delivered to a house in my neighborhood along with boxes for several other people. I just have to pick it up by 7pm on that day each week -- easy as pie. What you get in each box depends entirely on what's in season and ready to be picked, which is perfect for a non-fussy eater like me. That's pretty much what I eat, anyway, although I do give in to the occasional all-the-way-from-Chile indulgence at the Berkeley Bowl.

I picked up my first box a couple of days ago, and it was really lovely. Here it is.

It contained:
1 bunch rapini
2 big leeks
2 lb gold finn potatoes
1 bunch carrots (SO sweet, thanks to the chilly weather lately!)
4 small heads romaine lettuce
2 small heads cauliflower
1 large grey Kabocha squash
3 lbs satsuma mandarins (which is AWESOME, as I am utterly addicted to those babies right now)

I haven't added it up precisely, but that's certainly at least $20 worth of food at the grocery store or farmer's market. Especially since it's all organic. So far, here's what I've done with my produce:

Wednesday dinner: We made pasta with Rapini and white beans. Although the recipe doesn't call for it, I also sauteed one of the leeks and added that. Also, I used my own homemade veggie stock, which I make from various veggie scraps (mushroom stems, the green parts of leeks, parsley stems, etc) that I save in the freezer till I have enough for broth.

Thursday: Mandarins, mandarins, mandarins as snacks. Plus a couple of the carrots and for dinner the leftovers from Wednesday, supplemented with some roasted brussels sprouts that I already had in the fridge . Yum!

Friday: More snacking on the mandarins and carrots, a salad with the romaine for lunch, and roasted squash soup for dinner (I also used the other leek in the soup).

Saturday: Leftover squash soup for lunch and . . . ?

The potatoes will get used, no problem, as Josh and I usually eat potatoes at least once a week with roast pork, chicken, or sausages. Potatoes are also part of one of my key "emergency meals" -- poached eggs over pan-sauteed potatoes and greens with lots of salsa.

As for the cauliflower, my inclination is to use it for an indian-style curry, with chickpeas and carrots. Josh isn't a huge indian curry fan, though, so it may also end up in some kind of soup or just roasted with some spices as a side dish for some meal.

EDT to add:

Saturday: pork chops with my own homemade apple-thyme jam and mashed CSA box potatoes.

Sunday: Chickpea, cauliflower, and carrot curry from this recipe. The original recipe doesn't call for any veg other than onions and chickpeas, but I've discovered that you can pretty easily add other sturdy veggies to the mix. Also, it's way better if you make it with ground cumin and coriander rather than whole.

Monday: Lunch was left-over curry and the last of the romaine from the farm box. Lunch tomorrow will be the same.

Will I use it all? For those of you keeping track, as of midday Monday, I have left 1 small head cauliflower, a couple potatoes, a couple carrots, and some mandarins. I'll eat the potatoes with eggs for dinner tonight, finish the mandarins in the next couple of days, and probably blanch and freeze the cauliflower if I don't eat it tomorrow as a snack (cauliflower and blue cheese onion dip is delicious!). A pretty good use of all those lovely veggies! I supplemented with a $3.00 bag of salad greens from the farmer's market and also gave into the temptation to buy some kale there, which I'll eat tonight with my potatoes and eggs. Can't wait to see what I get in this week's box!

So why did I sign up? Well, I already eat plenty of produce, for the most part. But I tend to WAY over-buy in the produce department at the grocery store, and a lot of what I purchase ends up going to waste. I am hoping that having my veggies delivered to me each week will mostly keep me out of the grocery store. I figure that if I only need to buy staples like eggs, milk, and dried goods, I can probably get away with only going every other week.

Also, I like the challenge of coming up with something to do with the wonderful produce I get. For some people, this might be stressful. But, as I said, I have pretty much never met a vegetable I didn't like if it was cooked properly (other than lima beans and their awful chalky texture - gross!) And I feel like getting surprise veggies each week is sort of like a creative writing prompt -- the parameters make me feel MORE creative rather than less. Like that rapini. I can't remember the last time I bought rapini, but it ended up being the first thing I used from the box. It just looked so vibrant and delicious, and I found a great new recipe that will definitely be added to my regular rotation.

