The Peace Valley Lavender Farm is featured in this month’s publication of Bucks County Town and Country Living magazine.
Sigh. I heart lavender. Occasionally Jase stops by the farm to pick up a lavender surprise for me. Sachets, honey, a little plant… Mmm, I can smell it now!
The article is great (Joan Schultz) and the photographs are absolutely stunning (Randl Bye) - go get your copy today! And, be sure to visit the farm because as stunning as the photos are, they’re nothing compared to a real life visit. The bright purple awnings on the barn? To die for.
A hunger-inspiring email from Brookie:
my lunch…
Brooke E
Wed, Jun 28, 2006 at 12:00 PM
To: mikaela …, Sam …
Thought I’d share what I am having for lunch:
CSA Spring Mix
CSA Red/Green Head Lettuce
CSA Green onions
CSA Carrot
CSA beets
Celery
CSA Cucumber
Tossed in Newman’s Own light balsamic Vinagrette
Topped with toasted flax seed and soy nuts
And shrimpies, blackened with Spice smuggler blackening stuff. (the best blackening stuff ever)
Yummy Yummy Yummy
But I’m realizing now that I forgot the CSA radicchio and cabbage :) maybe for tonight.
Happy lunchtime!!
I took a couple photos of inside the pick-up area of Blooming Glen this week. My favorite part is the Sharing Table. And the little notes Tricia and Tom write on the white board. This week, the message was, “7.25 inches of rain - think sunshine!”
I’d like to put some more photographs of the farm up here, but it’s been raining tremendously here:
Rain update
Blooming Glen Farm
Wed, Jun 28, 2006 at 2:59 PM
Reply-To: Blooming Glen Farm
Hello everyone. We wanted to send an email to keep you all aware of what is happening at the farm. Last night’s downpour brought us another 3.5 inches, bringing our total since Friday to 10.75 inches. As you can imagine, we are going to suffer some significant losses. It will be about a week before we see what the damages are, but initially things aren’t looking good for our outdoor tomatoes and leeks, as well as the sweet peppers. Overall, lots of crops are drooping from way, way too much water and our head lettuce may have a few week gap until the next rotaion sizes up. Thankfully we have some tomatoes in a hoop house, but not nearly the quantities we had outside. Thank you all for your understanding as we do our best to bring you a great share each week.
Tricia and Tom
Our little pepper plants are drooping, too :o( Think sun, everyone!
This week, we definitely got the cutest vegetables. Adorable little zucchini and marble-sized potatoes. Purple was another theme this week. There was radiccio, plum-shaded cabbage, red potatoes, beets, and we were surprised to see, vibrant purple scallions.
Brookie went with Avery and me this week. Right when we got there, it started to pour. Considering the seven inches of rain we’d received since Friday, this made for some interesting pick-your-own sugar snap peas :o)
This week:
two pints of sugar snap peas
two cucumbers
one bunch of scallions
head of red lettuce
one pound red potatoes
1/2 pound zucchini
bunch of carrots
handful of cilantro
handful of dill
bunch of basil
head of radiccio
head of cabbage
six beets
five fennel
1/2 pound of kale and/or swiss chard
3/4 pound of spring mix
Ok, I’ll be honest. I totally let Avery and Brookie deal with the peas. Avery was already outside playing in the rain and Brookie had better foot gear, so I feel justified in my decision :o)
We’re planning to go to the Indian Valley Farmer’s Market this Saturday. I just read that our local bakery, Bakers on Broad (phone number is in the links section) has a table there, which is very cool! Also, I’m looking forward to seeing what Sunrise Sunflower Farm has to offer.
I heart the spring time!
Last night, Jase decided to test out his newly acquired cooking skills.
We go to the newly-renovated Reliance Inn in Telford every Sunday. The owners are great, and we’ve gotten to know one of them, the head chef, Assou. We were sitting at the bar with friends, Jen and Doug, when Assou grabbed Jason and took him into the kitchen to whip up a “snack” of clams and mussels over linguine.
Being in the hot, happening kitchen, seems to have lit a fire (har har) under Jason because at 10:30 last night, he decided to whip up some chicken, Assou-style. That would be, in white wine, banana peppers and olive oil. That would be, creating fire in the pan. That would be, splashing wine and olive oil all over the range.
That would be… Delicious! Jason’s rating was “very good, but a bit spicy. Maybe because the banana peppers were so fresh.” Mikaela has no opinion, as she is a veggiesaraus.
(Side note: That would also be, one clear and one fuzzy photograph for you. Doubleyou Tee Eff?! Ugh.)
The peppers are from our garden, and the chicken (Eberly Farms in Stevens, near Lancaster) and olive oil are from our natural foods co-op.
