Eat Local!

You know every so often I have to get my plug in about eating local. So I thought today would be perfect after the wonderful meal we had last night.

The collards which I canned were from either our garden. I knew all that hard work & time canning collards would pay off! The pork chops were from Wild Turkey Farms and the watermelon from Twin Oaks Farm.

I also made zucchini bread- the zucchini was given to me by someone at work who grew it in his garden. I had enough leftover to shred & freeze for some more zucchini bread later.

It's so easy to eat local.

Visit your local Farmer's Market or road side stands that you see.

But do remember that not every Farmer's Market is a growers only market. Ask the farmer if the item was grown on their farm.

Also, at your grocery store question where the fruits & vegetables come from. At the grocery store I shop at they have signs promoting "locally grown" so I asked what is local? Is it within the county, within the state??? Locally grown to them is within 6 hours of their warehouse. Their warehouse is in Matthews, North Carolina, so local could be South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia...not so local if you ask me!

Having worked at 2 different Farmer's Markets I find that you develop a relationship with your customers. More and more people are becoming concerned about where their food is coming from. Which is a good thing. We had a couple come to the farm on Monday evening to help process chickens. They came because they wanted to, because they were interested in the process and we as farmers appreciate that!

I'm not perfect there are still things that I buy out of convenience...chips, cookies, soups, broth, etc. but I have tried to not waste a lot either.

I try to freeze and can whenever possible. Our latest project is to make our own cornmeal.....I'll report on that later.

There always seems to be something that I can save in some way:

We were blessed with lots of basil- I made more pesto than we will ever need!

I have been freezing our leftover coffee in ice cube trays so we can make our own iced coffee.

If you read this blog you know I tried to dehydrate turnips (so everything doesn't always work).

So there is my eat local speech we're good for a couple of months & then I'll remind you again! If you have some ideas to share with me please do!!

What a week-end!

We normally have very uneventful week-ends because we are at the Farmer's Market every Saturday and we are preparing for the Market on Friday nights. This week-end was the exception.

We still went to the Farmer's Market on Saturday but that afternoon we went to Farmer's Day. I should say we tried to go to Farmer's Day. They close down about 4:00 pm and we got there at 4:30 pm. Oh well, we did go back that evening for fireworks. Considering we are in small town America it was a really nice fireworks show. It was the first time either of the boys had seen real fireworks. I think they really enjoyed them.

I love fireworks!

I told Lee that was how I wanted him to propose. I told him they should somehow be able to figure out how to put "Do- marry me?" in fireworks.

It didn't happen......

I'll share my proposal story another time.

On Sunday, we built fence so we could move the pigs to fresh pasture. I told you we had a very eventful week-end! We actually went out to eat at a very nice restaurant on Sunday.

It was Charlotte Restaurant week from July 10- 19.

Here is the description from their website:

Enjoy a culinary extravaganza during this 10-day celebration of Charlotte's restaurant scene. From Friday, July 10, through Sunday, July 19, each participating upscale restaurant will offer a spectacular 3-course, prix five dinner menu for only $30 per person (not including tax & gratuity).

It's a royal opportunity to experience Charlotte's ever expanding array of dining options and remarkable chefs, from popular favorites to new hot-spots.

We decided to try the Customshop.

http://www.customshopfood.com/index.html

We had our choice of red or white wine.

Then there were 3 starters to chose from:

Kobe Beef Carpaccio with fresh horseradish and lemon

Arugula, Roasted Corn, Shitake & Caprino

Two-Minute Ceviche

I chose the Two-minute Ceviche which until that moment I had never heard of and had no idea what I was about to eat. It was 2 shrimp (cut in half) steamed for 2-minutes to give it some color and marinated in a citrus juice it was topped with diced red onion and jalapeno. It was actually very good! Lee got the Kobe Beef. It was cut very thin like prosciutto. It was also very good!

There were 4 entrees to chose from:

Flounder- sauteed spinach and preserved lemon

Beef Short Ribs- with black kale & cipollini marmalade

Ricotta Gnocchi- eggplant, fresh mozzarella and pesto

Yellowfin Tuna- with panzanella salad

This was a tough one for me.