Finally, I really love the idea of supporting a small, relatively local farmer really directly (these guys are in the Capay Valley, maybe 80 miles or so from where I live). I'm lucky enough to get to do most of my shopping already at farm markets and Berkeley Bowl, where many of their suppliers are small and local, anyway, but it's nice to know that my money goes directly to the farmer, no middle man.

Right now, I'm looking at this as an experiment. Some things I'm trying to figure out:

-- Will I be able to use all the produce each week before it goes bad? I suspect that this will be more an issue in the summer, when produce is more perishable, than now. Potatoes and squash and that sort of stuff stores very well. Tomatoes, herbs, lettuce, and that ilk, not so much.

-- Will I still have to supplement with the grocery store or farmer's market? (I'm almost positive that the answer to this is yes -- I'm going to want more salad greens than I'll get most weeks, and lots of extra fruit in the summer especially.) If so, how much? And am I ultimately saving money on groceries by doing this?

-- Is River Dog the right CSA for me? I also looked at several other farms, including Full Belly Farm, Terra Firma (appealing because I actually used to live within a few miles of this farm), and Farm Fresh to You (which is mostly Capay Organic). I chose River Dog because the price was right, they get good reviews on Yelp, and they also raise pigs and chickens. I'd love to also start purchasing sustainably raised meat direct from the rancher at some point, so that seemed like a good reason to start with River Dog for my CSA.

Anyway, I'll keep y'all updated on how it goes, but I think week 1 was a sure success.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #79

1. Last week, going for a twilight run around Lake Merritt: Candy-colored sky, crisp air, sparkling "necklace of lights" around the lake.

2. The dog running down the street ahead of his owner last night. He was wearing a jingle-bell collar and it totally sounded, in the dark, like a reindeer was trotting down the road toward me.

3. Trivia night!

4. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher. I whipped through it in a day and wish I had more teens and pre-teens in my life to give it to. You'll love it if you like the Suzanne Collins Hunger Games series.

5. Hand-made knit goods winging their way to family and friends across the country.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #78

1. Random late-breaking brilliant bursts fall color in Northern California (the first year I've been here that there's really been any color at all!)

2. The new (or, rather, beautifully refurbished) swimming pool on my way home from work, the Richmond Plunge.

3. My awesome running partners.

4. 23+ miles of running last week -- the most I've ever run in a week and with no pain!

5. The hundred plus kids' books (publisher's samples) I was able to donate to Children's Hospital Oakland last week. I'm glowing with the idea of sick kids having this huge stack of new books to choose from to keep them occupied in a hard time.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #77

1. Three backpacking trips in 4 weeks (Desolation Wilderness, Point Reyes, and the Trinity Alps).

2. Planning a trip back east for some real autumn for the first time since 2004.

3. Cupcakes with sprinkles on the icing.

4. This video:

Magic- A Belly Grows from The Panic Room Videos on Vimeo.

5. A life full of really wonderful friends and family.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #76

1. Finally, a summer night warm enough for a sundress, no sweater (literally the first one all year!)

2. Walking around Berkeley after dark, in a sundress and sandals, eating popsicles.

3. A cool shower before bed to make a hot night more comfortable.

4. Someone else making good, strong coffee for you in the morning.

5. Feeling like all is basically right with the world.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #75

1. A rope swing out into a lake.

That is obviously not me on the swing -- it's my crazy boyfriend. I was either too wussy or too smart, depending on who you ask, to do it. That swing was HIGH. (For Bay Area folks, it's at Bass Lake in Pt Reyes. Be prepared for lots of skinny gay men in their skivvies hanging around the swing if you head out there :-)

2. Summer in the Bay Area, finally. Last night, I ate dinner on my porch in short sleeves and got to sleep with all the windows open and just a thin blanket for covers for the first time since last September. Seriously.

