Can we just stop for a second and talk about how absolutely gorgeous it is in Michigan today?
Michigan summers can’t be beat.
And in addition to the sunny skies, perfect temperature, and growing garden (proof of that behind the cute little girl with a shovel), I’m excited to be starting another summer sharing in the harvest of Green Wagon Farm in Ada.
This will be our second summer participating in a CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Each week, we’ll stop at the farmer’s market and pick up a share of whatever they’ve got growing at the farm. I’ll admit, this week was a tiny bit disappointing as a hard winter (yeah, Michigan has those too) resulted in a later start to the growing season. As you can see here, this week we got a bunch of kale in several varieties, some green garlic, and a bag of, well this is embarrassing that I’m not sure, some kind of arugula-like sprouts. Since the edibles were scarce this week, they also sent us home with 5 tomato plants and 5 pepper plants, which I just barely managed to find a home for in my already-full garden.
I’ll admit, I had a little anxiety last night about it all, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. Either a fear of scarcity until things really begin growing, or a fear that come August I am going to have so many pounds of produce on my hands that it will become my full time occupation to keep up with it all, storing as much away as possible for the next long winter.
I am going to be posting throughout the summer the simple and creative ways I use my meager grocery budget and CSA produce to feed my family. This week, my job is easy since we didn’t have tons to work with (probably a blessing in disguise!)
Half the kale and half the green garlic went into this lovely fritatta. You can learn much more than I care to share about that here.
And tonight, I’ll cook the rest of the kales and garlic along with some white beans, salt and pepper, and serve over brown rice. The sprouts went on burgers last night.
I do hope you’ll stay tuned over what is sure to be a bountiful summer!