Kale

Our first year as share holders of Trillium Haven Farm is coming to a close. Only one month left. This summer flew by! I have loved being a part of such a wonderful community of people.

I really would recommend a CSA(community supported agriculture) to anyone, who loves a variety of fresh organic produce, but does not really have it in their blood or time schedule to plant their own garden. I don't have it in my blood by the way. I tried that for two summers, it was, quite frankly, a disaster. This summer I planted three tomato plants and some herbs and that worked out fabulously for me.

I loved everything about going to the farm except one thing. There is one thing that would just get my stomach in a knot and my pits a pouring sweat. Kale. I hated the kale. Every week there it was. Laying in it's nice basket, all clean, pretty, and green waiting for me to take it home and love it. I HATE IT. I can't stand kale. It would not go away. It was never ending.

Does kale have no season??? Tell me people. I need to know.

I few times I acted as if I didn't see it. I scooted right past and ignored it. Then I had kale-guilt. Another time the nice woman that is always there to help us fill our baskets and bags, pointed out that I had passed the kale by. "oh, you forgot your kale, here ya go." "Oh oops, thanks", I lied. On occasion there will be someone at the Farm cooking when you pick up your share, one day there was a women there showing the many ways to use kale. It helped, I tried a few, but really I couldn't get past it. Kale-guilt. And there is always so darn much of it! Sheesh give us kale haters a break would ya.

This is what I really want....

Beets and potatoes...

Beautiful carrots!

Radishes, green onions, lovely lettuces, which I was given...but always with this....

kale. Is this a lesson in..."with the good there always comes the bad"? Oh man....and how do I take the "bad" and turning it into something good?

Flippin' kale...trying to teach me life lessons! Who does he think he is? Blast!

Somewhere along in my blog hopping I read something about a Kale Chip. What? What did I read, and where did I read it. I couldn't remember for the life of me. Did I dream it. Kale had been haunting me in my sleep.

Dream #1: I went to the farmers market and all anyone was selling was kale.

Dream #2: I went to the grocery store and everything was kale.

Dream#3: I woke up and I was sleeping on a bed of kale!

I love chips. Potato chips with plenty of French Onion Dip. But how could one turn kale into a chip. I did what all good people do these days....I googled, kale chips. And what happened next is not to be explained. The heavens opened up and a beam of light shown through the window onto my keyboard. True story. Then I clicked on the second choice that was given, cause that's just what I do. I rarely choose the first one. To my good fortune it was Smitten Kitchen. Who is also not a fan of kale and therefore sought out the chip and it was life changing, for her, and for me too.

Yes, it is true the Kale Chip has transformed me. I have taken something that I believed to be horrifically yucky. And transformed it relatively easily into a thing of wonder.

I will leave you all to ponder how wonderful a kale chip is. I will be back later to post how to make kale chips. Or if you have a mound of kale and are desperate need of a recipe for kale chips then go to Smitten Kitchen, she has a lovely site, with lots of good stuff you may like.

Be back in a few.

farmers market GIVEAWAY!

Because I picked my first tomatoes off my plants in my back yard last week.

Because it's the third week of August and the crops are at their peak.

Because I want you to GET OUT THERE and visit your local farmers market.

Because I just happened to be putzing around in the Model Drugstore in Holland Mi., and came across a few super cute things I could not resist buying.

Because of all the above....oh yeah AND because it has been WAY way too long since I have done a giveaway...feels like nearly an eternity since my last giveaway.

Because of ALL these things. I am doing a giveaway. And I'm as giddy as a girl in the front row of a Bon Jovi concert about it! It's been hard containing myself regarding these items for nearly a week. Are you sitting down?

I am giving away a cute bag...that looks like a strawberry. A colander with strawberry holes in it. A paring knife that has strawberries on it. AND brace yourself a pen that has a strawberry design! I KNOW, I know...it's a strawberrylicious GIVEAWAY!

I fit six large oranges in the colandar, just so you know it's not a mini colandar.

The pen even smells like strawberries! Just perfect for writing your list out for the market.

You have to admit, it is just too darn cute! And it has a nice sleeve to you could throw it in your picnic basket for cutting up apples or strawberries.

This bag is super cute. I think you could fit alot of produce in this bag and you could even put your dollars in the little strawberry pouch with draw string so you wouldn't even need to lug your purse along.

I'm hoping all this will motivate you to get out to your local markets, if you haven't already or have never.

My son thought I was giving away a construction hat with silly holes in it. Don't worry you germaphobes I will clean his head cooties out of there before I send it to the winner.

So here is the deal. You NEED TO COMMENT to be entered to win. Just one comment per person this time please.

Answer this question:

What is your favorite vegetable and how do you prepare it?

Remember it's nice to share...so please pass on this Farmers Market Goodie Basket Giveaway to all your peeps. You can go to my sidebar and share me real easy.

DEADLINE is SATURDAY August 21! NOON eastern standard time. I will announce the wiener on Sunday August 22.

LuvYA!

FARMERS MARKET

LOOK AT THAT, just look at how fabulous that is!

I headed on down to the farmers market in downtown Grand Rapids this morning...with Big D...bright and early. It was raining...but it was still the best. I LOVE the farmers market, I could kiss it, hug it, and dance down the center of it. But then, unfortunately I would probably be sitting in the mental ward right now and not sharing these pictures with you.

If you have a farmers market any where near you. GO please. Bring your children. Bring your grandma, your husband. Don't take a shower, just pull on your comfy pants and go.