3. A Saturday afternoon spent canning, which led to a pantry full of delicious homemade pickles (dill and bread-and-butter) plus organic blackberry jam.

4. The glow of sunset on a bluff above the ocean.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #74

1. Weekend backpacking trips in the mountains (Desolation Wilderness, in this case. Stunning.)

2. Wildflowers

3. Clouds at sunset

4. Icy cold dips in alpine lakes.

5. Finally getting the hang of taking pictures of people:

Daily Dose of Gratitude #73

1. A first-thing-in-the-morning email that makes you feel all glowy inside.

2. Drinking good wine and chatting while someone makes you a delicious dinner.

3. Black on the outside, red-on-the-inside plums.

4. The glow in my limbs that lasts for hours after a cold swim in the ocean.

5. This song:

Daily Dose of Gratitude #72

1. A gorgeous 25 mile bike ride in Petaluma, followed by wine tasting at my favorite winery.

2. Wild blackberries at the side of the road, warm in the sun.

3. My "baby" sister, who turns 25 today. I left home for college when she was only 9, so it took me a long time to feel like I really knew her as anything more than a sometimes annoying little kid. But I'm so proud of the wonderful adult she's become.

4. Charlotte's Web, which makes me bawl my eyes out every single time I read it (which is a LOT). And while I'm at it, other books from my childhood that still alternately utterly charm me and make me bawl: Tuck Everlasting, Where the Red Fern Grows, Bridge to Terabithia.

5. Quinoa and summer veggie salad (corn, beets, kale, tons of fresh herbs, local olive oil and vinegar, fresh mozzarella). Yum!

Home on the Range

I'll admit it. I've got an odd obsession with old buildings. Especially weathered, falling-down barns. To me, they always feel full of potential, like they have an untold story that you can almost hear on the breeze. And if old barns are your obsession, Wyoming isn't a bad place to visit. The wood buildings weather beautifully in the harsh climate, and the buildings look amazing against that huge Western sky.

In Grand Teton, there's an area called Mormon Row that blew me away in this regard. This is the area where a small enclave of Mormons first settled in the 1890s. The barn at the top of this post was part of the the Thomas Murphy Homestead, and was built sometime in the 1920s. I love that the barns were more elaborate and larger than the houses, which were often simple log cabins. Some were even ordered directly from the Sears and Roebuck catalog!

This home was, if I'm remembering correctly, also a part of the Murphy homestead. In the mid-50s, the homes were abandoned when the land was aquired in order to expand Grand Teton National Park although I'm not sure why. Anyway, they now lie on National Park land, a few remaining barns and homes sinking slowly sinking back into the Wyoming dirt.

The barn below was a part of the Andrew and Ida Chambers Homestead.

And a barn from the Thomas and Lucille Moulton Homestead, built in the 1910s. I suspect that this one may have had some sort of refurbishing done on it, since the wood seems an awfully bright color for something that's been weathering the Wyoming elements for 100 years. But perhaps it's just the type of wood used to build it?

Seeing these old buildings really took my breath away. The sky just seemed so huge over them, and the mountains so towering. I imagine living out here must have been lonely, in some ways, even as the scenery was spectacular. It can't have been anywhere near easy, though, in a time before the modern conveniences we all depend on so much. In any case, only one of the old homes is still occupied by humans (as a bed and breakfast), but animal inhabitants are everywhere. We saw plenty of the ubiquitous bison. Also, pronghorns. This is also where we saw the baby coyote and great horned owls from my last post.

And it's not just in the park that these old houses can be found. After leaving Grand Teton, we saw this amazing old house somewhere in Idaho.

I made my traveling companion pull over so I could take approximately a zillion photos. Apparently, the inside of the place was a wreck from being used as a party house by local teens. I didn't bother to look inside, though. I prefer the romance of the outside.

