Without taking a break for a week, I won’t be able to post my boxes a week late and tell you what we did with it, so I thought I would share more of what we do when we get a box.
Emily was up this morning when our driver delivered our box, so she watched as I brought them in and arranged them and then she took her cue to “inspect” some of the veggies – which I thoroughly encourage. Of course.
While I was busy getting some shots of Emily with the veggies, Mei woke up from her nap and helped me to put them all in their food baggies to be stored in the fridge. She usually just watches me do this but today, she was hell-bent on doing it all herself and while it took her nearly a half hour to accomplish it (one carrot per trip), with a lot of cheerleading from me, she put away all the veggies by herself and I even pointed to where in the fridge they needed to go and that’s where they wound up (mostly)…
Gotta love every time the girls want to do chores and help me do things around the house, cuz as we all know from experience, this behavior wont last.
bagging up carrots consists up picking it up, trucking it two feet to the bag, setting it in (or near) the bag, doing a happy dance, clapping then repeat. it takes awhile…
We got some really great stuff this week and I’m even more excited since I ordered extra kumquats so I can make some new jams to preserve before we leave … I might need a whole lot more than I have though cuz I’m between two different kumquat combinations… but boy the canning process is rather involved and kind of difficult in our kitchen and not very kid-friendly… but the cold weather certainly beckons some canning in the chilly kitchen!
Something amazing happened while Mei was putting away all of our new veggies, she said a new word!
VEGETABLE!
It’s a little mangled but it’s clearly “vegetable” and she does her little happy dance when she says it, which makes it that much better!
Anywhoo… here’s What was in Our Box this week, we got a medium veg box:
- butternut squash
- more lettuce…
- a bag of potatoes
- a bag of blood oranges
- kumquats
- carrots
- beets
- turnips
- broccoli
- yellow bell pepper
- heirloom tomatoes
What We Will Do with It:
I bought some deli meat to make sandwiches for lunch this week to use up some of the lettuce and I think I might experiment with some lettuce cups too.
The butternut squash will be going towards a French Fridays recipe that is coming up in Feb.
Potatoes, potatoes…. I’m going to be making homemade french fries to go with our fried chicken!
Inspector Emily!
Turnips. No ideas as of yet. Something tasty I hope!
Blood oranges are going to be turned into a jam as well… I actually can’t wait for this one…
The tomatoes are just going to get eaten. Not sure if we will do something like a caprese salad or the likes with it but I absolutely can’t wait to eat these! There is an intriguing watermelon looking one that I’m quite interested in it’s flavor.
Carrots will always wind up in something or as a side veg.
I’m going to process the beets and make more pickles with them but I’m going to toy with a different pickled beet recipe this time.
We now have four heads of broccoli so I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do with them but we will be having lots of broccoli on the side of dinner this week I think.
The bell pepper will go to our pizza night! We like to make our own pizza dough cuz it’s the best and not only will it clear out some odd and end veggies out of the fridge and meats out of the freezer but LOTS of supplies out of the pantry which will aid us in our Eat Your Pantry Challenge! Not to mention, everyone in our house loves pizza night!
After we were done putting away all the veggies, Mei took one of the paper bags that our fruit was delivered in and wandered over to her own play kitchen to “shop” and bag up some of her own things “for later….” I’m so proud of that kid!
Both Mei and Emily had a blast playing in their play kitchen with the Abel & Cole box and paper baggies full of utensils and food items they deemed worthy enough to put in there.
Let’s talk about winter cover crops. Do you plant cover crops? This supposedly helps to keep weeds and such out s that once you turn the soil, it provides a variety of nutrients for the new things you will plant once it is warm enough to be starting your garden outside. I haven’t known much about them until this winter, when I have been reading up on them.
I did see this delightful bumper sticker in Cannelle et Vanille’s post today about her recent trip to Sitka, Alaska… “Friends DONT let friends EAT FARMED FISH! Support Alaska’s Wild Fisheries” wish I had one! (You can purchase one here) Actually, reading her post about her trip has inspired me to plan a similar trip when the girls are old enough to handle a fishing rod of their own and a light hike! Can’t wait til these kids get older! Head over here to read her post or at least drool over her pictures! It makes me wish I was out enjoying some fishing rather than packing up our things and making endless lists….
To finish today, instead of a food fact, let’s think about sustainable fishing practices.
a fave Top Chef fishing moment!
Pole fishing, diving or anything where you physical get the fish yourself without disturbing the other water environments and creatures is the most ideal source of fishing. Right now, we are in a time of overfishing and a serious decline of so many varieties of fish which is threatening marine wildlife and their habitats. The numbers suggest that we are overfishing nearly 80% of the world fish stock which just goes to show that we are moving into dangerous waters and the decline of fish is just imminent.
One thing you can do is to buy sustainable fish. This website keeps a list of the varieties of fish that is being served in restaurants that are being overexploited and often farmed – which aren’t sustainable practices, and by avoiding these fish and forcing the restaurants to support sustainability as well and replenish the world’s supply of fish.
This story particularly touched me.
Andrés Madrigal, whose Madrigal restaurant, Bistró Madrigal, serves Mediterrenean and Provencal cuisine, said: “When I was 6 years old my grandfather was a fishmonger and fisherman and something he said to me was we don’t have to fear the sea, we need to respect the sea. My grandfather knew everything there was to know about fish, about where the octopus was from, but he couldn’t swim. I was amazed by that. We went to his house in Asturias and he said. The Galicians have gone though and taken all the fish. Sometimes they would hold up a little fish and say this is all the Galicians have left behind. Years later I now understand what he was talking about because they area we used to fish is now a desert. The dragnets have destroyed everything. When I heard about Fish2ork, I was very interested but knew I would be taking a risk. It would be difficult. There would be decisions I’d have to make but I realised it was something I had been thinking about for a long time. For me it is an issue about respecting not fearing the sea.”
Have a perfectly lovely Tuesday everyone!