I thought I'd venture out and try the Ricotta Gnocchi but in the end I went with the Flounder and it was delicious. Lee got the Yellowfin Tuna. We both cleaned our plates.

There were 2 deserts to chose from:

Apple Walnut Brioche Bread Pudding

Fresh Berry Tart- with vin cotta

I got the Berry Tart & Lee the Bread Pudding and we shared.

Everything was delicious! It was definitely something we couldn't do if we had to pay full-price for the meal though.

The other exciting thing for us is that today is Rosty's first day of summer camp. I'll have more details later in the week!

It's Birthday Time!

July is a busy month for us we have 3 birthdays at our house. Freckles (my Border Collie) will be 7 years old on July 19th, Charlie will be 3 on July 25th & I will be 25 years old on July 28th. We also have several family members with July birthdays.

Charlie has been super excited about his birthday this year. His biggest dilemma was what kind of birthday party to have this year. He mentioned Bob the Builder but in the end he decided on Thomas the Tank Engine. This was great news to me because Rosty had a Thomas party when he was 3 years old and I saved the leftovers from his party.

The big event of the birthday party will be the pinata or at least the one Charlie is most excited about anyway! We have been to a couple of parties this year that had pinatas so I decided to purchase a Thomas the Tank Engine pinata. As we all know if I'm going to do something it's not going to be easy. I tried about 3 different websites before I found a Thomas pinata in stock. Pinatas now have the option of being non-violent. They have several curling ribbon type strings hanging down and each child gets to pull a string and eventually the bottm will bust and let out all the goodies.

After Rosty attended a party a few weeks ago and the mom hosting the party got smacked with the pinata stick which left a red welt on her arm Iso decided to go with the non-violent pinata. Plus, do I really trust 3-year olds with a stick that they actually have permission to hit something with.........

As we all know the pinata has to be filled with something. There is a bag of filler that you can buy but of course it's not going to have the best candy in it so I decided to buy my own filler for the pinata. I asked Charlie what he wanted in the pinata and I bought a few other things. This is what we have:

Tootsie rolls

Bulleyes (caramels with white center)

Candy rings

Bubble gum

Rings

Bugs (not real)

Chinese yo-yo

Train whistles (leftovers from Rosty's party)

Blowers (also leftovers)

I think that's it!

Yesterday the box with the pinata, the Thomas napkins, Thomas tattoos and Thomas cupcake toppers came in the mail. When we pulled up I saw the box on the porch and told Charlie that his birthdya stuff was here. He was so excited! When I stopped the van he got out and ran to the front porch and was carry the box, which was as big as him in the house.

I hope he has a great birthday party! I will definitely post about the party and pictures. Last year at his birthday party we had a mini-twister come through the week before and it ruined our swing set so we had to come up with an alternate plan which was to have the kiddie pool and water guns for the kids. We decided to do the same thing this year. We'll have the kiddie pool, a sprinkler (which he got last year and they love playing in it) and water balloons.

I can't wait!

By the way, I won't really be 25 this year but I think you all knew that!!!!

Monday, Monday

Where to start......

Well, Lee got up in the middle of the night not feeling well. By the time I was up for work he was running a temperature & had chills and fevers. Then the rain came. It rained and rained and rained.

I was letting the boys sleep in a little late since it was raining (plus we had gone to see Ice Age: The Dawn of Dinosaurs the night before). Anyway, I was sitting at the table looking at the newspaper and I noticed Cupcake's (our lamb) lot was collapsed.

For those of you that don't remember Cupcake was a lamb from the farm that we nursed back to life after her mother rejected her. She has been staying at our house in a dog lot/kennel complete with her own dog house and a tarp over the top to shield out the sun. It rained so hard and so fast that the tarp filled up with water and collapsed the dog kennel/lot.

I went back and changed out of my work clothes and went outside in the rain to try and help her. She was able to get into her house and she had water but I could not open the door and there was no way she could get out so I figured she was pretty safe until Lee (or a neighbor) could help me.