I mean, seriously, doesn't it just make you feel lonely and breathless from the beauty at the same time? Look at that SKY!

Finally, on a side note, I think part of my old barn obsession comes from spending summers near this barn: DH Day Barn, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shore. It's actually not falling-down at all. It's beautifully maintained. But it's certainly the most gorgeous barn I've ever seen. It's like something out of a fairy tale. I secretly kind of want to live in it!

So, what have you seen?

When you're traveling in Yellowstone, the first question you get asked by fellow travelers is "So, what have you seen?" Don't be fooled; they're not asking about the scenery. In Yellowstone, "What have you seen?" really means "What animals have you seen?" The bigger, the better. The proper response is, of course, to rattle off a list of all the big game you've encountered in the park. Extra points for wolves, grizzlies, or a close encounter while hiking. It reminds me a bit of kids collecting baseball cards -- I have a Mark Maguire, a Johnny Damon, and so on -- with a whiff of both childlike excitement and competition to it.

Anyway, in the spirit of competition, which I never have been able to resist, here's my list. All photos were taken with my Canon Rebel XSi (pretty much the best Christmas / birthday present ever, from my awesome family), mostly with a 300mm zoom lens.

Black Bears. This was the first bear we saw. I spotted it right after Mike bragged that he was going to kick my ass at our who-can-spot-the-big-animals-first contest. (For the record, I totally won.)

ETA: I am told by my father that this bear is, in fact, a grizzly, and not a black bear. Apparently, you can tell by the hump in the shoulder area. So, I guess I saw both black bears AND grizzlies, after all :-)

Bald Eagles nesting! Almost as soon as we drove into the park, but I didn't get any good pictures.

Moose. One male, with a full set of antlers, plus several females, including one feeding with her baby right next to the trail while we were out hiking.

Who knew that baby moose were so darn cute?

Osprey

Also, osprey nests aplenty. Their nests completely crack me up. Look at this:

How is it a good idea to build your nest like this, all exposed to the elements and other birds? Does the Osprey have any natural enemies? Also, this nest is built on top of a platform clearly man-made for this purpose. We think it's to keep them from nesting on top of telephone and electrical poles. Not so good if repair work needs to be done -- ospreys aren't the kindest birds ever.

Ravens, nesting on the side of a cliff

Pronghorn

Elk

Mule Deer

Bison Too freakin' many to count.

(FYI -- this picture was not taken with the zoom lens. They tell you to stay away from the Bison, but the damn bison aren't so great at staying away from you!) Honestly, we were really excited about the bison at first. But after about your 100th bison, they stop being so exciting. Well, except for the ones that walk right through your campsite:

And the ones that hold up traffic for several minutes. Look at that adorable baby! You can't see it in this photo, but he's looking very nervously at a line of about a dozen cars waiting for him to cross the road. Right after I took this picture, daddy came up behind junior and nudged him the rest of the way across the road.

Pika

Yellow Bellied Marmots, which make me laugh every single time I see one. There's something so . . . earnest about them.

Zillions of ground squirrels and chipmunks. I have no pictures of these, although one climbed right up on Mike's lap in an attempt to steal his granola bar one afternoon. Couldn't get my camera out fast enough to capture that Kodak moment.

A couple of garter snakes and a racer or two. Also no pictures. They move too fast. We didn't see any poisonous snakes, though, which is a good thing in my book. Mike has that quintessential boy quality of always wanting to touch things that are squirmy, slimy, and generally icky. And, I gotta say, there's a lot I'd do for my friends, but sucking the venom out of a snake bite is totally not on that list.

Great horned owls

Coyotes

Including a totally coo-worthy baby. Mama was nowhere to be seen with this little guy. Also, he was hanging around right underneath the owls we saw. Perhaps hoping for a baby to fall while it was learning to fly?

Beaver dams (the first I've ever seen). No beaver, sadly, although we stood and watched for a while, hoping to see one poke its head out.

We could also see where the beavers had been hard at work chewing down new trees. Ambitious little guys, huh?

