Asparagus

Holy moly, there's a lot of my purple asparagus this year. And it's mostly just me that eats it. And weeks left of the 4-week harvesting period! Just made a double batch of this Cream of Asparagus soup for tonight. I'll report back on how it turned out after dinner. (Note that the recipe leaves out garlic. Typo, probably.)

And I just had the most delightful salad. I can't quite pin down what made it so good. It was:

• A little Romaine lettuce
• A chopped hard-boiled egg
• Some blue cheese crumbles
• Sprouted lentils
• Fresh from the garden organic gorgeous thick purple asparagus cut lovingly into tender beautiful chunks
• Caesar dressing

It's a very nice time of year. Planted 27 tomato plants and 15 pole beans today. Cukes, herbs, whatnot went in yesterday. Still having trouble with the potatoes being eaten by chipmunks, and something is eating my beet leaves. This means war, vermin.

Edited to add: The soup was fantastic! N couldn't get enough of it. Naturally, the kids hated it, but oh well.

Bringing in the harvest

So, yesterday I took some time to bring in the apple harvest. I'm so grateful we have a large basement with a full-sized freezer. I also have a lot of canning jars to freeze excess produce.

I'm not too sore today. You would think working in the fields like this, for a white-collar professional like myself, might be hard on the back. But I feel good.

I find it satisfying, giving my family organic food that we've raised ourselves. This should really help cut costs at the grocery store!

Here the entire harvest, from both trees. 

Eating locally and organically

OK, you know how sometimes you save a blog topic and you just add and add and add to it until it’s so huge that you don’t know what to do with it? Well, this is one of those.

A few years ago I read The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan, and raved about it like a lunatic for a few years. That book forced me to start buying only organic potatoes.
Then I read The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. And I wanted to stop eating corn.
Then I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. And now I’m crazed completely and plan to expand my own vegetable patch. An interesting illustration from that book is the "Vegetannual" which explains nicely why the foods in season have to come from a specific part of the plant at a specific time. She’s also online, with lots of other resources.

Find a CSA (Community-supported agriculture) program near you
Find farmer’s markets near you.
What produce is in season now, by state.
Here’s a fascinating look at which companies own different branches of the organic industry.
If you happen to live near Chicago, as I do, there is a lot of info on the Vital Information blog.

If you don’t enjoy reading and would rather watch a nice documentary, in which a somewhat wacky farmer goes from conventional to organic farming, there’s The Real Dirt on Farmer John. I hear King Corn is good, but I haven’t seen that one yet.

And lastly, the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) helps grassroots groups ensure fair prices for family farmers, safe and healthy food, and vibrant, environmentally sound rural communities. For when you are ready to take up pitchforks to change the world.

Please let me know if any of this was helpful to you! The comments section is always open.