My Cast of Characters

There are certain mammals in my life who I talk about more than others.  I think now is as good a time to introduce you as any.

At the Oregon Coast

Damian, a.k.a "The Hubbs."  This is a shot of the two of us on vacation last year.  I tried to find a photo just of him, but most of those look something like this:



You can see why we get along so well.

Damian is a very smart lab-type guy who deals with blood all day.  I try very hard to understand his answer when I ask how his day at work was.  He is very tolerant of my mood swings and whims, and never fails to make fun of me when I start taking myself too seriously.  All around, a pretty good catch, if you want my opinion!

Next up are the furry members of our little family.

Luci is Damian's cat.  He has had her for almost 11 years, since she was an itty bitty kitten.  She is at least as dumb as she is pretty, but she is also a very sweet girl.  One good thing about her developmental delay is that she is very playful for being an older cat.  She divides her time between being lovey and hating everyone (or at least our other cat and dog).  She is a calico, after all.

Obie is my cat.  I adopted him when he was three years old (and 20 pounds) and he is about eight years old (and more like 12 pounds) now.  Obie is both the most lovable and most frustrating cat I have ever met.  One minute he's snuggled under your chin purring up a storm, the next he's trying to rape Luci.  When Luci is too fast for him, he just hauls my clothing out of the hamper and drags it around the house to hump.  Obie will eat anything that might be food or that may have come in contact with food at some point.  Many tupperwares and a few gaskets from our garbage disposal have met their end from Obie.

Langston (a.k.a. Langston Huge, Dummy, or Buddy) is our three and a half year old Great Dane.  We got him from a rescue when he was about a year old.  He was found as a stray in Duluth in the middle of winter.  He can be a complete spaz, but is also a very good boy.

Last but not least is Baby Jo, a.k.a the Squid Baby.  Baby Jo is scheduled to arrive near the end of August.  At that point I should be able to provide some photos that don't look quite so much like a creepy alien.

The CSA Adventure: 2011

Spring got off to a slow, wet start this year, and I had big plans to revamp my garden.  Back in March I was concerned that I might not be able to get my new raised beds built and planted in time, so my husband suggested that we join a CSA (community supported agriculture) to ensure a supply of fresh veggies this summer, and to take a little pressure off me and my project.

For those of you who don't know, a CSA is essentially where you buy a share in a local farm.  Each week during the growing season the farm delivers a box (usually to a local dropsite, in our case, Rochester Produce) of whatever is harvestable that week.  So I get guarenteed fresh, locally grown produce, and the farm gets guarenteed revenue at the start of the season.  I also get the satisfaction knowing that I am supporting a farm in my own community, which is think is a pretty good thing.  Our CSA happens to be with Featherstone Farm.  For more information on CSAs in general (for Minnesota, at least), go here.

Well, as it turns out, I had plenty of time to get my garden built (more in a future post) and we just started getting our fabulous boxes from our CSA.

This is what week one looks like:

Week One: rhubarb, asparagus, green onions, salad greens, radishes, and spinach.



I enjoy fruits and vegetables, but I am rarely inspired to buy them when I am grocery shopping.  They end up being an afterthought or obligation (oh, I guess we need a veggie with our steak, huh?).  One culinary skill I am very proud of, however, is that, when presented with a pantry/freezer/etc. of various ingredients, I can usually cobble together a pretty great meal.  This probably stems from my former life as an archaeologist, when I lived in the boonies and would do anything to avoid unneccessary trips to town (often 20 or more miles away).  That and I'm a lazy homebody who would do anything to avoid unneccessary trips, period.    So, being presented with a box full of produce that I did not need to select myself should turn out to be a pretty good thing. 

Here's what our first meal out of our first CSA box looked like:

Risotto!!



It isn't the prettiest thing ever, but it was mighty tasty.  Risotto with asparagus and green onions, and a spinach and basil pesto.  The basil was found in the freezer, part of last year's garden harvest.  I also used homemade turkey stock, also found in my freezer.

Damian (the hubbs) and I decided to go for the "Grande" box instead of the "Chica" box, because more is more (we are Americans, after all) and the price difference wasn't that big considering we were getting twice the produce.  I was a little worried at first that we might not be able to eat all of that produce, but I don't think we'll have much of a problem, at least not this week!