So back inside. I change clothes, get the kids up and ready and lets go to preschool. I tell Lee we are leaving & to get some rest and to call me if he needs me.

I should have known when I get into China Grove and see the traffic lights weren't working that there would not be any electricity. It's never a good sign when there is a tree down in the middle of the road and a fire truck blocking the road. I get to preschool and another parent in the parking lots tells me no power, no school. The power company told them about 10 o'clock they hoped to have power restored.

So, I'm thinking we'll go home.

The kids can eat breakfast (they usually eat at preschool) and get a few household chores accomplished and then back to school and I'll only be a couple hours late for work.

We get home & I go and tell Lee that we are home. It was so funny he looked at me and said "What time is it?"

I said, "8 o'clock."

He got another funny look on his face and then I explained the situation to him. I shut the bedroom door and left him alone to rest.

I fix the boys breakfast and then made them pallets on the floor to watch cartoons QUIETLY because daddy doesn't feel good.

You know me I don't relax so I unloading the dishwasher, started laundry, made a squash casserole.

Lee felt a little better and made his way to the couch. It was about 10 o'clock so I called preschool, I did not talk to anyone but the answering machine picked up so I thought the power was back on. I load the kids back up, go to China Grove for the second time, and you guessed it- NO POWER!!!

I called work, I called Lee and told him that I would run so errands with the boys so he could rest. He said to go ahead and drop one off with him.

I took Rosty with me and dropped Charlie off with Lee. Me & Rosty were going to shop for kindergarten supplies since Walgreens had some good sales. Before leaving Walgreens I called pitiful he sounded really bad. I told him that me and Rosty would go feed since it was about 11:30 am- I knew the animals were probably hungry.

We get to the farm. Walk up to the barn to get the feed buckets. We have several barn chickens and they have a nest on top of the round bales that are in the barn. We know where the nest is and we collect the eggs everyday but lately there have hardly been any eggs. Lee was thinking racoons. But I saw yesterday what is getting our eggs. I saw a black snake eating an egg. I don't care if a black snake is a good snake. A snake is a snake!

I show Rosty the snake and we get the feed loaded up in the buckets and we get on the Gator and head off to feed. Of course, I'm looking all in the Gator to make sure there isn't a friend hiding in there.

So we feed the pigs & the chickens and make sure everyone has water and then we are going back home. I decide that since it's noon I'll ride back to preschool, if the power is on I can drop the boys off and at least I can work half a day (I am such a dedicated employee). As we get into China Grove the traffic lights are working- yeah! I pull into the preschool and there is not a car in sight. They went home!!!

After getting back home Lee still wasn't feeling good. I fed the boys lunch and got them to lay down, they slept from 2 o'clock to 5 o'clock. I slept for about an hour too.

I cooked a yummy supper of meatloaf and squash casserole. Lee ate orange jello.

I called and asked Lee's dad if he would feed for us and he said he would. Then we got the call. The pigs were out. So about 8 o'clock Lee had to get up and drive to the farm. Luckily, his Tylenol had kicked in but by the time he got home he crashed again.

Believe it or not this is really a typical day for the Menius Family.

Enjoy!

Random Thoughts.....

Not much going on to talk about (other than the normal kids and farm) so I thought I would just ramble some....

* We had baby pigs on Thursday- 17 total but we are down to 12

*We ate with our neighbors on Friday night...yummy! We haven't seen them lately..the life of farmers (did I mention we ate at almost 9 pm....the life of farmers)!!

*The Farmer's Market was better than I thought it would be on Saturday since it was July 4th but I think that it helped we had fresh chicken

*Speaking of chicken... I made BBQ chicken last night (from Wild Turkey Farms), fried squash and corn

*I put up (froze) corn this week-end (Thanks Correll Farms)

*I want to make some salsa but when will I have time........

*We're having the hotdogs that I didn't fix on July 4th for supper tonight and maybe I'll fry up some potatoes too!!

I guess that's enough rambling...... I have some pictures to post from Father's Day weekend but I haven't located my camera yet..... I need to find it.