Not pictured is the jumping mouse we found in our tent one night. I was too busy shrieking like the girl that I am to get my camera. I totally made Mike get in the tent and chase the little guy out.

Beyond that, we heard wolves from a distance while we were backpacking near the Lamar Valley, but we didn't see anything other than the entrance to a den. We also didn't see a grizzly. We DID see this, though:

I wanted to bring it home SO bad! I think next to Hawaii, where they threaten you with Pele's curse if you so much as think about taking any lava rock home with you, Yellowstone does the best job of anywhere of keeping people from taking stuff like this home. How is it even possible that this amazing skull is still out there and that no one has snuck it into their car by now?

Also, I'll tell you what. The wildlife certainly has right-of-way in Yellowstone, and they're not afraid to use it. In addition to the "bear jams" when someone spotted a distant animal and pulled over to see it, I saw wildlife crossing the road and stopping traffic many, many times while we were there.

It's sort of funny, though, that I write about the animals first, as they were not at all my favorite part of this trip. I mean, the first few times we saw a big animal, it was kind of exciting. And it would be impossible to go to Yellowstone and not have a lot of animal sightings, unlike other parks I've been in. But the thrill wore off fast for me. Later this week, on to our other adventures!

Yellowstone, last minute

So I spent the last week in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Totally spur of the moment. My good friend and frequent camping partner, Mike, called me up a couple weekends ago, told me he was taking this trip, and invited me. I said no, initially, thinking there was no way I could get time off work last minute, but it turned out that this was actually a perfect week to take vacation. So off we went.

We left the Bay Area on Friday afternoon and drove straight through. Took us about 17.5 hours. Drovee across the Nevada desert in the dark, taking turns at the wheel while the other drove. Stopped sometime in the middle of the night for coffee at a McDonalds in Lovelock, Nevada (creepy, creepy, creepy), where we went through the drive through behind a couple of meth-head girls getting a huge bag of food, on foot. Had breakfast at 5 AM at a tiny diner with a super-friendly waitress in Twin Falls Idaho. And washed up in West Yellowstone somewhere around 11 AM Saturday. I can't say I recommend the driving straight through thing -- I was pretty beat all day on Saturday. The good thing about is that we didn't actually have to see Nevada because it was so dark. Mike says I'm exaggerating, but I think pretty much the entire state of Nevada is creepy as all hell. It's utterly beyond me why anyone would want to live there (sorry Amy, if you're reading this).

Since the whole thing was very last minute, we didn't do much planning. I was a bit nervous about getting campsites last-minute in the park, and we were prepared to camp on National Forest land outside the park (like Yosemite, Yellowstone is surrounded on all sides by National Forests). But it turns out that we were there just before the busy season, so it wasn't an issue. We camped in either Yellowstone or Grand Teton every night except our last, including one night backpacking in the Yellowstone backcountry. Spent 4 days in Yellowstone, 2.5 in Grand Teton / Jackson Hole. Did lots and lots of hiking, animal-viewing, photo-taking, and, yes, driving. Had a lovely time.

Anyway, over the next couple of weeks, I plan to post pictures of the trip a bit at a time. I took over 2000 photos (!), most with the amazing DSLR camera my very generous family gave me for Christmas last year. But it's gonna take me a while to sort through them. Stay tuned.

Memorial Day: Canyon Creek

So for Memorial Day, I headed out on my first non-snow camping trip of the year. Usually, I'd have been on several trips at this point, but triathlon training has definitely occupied a lot of my time this spring. Now that summer's here, though, and the snow is finally melting in the Sierras, backpacking and camping are back on my priority agenda.