Oh the flowers.....I restrained myself today. We are headed out to a cottage on Lake Michigan for the week with Big D and her family...so it would be one more reason for my husband to roll is eyes at me as I pack half the kitchen up....."really, you needed to buy flowers to haul out there". I could just hear it, as I am loading up my food processor, iron skillet, muffin tins....oh the list goes on and on. We need to eat people, we are on vacation. So, yeah, I passed these beauties by.

If you are from Grand Rapids, and you do go to the Farmers Market on Fulton, you need to go into the Market office and cast your ballot for it to be picked as the BEST farmers market in it's class in the country! Not sure of all the exact details I was too busy dancing down the sidewalk to my car...but take a second and do it.

Have a great day!

FREEZING things

Yesterday, I mentioned that I froze red bell peppers last summer, and a few of you requested that I let you in on my TOP SECRET, pepper freezing methods. So brace yourselves.

I love red bell peppers. Cannot get enough of them. I put them in everything. They are so pretty and sweet. And red. I love red. Hey Strawberries are red! WOW I just made a connection.

The seas parted and the trees did a dance. (or something like that)

Oh how I love red bell peppers and strawberries and the color red. I have never studied up on how to freeze fruits and vegi's. I have always just done it. And it seems to have worked out pretty good for us. I am not too much of a researcher, usually I am a trial and error type gal. Or I ask a friend and see how they do it.

Thank you Brenda for your freezing expertise, it has impacted my life in ways you cannot fathom.

I freeze strawberries, OF COURSE, every year. And blueberries by the bushel. I have frozen every type of pepper I can get my hands on. And a few other random vegetables. We will get to those later on in the game. Please remember I am a uneducated freezer of food,, but like I said I have never had problems....so there ya go, that is my disclaimer. (This blogging thing freaks me out most of the time because I am not an expert on anything, but I feel if I write about it I possibly should know technically what I am talking about and technical is not a word in my vocabulary....so if you have a PhD in freezology...please forgive me.)

And now after all of that I will demonstrate how to freeze peppers. You will need to use freezer bags, and a straw. Or you could invest in this handy dandy vacuum sealer type gadget. My dad got it for me for Christmas....I have used it, but usually revert back to my primitive Ziploc and straw method.

Wash them, core them, get all the seeds and whitish membrane out of the middle. Rinse them. Pat them dry with paper towels. When dry toss them in Ziploc freezer bags. VOILA! Freezolgy 101.

Whoops I forgot to show you the baggy-straw method. It is a highly complicated and utterly uncivilized method of vacuum packing your produce. Take note:

(I realize this looks slightly suspect, I assure you sucking air out of Ziploc bags is completely legal in the state of Michigan)

You can do this with any type of pepper, I did hoards of jalapenos last summer, they worked great for fresh salsa and cooking...not so good for jalapeno poppers. You may need to know that if your peppers are of the hotter variety, when sucking the air out of your baggies you may choke...so be ready!

I also love roasted red bell peppers. Follow the wash, core seed/membrane removal steps. Then lay them on a cookies sheets and drizzle with olive oil. Put in a 425 degree oven until skin starts to char and get roasted looking....for lack of better words. Give them a turn after 10 minutes, bake for approximately 15 to 17 minutes total.

Take them out. Let them cool completely. Put them in freezer bags. Great on pizza, in casseroles, in marinara sauce. Good golly Miss Molly, these are so good they are lucky to make it to the freezer bag.

BLUEBERRIES AND STRAWBERRIES

Same idea. Clean them and get all the stems off. Lay them out on cookie sheets to dry. Then toss them on in freezer bags and put them in the freezer. If you can lay them flat, so the berries are not piles too high on top of each other, it makes it easier for them to freeze fast and they don't get all clumped and frozen together. Which if they are dry there should not be a big problem with this. And I might add you will be able to fit more in your freezer if they are flat and stackable.

Flat and stackabley frozen fruits and vegi's.

OTHER VEGI'S

Blanch. No I am not talking about the hot to trot ol' lady on the Golden Girls T.V. series. I am talking about boiling quick and then plunging the vegi's in ice cold water to stop the cooking process. This what you need to do with beans, broccoli, cauliflower, and many others. I actually did a quick google search and it took me here.

Because I became money hungry last year during a garage sale, that I was doing with a girlfriend. I sold pretty much everything that was not plugged in or my kids were not wearing. I sold our chest freezer(it was plugged in until I unplugged it). STUPID. Why did I do that? I thought I could get by with the freezers in my two refrigerators. WRONG.

The garage sale thing got to my psyche.

It made me nutso.

So nutso, in fact, that I, ALSO, accidently sold my girlfriend's husbands brand new Keen boots for 5 BUCKS! We laugh about it now, but it was a deep dark secret for several months. Dean you know I love you and I will never ever sell your new boots again. Or anything of yours for that matter, Dean won't allow me in his garage anymore.......I may enter through the front door just not in the garage, and no more garage sales!

So where was I going with this....sold the freezer...oh yes, thank you for reminding me. So now this summer we joined a farmers CSA. CSA = community supported agriculture. Which is a local farm, that we have bought a share of, so we will get a percentage of all the goodies that come from their harvest. Plus, I am planning on planting peppers and tomatoes. And we ALWAYS go strawberry, and blueberry picking. I NEED a new freezer. My dear husband rolls his eyes, (but with a smile, cause he thinks I am cute). So now I will be on the hunt for a new freezer, and maybe I will find a pair of Keens boots size 11 on clearance since it's the end of winter in Michigan.

Wish me luck!