The Kumquat

Perfect for little hands to hold.  The peel is my favorite part to eat.

Halfway

I know.  What is a blog post without picures, right?

Yesterday: Navel orange and grapefruit sections.

Today: Salad with lettuce from the garden, adding our mint; Roasted honey gold potatoes with olive oil, kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, and our rosemary. 

Anyone eat anything local recently?

In honor of my Seattle heritage...

and Jimi Hendrix, we have purple haze carrots growing in the second garden bed, along with broccoli and beets.

Days 9 - 13

Last week was a bit overwhelming.  I'll try to be a better blogger this week.  But, I have been eating locally.  Lots of sweet citrus over here - grapefruit and navel oranges; waffles with some Thomas wildflower honey; cucumber and peppers from KYV Farm; herbs from my garden; and finally, some lettuce from the garden, too. 

 Ooh, and some delicious pecans that a kind neighbor brought by the other day.  Now, they aren't Florida grown, but they're coming from a couple hours north of here, in Georgia.  So, I'm considering them local.  We've been cracking those open today, along with some hazlenuts I picked up at the store.  I sat down with my husband at the dining table after church today, enjoying his company, while cracking open some hazlenuts, pecans and eating slices of grapefruit.  Maybe we don't know how to crack open nuts, because  some of the shells were shooting across the room.  We laughed and the kids were playing well together.  It was a nice Sunday afternoon.

Days 7 & 8

Yesterday: Rosa Bianca egglants from KYV Farm.  I've eaten eggplant before, but didn't care for it.  I thought I'd give it a try again.  They're so pretty, how could they not taste good?  But they DID NOT taste good to me.  I felt like I was eating a big mushroom.  And, mushrooms aren't my thing.  I sliced the eggplant into 1/4" thick discs, covered them in olive oil and some grated parmesan, and baked them in the oven .  I tried... oh well. 

Today:  Made some Rosemary bread,  The recipe calls for dried rosemary, but I picked some from my garden.  I made it in my bread machine and it turned out well.  I think next time I will make the dough in my bread machine and then take it out to bake.  I feel like baked bread from the bread machine comes out differently than bread from the oven, don't you think?  It was light and had the perfect amount of sweet rosemary taste to it.  

quick visit to Switzerland

Switzerland Florida, that is.

Lovely organic vegetables grown thirty minutes from my home.

Just as a baby in utero needs the last month for fattening up, this tree needs a couple cold snaps to sweeten up.  Almost ready to deliver.  Can't wait.

 

The ladies.

Hello, Henrietta.

This is Miss Maggie Moo, just two days old. 

Days 5 & 6

cucumbers + yum-yum peppers + carrots + *grape tomatoes

Last week I was doing a lot of single parenting and this week looks like it will be similar.  My husband is beginning a trial at the courthouse tomorrow. It's difficult for me, but harder for him.  He hates to be away from our family, and the boys don't understand that he has to do it.  He misses us and we miss him.  I suppose we'll make it work, as we always do.  For this week, the local food I eat will most likely be very simple and basic (more than usual).  I'm not so concerned about fancy meals as I am about having happy, content children.  I may miss days of local food eating or some days I might just swig down a glass of Florida OJ, and call it a day.  Please bear with me.

Last night, plate of veges; some of them from KYV Farm.  I so enjoyed visiting a part of KYV this weekend.   I have yet to see the 100 acres of farmland, ten minutes down the road from the family's home (where I visited).  I plan to tour the farm in the near future. The part we visited Saturday was the chicken and citrus portion of the farm. 

Tonight, cucumbers from KYV, with some ranch.  Keepin' it real - real simple, that is.

*purchased from my every day grocer, grown in Boynton Beach, Florida.

Days 3 & 4

Yesterday was my husband's birthday, so we celebrated with fresh basil and sweet campari tomato pizza.  The basil came from my small herb garden, on the side of our house.  It's hard to see the basil; it's there though, buried under the cheese.  ;-) Along with the mozarella I added some parmesan, because you can almost never have too much cheese.

Instead of cake we had pie - Key Lime Pie, my husband's favorite.  Wish I could say I made it with fresh Florida limes, but we had to settle with lime juice from another place.  Summer is the peak time for limes here.

Today, a glass of Florida orange juice and a couple slices of local grapefruit.

Day 2

Local grapefruit + a pinch of salt.  It was so yummy! 

I've received some emails and comments on the local food you've been eating.  Great work!  It may sound silly, but I get excited when I see a note from you telling me what you've found.  I know some of you who are participating are from other parts of the country.  It's interesting to see what is growing in your area at this time.  At the end of the week I'll make a post of all of our local finds!  Keep it up!  It's never to late to start.

Local Sustenance Day 1

Mid-morning I concocted a tasty smoothie with my FLORIDA tangerines. 

tangerines + bananas + frozen berries + spinach + oj

I enjoyed it and felt good about including some local food, even if it is just a small addition.  I figure it's a start.

And it must have been good.  Just look at his face.  Babies aren't good fakers.