Anyway, Memorial Day weekend morning, K. and I headed north. We took the back roads to avoid the I-5 misery (a good plan, as I can only amuse myself by identifying the fruit and nut trees in the orchards that line I-5 for so long). We didn't have much of a plan - basically knew we wanted to go somewhere in the Whiskeytown area, since neither of us had been there before, and we figured we'd sort out the camping thing one way or another. The nice thing about California is that there's tons of national forest land here, and it's almost all open for "dispersed camping." Basically, you can pull off the road and pitch a tent almost anywhere. It's my secret for always finding a campsite when I go to Yosemite (Stanislaus National Forest, yay), and it has the added bonus of camp without a single RV, boombox blasting Lady GaGa, or drunken frat boy in sight. Woo!

First stop was Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. Whiskeytown Lake is astonishingly beautiful -- I really had no idea. It's go the same clarity and blue-ness of Tahoe, although it's smaller, nestled in the hills with snow-capped mountains framing it. It looks like something out of a storybook.

The day we were there, we saw dozens of sailboats gliding across the surface of the lake, which is a little surreal when they're framed by snow-capped mountains in the background. We tried to do a hike to one of Whiskeytown's supposedly spectacular waterfalls, but were stymied by overflowing streams (200% of normal, as we later saw on a sign in Trinity National Forest). We hadn't brought hiking poles or water shoes with us, so we ended up having to turn back because we felt that the stream crossing simply wouldn't be safe. And K. has been airlifted out of a hiking once in his life, so no need to risk a repeat. K. did spend a while teaching me how to take great water pics with my Christmas-present DSLR that has been sorely neglected this spring. I now know how to blur water artistically, which is fun.

All the campgrounds at Whiskeytown were full. Unsurprising, since it's one of the biggest camping weekends of the year. But what was surprising was how uncrowded it felt, despite that. I think this area is a bit of a secret. Folks from the Bay area and Sacramento tend to head East or South, to Tahoe and Yosemite and Big Sur, and they forget all about this area. I'd rather be here than Tahoe, though, anytime. No cheezy motels and casinos, no crowds, much more unspoiled beauty.

Anyway, we pressed onward into Trinity National Forest, where they allow dispersed camping (unlike the National Rec Area, which has protections in place closer to what you'd see in a National Park). K. is a bit of a map geek, and had figured out by looking at topo maps that this area was likely to have great river-side places to camp. And boy was he right. After poking around a bit down some dirt 4WD roads, we discovered pretty much the perfect campsite, right next to Canyon Creek. You just won't get a campsite this ideal in a campground.

Before we found this perfect site, we first pitched our tent in a wooded area nearby. It was lovely, but the mosquitos were BAD, and there wasn't a great swimming hole. So when we went out for a walk after setting up camp, we decided to move. . . . but we really didn't want to take down the tent and put it up again . . . leading to this:

Is this the oddest thing you've ever carried on the top of the 4-Runner, K?

Anyway, the tent made it safely to our new campsite, where we spent the next 2 nights relaxing and taking icy cold dips in the creek. I've swum in some cold water in my life (Lake Superior -- brrr. Or San Francisco Bay, anyone?), but nothing could compare to this. I'm pretty sure the water we were swimming in had been snow about 5 minutes earlier. Anyway, swimming might be a bit of an exaggeration. It was more of an ohmygodthisissofreakincold jump in, squealing, go under, and get the hell out kind of thing. No photographic evidence, I'm afraid. I was too busy shrieking like a girl to even think of the camera.

Canyon Creek is a tributary, I believe, of the Trinity River, and it's pretty much gorgeous the whole way along. All weekend, we were surrounded by scenery like this:

Or this:

We hiked in the Trinity Alps, and K. took what might be my favorite picture of myself ever.

Plus the dogwoods were in full bloom up there. Just lovely.

Monday, on our way home, we took a detour in order to drive along the Trinity River. I rafted on the Trinity last year, when the flow was quite low. This year, it was ridiculously high. So high, in fact, that we didn't even see any rafters out there at all, I suspect because the conditions were so fierce. But the river did hold one final surprise for us. As we were driving along 299, we saw 2 bald eagles sunning themselves and fishing from a cliff above the river. With the help of my awesome zoom lens, Ken caught this amazing picture: