Crop-share anyone?

So a friend of mine recently told me (and won me over) about joining a crop-share! There is a nearby USDA certified organic vegetable farm that is 10 minutes away. So I said, why not? If i can bypass the grocery store, I can cut out the middle man! :)

For those of you who don't know what a crop share was (I didn't), it is like placing an investment in that season of vegetables & paying on the front-end. Not unlike the stock market, it's kind of like putting money in a company and reaping dividends (if they gain profit). In this case, my dividends are a weekly harvest of vegetables!

There is definitely a slight risk though -- no one knows how great the harvest would be for that season until during or when it's over. So in the front end, you don't really know what vegetables you are going to get. However, because the farm grows a variety of crop, even if something fails, the odds are something else would be doing well. (Like say...if the Brussel sprouts didn't do well, maybe I'd get kale or cabbage!)

So with this being said, I committed and joined an 8-week Fall crop share. I figured I'd start small, commit to something short (like 8 weeks), and if it's too overwhelming or too crazy, it would be over soon. With my 8 week crop-share, I come to the farm once a week on my designated day and pick up my weekly share of crops. I never know what I will get until I come. Yes, I am SO living on the edge right now... (haha).

Nonetheless, this is a way I could support our local farmer, and not only that, we would get to eat organic vegetables. Every week, my challenge is to somehow incorporate all that vegetable into our meals. This is a good incentive to ramp up our vegetable in-take. Being a novice, I asked a neighbor to split the crop share with me. That way, it's not too expensive (averages to $20 per week) and I wouldn't have to stress if I had too many vegetables to deal with.

Here's what I got last week:

- leeks

- potatoes

- beets

- turnips

- buttered lettuce

- butternut squash

- broccoli

- red onions

I ended up making leek and potato soup for the first time. I also ended up roasting beets and turnips in olive oil in the oven. We eat the buttered lettuce with grilled chicken as a salad. We had butternut squash soup, and the broccoli and onion was made into a quiche.

Wow, maybe I am slightly biased...but I almost feel like the fall vegetables were bursting with flavors! Maybe it has to do with the fact that it was harvested literally a couple hours before I picked it up, as oppose to crops at the grocery which are transported halfway across the country. Or from out of country....like Mexico, Peru, or someplace foreign. Many of these vegetables had to be picked when they are green, so that they would ripen by the time they reach the shelves. It's different than vegetables picked at their peak.

Albeit, not all are not pretty (or big) like the vegetables at the grocery store...but they taste SO MUCH BETTER.

This week, I got cabbage, leeks, turnips, kale, acorn squash, purple lettuce, carrots, sweet potatoes...

Any ideas or recipe suggestions? :)

By the way, I think there are local CSA crop shares everywhere in US...check to see if there's one near you! :) It will be so great to support local farmers. Not all are USDA certified Organic Farms, but still, eating local is still waaay better than buying it at the store. It's also an educational experience (at least for me) to learn more about eating in-season (learning which vegetables are grown when).

There are also meat-shares, egg-shares, fruit-shares, etc.

But I'll just start with one thing at a time....

A re-cap!

Hello there, blogging world! It's been a REALLY long time since I even tried to do an update.

So here is my attempt to keep the few friends/family members who actually take the time to read this blog updated. It's a "thank you" for caring & actually trying to keep up with my life. =)

Here are some recent photos. I say recent...because I still have photos from this summer that I yet have a chance to sort through.

But, I need to start somewhere...or I'll never catch up. Here we go...

Mini-road trip

Right at the end of summer, we took a little road trip to visit some towns and cities nearby. Having lived in Great State of Texas all my life, we can drive up to 12 hours and still be in the SAME state (East to West). So imagine our big surprise when we realized that a 2-4 hour drive can bring us as far north as Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine...and even Canada! Here's a quick snapshot of a lovely quintessential lighthouse in Portland, Maine. The kids did really well on the road, and Jocelyn now looks for lighthouses everywhere she goes.

The discovery of the ERGO!

At the end of summer, we discovered the joys of the Ergo baby carrier! My sister has been raving about it with her own baby (my nephew!), and so when we got a gift card, we spent it on an Ergo and Evan has LOVED it. Here's a picture of Jocelyn (having a bad day) wanting to be held, and with the Ergo, I can hold both kiddos... big and small!

(And no, I am not being paid by Ergo to advertise for them!)

A Glimpse of Fall Colors

Summer was finally over, and the leaves turned color. But this year, the Boston area's Fall Foliage is not as radiant as the years before.

But we still found a tiny little spot by the side of the road...

Jocelyn turning 3 years old!

So Jocelyn is turning 3! How fast time flies. We were tired and didn't want to plan a party...since she probably won't remember anyways. BUT, at the last minute, we decided that we should definitely do something to celebrate her! So we invited our lovely neighbors to the playground in front of our building and had an impromptu party. I googled "how to make quick pinata" and found instructions on how to make a one in less than 30 minutes out of a paper grocery bag and tissue paper! (How do I live without google!).

It was fun and she kept saying..."Happy birthday to ME! This is MY party!" So, I guess she DOES know... Here's Jocelyn hitting her pinata at her party!

Princess Jocelyn

So, for her 3rd birthday, my sister (thanks Aunt Phi!) sent her a princess outfit set, complete with dress, plastic tiara, and plastic wand. Since opening her package, she wants to only wear this...even to sleep.

Here is a photo of her being in princess bliss....

And yes, you guessed it...she was a princess for Halloween.

Happy Costume Day!

Here are some of our lovely neighbors all dressed up for Halloween. I love that there are like over 40 families in our building, and we don't have to go outside for trick-or-treating. We just go down the hallway..... barefoot if we wanted to.

(We inherited a free pumpkin costume someone gave away...so Evan got to be a pumpkin!)

All the kiddos in their costumes-galore...

And, last but not least, we had some friends visit from Houston (J.Lau, Jeremy C, Melody and Rachel). We took them to a seaside town called Rockport....15 minutes from where we live.

Here's a photo courtesy of J.Lau photography!

And believe it or not, J.Lau visited us exactly 2 years ago. And it was also during this time of year that we also visited Rockport! (We love Rockport!)

Here's a photo from 2 years ago below. Same location. Some photographer. Same subjects. Can you tell the difference?

Besides the obvious that we wore the same jackets and aged some...

Two years ago, Jocelyn was almost 1 year old. And Evan? He was not here yet. At the time, we just had moved here. Edwin just started his M.Div program, and I just started a new job at a nearby hospital. We had no idea what God had in store for us.

Now that Edwin is almost done with his program, where will God lead us next? What will our next 2 years of life look like? Only God knows and only time will tell.

As in Ecclesiastes 3:1, it is written....

"There is a time for everything, and a season for everything under the sun."

I wonder what the next season will bring...

(Our parents would sure like to know...!)