Veggies and Other Tails

Yesterday I picked up Week #5 of my CSA share, which included two dozen eggs. Erik forgot to pick up last week's eggs, and so the farmers gave me two dozen this week. Everyone has to do their part, you know. Up until now the shares have been a little "greens" heavy, if you know what I mean. This latest share contained some more familiar friends. Here's the bulk of the share, including one nosy cat.

It isn't all pictured here, but here's the rundown on Week #5. If it's hard to read, just click on the image to make it larger.

Last night I spent some time perusing my recipe database, online recipes, blogs, etc., trying to figure out my plan of attack. It is a war, after all. I think I have most everything figured out. Most difficult were the collard greens, and I found a nice stir-fry recipe for those. We'll see. It's a war and an adventure all wrapped up into one.

With so many eggs at my disposal, I'd already planned to make this Artichoke, Leek, and Fontina Frittata. To go along with it, I made short work of the yellow zucchini and summer squash, included in my share. I just steam mine in the microwave with a little butter and garlic salt.

Yummy, and it's good for breakfast too. Today I'm heading back to the grocery store to pick up the things I'll need for the rest of this week's kitchen vegetable extravaganza. 

If you're interested, our CSA farmer put us onto a free podcast by Michael Pollan entitled, "In Defense of Food," about healthy eating, food manufacturing, and the like. You can find it right here. There's a lot to enjoy about his talk, and his books are excellent. What I took away from this, however, is that 92¢ of every food dollar spent in America goes to someone other than the farmer: manufacturers, shippers, packagers, etc. It served to nail down my commitment to support my local farmers by purchasing a share. I know that CSA shares aren't available everywhere, but if you're interested in finding one, you can do a search by zip code right here.

Beyond food, I managed to knock off two more of my paper-pieced blocks for the Quiltmaker's Garden quilt. The seven small ones are finished now. Just the three large ones remain. I'm really, really, really hoping to get those finished today. (That's one "really" for each flower.)

As long as I'm sharing links (and as long as I don't have much else to tell you), I wanted to share a couple of things I stumbled over recently. (Fortunately, I caught myself before I fell.) First is this marvelous essay by quilter Kathy Mathews about her love of sewing and quilting. It so resonated with me that I printed it off and will re-read it from time-to-time. When you've spent too much time with the seam ripper (or paper-piecing) it could be a good reminder.

In another for-what-it's-worth share, you folks near Asheville, NC, need to get yourselves to the NC Arboretum where they plant a quilt garden each year. Here's what you'll see:

"The arboretum has been planting a quilt garden for 20 years. The garden has 24 small beds divided by walkways. Each bed is landscaped like a quilt square, inspired by block patterns such as a log cabin, double wedding ring, flower basket, variable star or bow tie." ~The Rocky Mountain Telegram, 6/12/15

You can read all about it right here. Mike and I are dreaming about a trip around the United States when he retires in a little less than two years. I'm adding this to the list of places to visit.

That's all I have for you today. I have the dreaded grocery shopping trip on my to-do list for today, and then I'm back at my paper-piecing. I really hope that's the last time I have to say that this week.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!