Happy Home Update- Settling into that Winter Routine

Not a lot going on in the garden front here now that it's December, but I'm still trying to find ways to appreciate local foods and incorporate them into my diet! I've started receiving my Stone Soup CSA, which is a mix of root veggies and grains- it's been awesome so far! I'll have to share a picture of my new grain mill in an action in the next post; I made some yummy Pumpkin Muffins with local roasted pumpkins and locally grown, home milled whole wheat flour!

Here are some highlights of what I've been up to:

• Hitting my local Farmers' Market, which has expanded from every other week to each and every Tuesday in November and December- woohoo!
  
• Started back up on my annual Winter Routine of Saturday Local Grocery shopping, venturing out to the Ann Arbor Farmers' Market, the Food Cooperative there, to a locally-owned chain grocer (Busch's) and then to Whole Foods. I try to get as much local produce and products that I can from each stop!
  
• Exercising and really watching what I eat lately, and have lost some weight, which is great!
  
• Started another blog, where I can share all my new fitness interests, finds, & success!
  
• Changed Eating Habits- As a result of a more healthy and thoughtful diet, I've cut out a good deal of the grains and dairy products that I eat. I've had a lot more energy, and I can really tell the difference on a day when I over-indulge because I feel sluggish and my stomach is irritated!
  
• Trying out Juicing- Today I made homemade Carrot/Apple/Ginger juice thanks to a friend, who let me try out her juicer! Someone should probably just write a warning label on the cover of the Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead dvd. After-effects of watching DVD could include but are not limited to: May cause one to research juicers online for 2 hours, may result in juicer purchasing/borrowing from a friend, will most likely cause you to make an Apple & Carrot-based juice, exalting it's nutritive properties for the next hour to whoever will listen. 

I'll be checking in early next week with a home grain milling demo and a product review of the hand mill I recently purchased! 

Hello, I'm still here!

I've had sort of mini-hiatus from blogging over the past 2 weeks- sorry for my absence! I've recently started an intense exercise program (of my own development) and that's taken up a lot of the time that used to be "sit on the couch and blog" time- funny how that works.

I've had lots of thoughts swirling about in my head for the past several weeks: eating "healthy" and what that really means, physical activity and its importance in our pretty sedentary American society, and how to make "healthy", "local", "organic", and "seasonal" all jive together in your life and your diet.

I also recently watch the documentary Bag It and that (in the best way possible) has added a whole additional layer of critical thought about how I can function better in a society built on plastic. Also, when will our society get to a place where we realize all of this (shipping food across the country and the world just for "customer choice", using single use disposable plastic for SO many things, making food product containers laced with chemicals like BPAs and phalates) might be more "convenient" but is certainly contributing to health problems, pollution, global warming, etc.

Heavy thoughts for a Saturday morning huh? On that note, I'm off to teach a canning class. I'll be back to a regular blogging schedule here, too, so keep an eye out for more posts!

Thanks for reading,

-Arika

Celebrating our Farmers this Labor Day

I'm in Columbus this weekend visiting my family! Some of my aunts & cousins, granddad and extended family are coming to my parents house and we'll be playing games and hanging outside, hopefully. It'll be a lot of fun!

My parents are nice and they've humored my desire for a mostly-local Labor Day meal. Really- I can't think of a much better way to celebrate local Farmers- some of the hardest working laborers in our country with the most important jobs; feeding our families & our country!

We're starting to gather the ingredients for the big Sunday cookout. I brought some freshly-harvested produce down from my garden to share. 

The Labor Day menu so far includes:

• Caprese Salad w/ tomatoes from my parents garden 
• My fav Potato Salad w/ pink potatoes & garlic from my garden, & onions from my CSA 
• Sweet Corn
• Mango Bean Salad w/ peppers from my CSA & garlic from my garden
• Hamburgers 
• a fruit plate, with my one prize cantaloupe :)

We're heading to the Clintonville Farmers' Market tomorrow morning and hopefully grabbing some of the 'missing pieces' - sweet corn, hamburger meat, and maybe some peaches for a special dessert. I've already got some good input from Columbus buddies on what vendors I should hit up first at the market before I go. I'm looking forward to seeing a new farmers' market here in my hometown!

Here's hoping that your Labor Day is relaxing and maybe even invigorating. If you can, find a way to appreciate and support your local farmers this labor day!

What's Up Wednesday!

Lots in bloom in the garden this week! All of my plantings for the Fall are really starting to grow- carrots, onions, broccoli, swiss chard, prize choy, lettuce, and sugar snaps. The tomatoes are starting to produce a bit less, so I thinned out the dried and dead stalks to try to make some space for new growth. Here are some pictures of what's up this week:

My one lone sunflower is blooming!

The fall broccoli is looking healthy and getting taller every day

I think it's about time to pick this cantaloupe!

I transplanted some of the "walkers" from the Egyptian walking onions I got this spring.

They are now popping up everywhere in the designated "fall section" of the garden

that will later be covered with a quick hoop. 

 Made and canned some cucumber pickles this past weekend!

Used the Dill Pickle recipe in the Freshly Packed Pickled Foods section of the

Blue Book of Preserving. It's a new recipe for me- we'll see how they turn out!

What's up in your Garden this week?