Leftovers. And a fresh veggie side :o)
I heated up the zucchini casserole thingie and steamed a Blooming Glen selection of carrots, chopped kale and chopped basil. I sliced the carrots, covered and steamed them for about 10 minutes, stirred in the kale and basil, steamed a couple more minutes, mashed it all together and topped with kosher salt (from The Spice Man in Leesport, picked up at Mayfair).
In related news, our camera sucks. In taking pictures specifically for this and our JAM*home blog, we’ve realized that the only time we’ve been able to capture a crisp photograph, is outside. This particular photograph was the best of six. Six! And still, it’s so bad that I’m debating the removal of it from the post. I mean, the green and red of the zucchini portion is totally missing, as is the contrast of orange and greens from the carrot side. It’s just sad, really :o(
I’ve switched modes from auto focus to manual focus. I’ve turned the flash on, I’ve turned the flash off. I’ve used the macro feature, I’ve not used the macro feature. I’ve done all of these things in various combinations.
I’ve read the manual, people. The entire manual.
Sigh. Are we destined to endure blurry indoor photos forever? Maybe I’m missing something?
Thursday, May 25th:
That’s monster eating dinner.
Friday, June 16th:
That’s monster sleeping on my office floor.
Now, I realize this has been going on for quite a while at this point. About a month, I guess? The reason why we are not panicked is because we’ve noticed what I think is a critical point:
It’s not so much that he always puts the helmet on, it’s that he never takes the helmet off.
As in, he moves from skateboarding outside (where he is required to wear it) to eating dinner inside to running to the store to visiting a friend. It’s important to note that in between the daily going ons of his life, he always takes the opportunity to skate if it presents itself. He’s had to come to work with me on a couple occasions since school let out, and in between reading Shel Silverstein and making comic books, he pops outside to skate the parking lot. He’s a very active little man (hence the passing out on the floor) and I’m thinking that it’s just easier to leave the helmet on.
But, because we’re such awesome and caring parents, we’re still keeping our eyes on the situation and monitoring his paranoia - stay tuned for updates!
Because there’s so much garden stuff in here lately, I should note that we picked, prepared and devoured our first home-grown zucchini this weekend. Woot! Read all about it here, on out JAM*intake site: http://jamintake.blogspot.com/2006/06/home-grown.html
Gardens (and eating locally and organically) rock! :-D
You can’t get any more local than home, right? We finally picked the monster zucchini out of the garden yesterday. I think we let it get so big just to see what would happen. Of course nothing happened… It just got about as big as Avery’s arm.
I ended up making a casserole thingie with the zucchini:
- First, I sauted some fresh-pressed garlic and spring onions* in organic olive oil** for a few minutes.
- Then, I added some organic crushed tomatoes**, salt, pepper, oregano**, fresh basil* and let it simmer for about ten minutes.
- While the mixture was simmering, I sliced the zucchini into 1/4″ discs. I had originally planned to make something like this, but there were, like, a gazillion slices by the time I was done cutting, so I had to improvise :o)
- I spooned the tomato mixture into a large, rectangle casserole dish and sunk a layer of zucchini into it, then another layer on top of that. I covered the dish and baked it at 375 for about 20 minutes.
- While the casserole was baking, I added about a cup of bread crumbs, a cup of romano/parmesan/mozzarella soy cheese blend** and some fresh chopped basil* to a bowl and stirred them together.
- After about 20 minutes, I uncovered the caserole and added the crummy, cheesey mixture and baked it about 10 more minutes. Once that was done, I sprinkled some cheese on top and broiled it for a couple minutes to melt.
* from Blooming Glen
** from Neshaminy Valley
Jason and I were on our way to a play at The Montgomery Theater by the time it was done, so we had to wait until we got home to try it. We had some as soon as we got home - it was deee-lish! We often share new recipes with our neighbors, Bob and Sue, so we brought over a dish over for their rating. They gave it a “deee-lish,” as well :o)
Yay for our first homegrown meal!
Summer summer summertime
time to sit back and unwind
Here it is the groove slightly transformed
just a bit of a break from the norm
just a little somethin’ to break the monotony
of all that hardcore dance that has gotten to be
a little bit out of control it’s cool to dance
but what about the groove that soothes that moves romance
give me a soft subtle mix
and if ain’t broke then don’t try to fix it
and think of the summers of the past
adjust the base and let the alpine blast
pop in my CD and let me run a rhyme
and put your car on cruise and lay back cause this is summertime
–The Fresh Prince
Happy Summer Solstice! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_solstice
One Love,
JAM
Sigh. I heart lavender. Occasionally Jase stops by the farm to pick up a lavender surprise for me. Sachets, honey, a little plant… Mmm, I can smell it now!
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