Locally Grown: The Farmer and the Dale

I mentioned a few posts back that I was going to start a little side project here and research some local food choices we have available to us in the central San Joaquin Valley.  Basically, I am becoming more and more aware of the foods we are eating and aiming to eat as much locally grown food as possible.  Through my research, I have found it to be harder to piece together information than you might think.  It is frustrating given that we live in an agricultural hot spot.  That being said, I am looking forward to what I might find in the weeks and months ahead, especially as summer approaches!

A few years ago, I was introduced to the term CSA...

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It allows people to skip the numerous middle men and buy directly from the famer. It’s like a farmers market that delivers.

I actually signed up to use this particular CSA (The Farmer and the Dale) for the convenience of having produce delivered to my door a few years ago, I honestly didn't think much about the fact that I was supporting a local farmer.  I only used it for a few months back then, but recently renewed my subscription. 

I did research several local CSAs. (There were actually more than you might think!)

• All had locally grown and organic produce. 
• Some allowed you to choose the produce you would be getting.
• Some allowed you to vary your delivery days and times or to only order on demand.
• Most delivered to one 'central' location on a given day and time.  (unfortunately this central location is about a half-hour away for me)
• Some delivered to several spots around town, making them more conveniant.
• One delivers to your door! And, allows you to choose your own produce!

This was last week's box. 

I do love the convenience of this CSA, however I find it a bit more expensive than some of the others available.  I am going to stick with these guys for awhile, and might check out another one in a few months. 

Note:  Traditionally, CSAs were/are a way of paying the farmer ahead of time.  The members of the CSA buy the produce (in some cases) months before the harvest and each week the delivery is more of a 'you-get-what-you-get' situation.  Essentially, it eliminates the need for the farmer to sell their food after harvesting it... and they might have the ability to only harvest what is needed for their CSA deliveries in that week leading to less food wasted. 



Hannah and the addition facts....

I posted this one on FB, but thought it deserved its own post...

Hannah had been working so hard to complete her 100 addition math facts in 4 minutes.  She came home one day last week and was extatic to show me that she had finally finished and passed one!!  Yay!! 

I guess this is a second grade standard and she is the fourth or so person in her class to pass... so so proud of her and her accomplishment!!

Garden Boxes

One of the projects we (ok, it was really mostly John) did in February was to build some raised-bed garden boxes.  This had been on our list for quite some time, and I really pushed to get this project started.  Thankfully, once John got started he really got into it and they came out so nice!

Here is the area, before boxes... I spared you the true 'before' shot as we had just cleared out some knee-deep weeds and John dug down and leveled off the area where we were planning on putting the boxes.

We used 12' long redwood boards.  If you ever plan on buliding garden boxes, used non-pressure treated wood.  The chemicals from the pressure treated wood aren't good and can leach into your home grown veggies!

All cut and ready to go!



I then headed off to a party and came home to this wonderfulness... :-)

Happy Valentine's Day to me!!

Kindergarten Registration

Oh My!!

It seems like yesterday I was writing this same post about Hannah...

Yesterday was the day... the big KINDER registration!  I am no where near emotional yet about my baby being in every-day school, although I am sure I will be eventually. 

In the last few months Claire has proven herself ready for kindergarten... she is reading and sounding out words, she is (finally) confident writing her name, and she has more patience each day for focused activities.  I do admit, I was a little worried about her and how homework would go over when it came time.  But, thankfully, it seems like she loves everything about homework and learning and does well with the routine of school.

Another positive, I drew #15 for the priority list!!  Yay for being able to choose our time slot!!

"Horse"- ing Around

Haha, such a terrible play on words, yet completely fitting!

The girls were invited to a horseback riding birthday party a few weeks ago at a farm and obviously had a blast! 

Hannah spent as much time as she possibly could in the stables petting the horses.  She has just fallen in love with them, and I am guessing we are not far away from her realizing that she could take lessons in horseback riding.  Until then, she has bought two horse books and a coloring book.  Love it!

Hello March

Yesterday was a sicky kind of day.  It is so rare that I am sick enough to want to lay around all day, but I was.

