The bounty continues!

We are really enjoying our CSA weekly delivery of fresh produce! It's so fun to pick up our box on Friday afternoon and discover what treats we'll be enjoying that week! Our farmers, the Britt Family, have done an awesome job of delivering a bounty of fresh produce each week. It's fun to get to know the people who grew your food. Now when we say our blessing before dinner, we have amended the "thank you for the hands that prepared it" to also include "and for the hands that grew it"!

One of the greatest lessons to be learned from a CSA delivery is that fruits and vegetables all have SEASONS! Imagine that! Although the American supermarket might lead you to believe that there are no seasons, and that apples, watermelon, tomatoes, and strawberries are all continuously in season, that is not the case. The produce we get in the grocery store ripens on trains, planes, and automobiles in the dark, not on the vine or branch as we might imagine. A fresh ripe strawberry that is picked right when it ripens is NOTHING like a supermarket strawberry, which is cold, hard, white on the inside and only faintly resembles the flavor of an actual strawberry!

Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all my mommy friends and of course to my own mom! I had a wonderful Mother's Day with my family. We enjoyed going to mass and having a yummy brunch at La Farm bakery here in Cary. We all got an afternoon nap! (Don't know the last time that has happened!) And took a bike ride as a family. Brett got me a surprise mother's day gift, given to me in the form of three puzzles! It took me a while to put them together and then to figure out what they were! I finally figured out that he gave me a much needed spa day. Looking forward to it! Thanks, Brett and to my wonderful kids for a great Mother's Day!

Happy Birthday Pierce!

Our sweet little Pierce turned one this week and we celebrated with a small family party on Saturday. It was great to see everyone and to celebrate the life of our little angel, Pierce. Pierce has been an awesome baby and we are a little sad to see him transitioning in to toddlerhood, but certainly happy about a few things that go along with that transition (like sleeping through the night, for example!).

Pierce enjoyed his first taste of cake - carrot cake! He got a lawn mower, some pool toys, and lots of clothes for his birthday. He also got a lifetime hunting and fishing license from mommy and daddy (well, mostly from daddy, cause I sure am not going hunting with him!).

We love you Pierce! Happy first birthday!!!

A Beginner's Garden - Enfin!

We finally finished our "little" garden! And when I say "we", of course, I mean Brett. He worked really hard on it over the past several weekends. When I first suggested this little garden, I had envisioned a leisurely Sunday family afternoon in the yard, turning the dirt just enough to drop in our magical little seeds... When in fact Brett informed me that NC clay could not be lightly turned and that we would need several inches of good soil on top of our clay if we actually wanted to grow anything. And in order to hold that nice soil in, we would need wooded sides constructed. And those sides would need to be leveled and joined. And so on and so on. Anyway, I hope we are able to get some veggies out of our garden so we can reuse it next year and make his hard work worth it!

We planted 2 eggplants, 3 tomato plants, 4 pepper plants, one jalapeno plant, a variety of herbs, carrots, black-eyed peas, radishes, and lettuces. You can grow a lot on a small plot! Ours is 16'x5'.

We'll keep you posted on its productivity (or lack thereof!).