Today seems to be better, a good day to reflect on February.  John and I both thought that for a short month, February this year seemed to be super long.  Doesn't Super Bowl seem like five years ago?  Ok-  maybe that is a bit of a stretch, but I am happy to flip over another month on the calendar.

And, here is a summary of the goals I had made for February...and notes to what was accomplished.
Health
•(at least) 20 minutes of working out six days per week. More is better. Done!  I LOVE this goal, I feel such a difference.
•Don't go overboard at Super Bowl, bring healthy foods. Done, did a decent job...
•Incorporate/try two (healthy) new foods that you have never used at home before. Lentils, Kumquats, Fresh Ginger, Kale (and I bought purple califlower, but we didn't get a chance to eat it)
•Make a dinner plan/menu for each week. We did better at eating at home, but I still need to work on getting that menu planned.

•Shop one winter farmer's market in town. February 11th, Vinyard Farmer's Market

Household
•Clean out and organize our bathroom cabinets. <--Make them functional! - Not so much... seemed a little daunting, will have to roll over to next month
•Clean, fold and PUT AWAY (at least) one load of laundry per day. Unfortunately no...although I am certain that some days I did 6-7 loads so if you average them out it might have been one per day. 

Projects/Crafts
•John- paint brown cabinet for girls 'in box' (find bins for the shelves) DONE!  And it looks AWESOME, thanks Babe!!
•Complete girl's Valentine's for friends/school as early as possible Done, like a week ahead. 

•Blogs: I have decided to not make any more blog goals... I am not great at attaining them and really, they aren't as important as getting other things in my life accomplished.  Some days I just don't feel like blogging. 
◦Personal through September & Everyday in February
◦ 10 Crafty Blog posts for February
◦ 5 Photography Blog Posts

**In addition, John and I weeded a section of our yard and he built me two raised-bed garden boxes... something that had been on the To-Do list forEVER.  This was a major accomplishment and we are looking forward to planting our first garden this weekend!!**

Well that was fun.  If you take out the blogging goals, we accomplished six of nine.  Not, bad, but not great.  I do like this whole goal setting thing and plan on continuing....

Getting Real: The Beginning of the Journey.

For the past month we in the Frank household have been on a little journey with our eating.  To summerize where we were and the steps we kind of took to get to today...

• In early January I realized that something needed to change and joined Weight Watchers.  I knew that I wanted to start making healthier choices and this was the place where I had landed so many other times when making that decision. 
• After a few weeks on the plan, I started really researching food.  What certain foods can do, and why certain parts of the 'Western' diet are really, really bad for us.
• Armed with my new knowledge, I started making better, and more quality food choices.  These choices didn't exactly align with the Weight Watcher's plan, so while I did continue to weigh in, I stopped counting the food POINTS values. 
• I went all-out purchasing foods that I knew were now better choices...and I spent a lot of money in the process.  Realizing this was a mistake, I tried to slow down a little and focus on one change at a time.
• I hit a sort of wall.  When I made drastic changes in my life it was inevitable that I would start to mourn the loss of the carefree eating style that once was...even if I knew that I no longer wanted it to be my life.  I got pretty depressed thinking about all of the foods I could no longer have.  Everything seemed to be a DON'T.  One of the newsletters I read regularly had me ultra sensative to EVERYTHING.  This is bad, that is bad...don't do this, and don't do that.  I didn't want to be discouraged and quit.
• I started looking and researching MORE.  This time with a renewed sense of what CAN we eat.  I realized that I wanted this to be a positive experience and I decided that I needed to determine exactly what we were trying to do.

Enter today.  Or, really the past week or so.  I feel like my short little journey over th past few months has led me to this point.

Getting REAL.  Real food... real life.  I can actually DO this. 

More later on the specifics, because truth be told, I am really excited about this!  I am excited to look back on this journey, from the begining, and see how far we have come. 

As a part of this little journey, I am going to be researching a variety of local food options and sharing (what I hope will be weekly) what I find.  I am really hoping this little project takes on its own little life and creates an awareness of some of the wonderful places we have available.