penny-wise people

morning harvest

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:34:00 +0000

Our garden has been loving the hot weather - the tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and pattypan are very happy. The snap peas have gone by and the green beans are just starting to flower. The garlic is trying its best to dry despite this very, very humid weather we've been having here in NH. The Brussels sprouts were attacked overnight all at once by cabbage worms, and we had to pull the plants - they were decimated (it was a sad moment, yanking those plants up!!). And this morning we picked our first ever yellow crookneck squash, along with the cukes and tomatoes in the photo. We even have a couple little tiny pumpkins on the vine. I don't know if it's too late in the season for them to mature into pick-able fruit, but it's pretty nifty to see them out there trying their best (we've never had success growing pumpkins before, so this is the closest we've come yet to our own little pumpkin patch in the back yard). Happy day!

mo-pug moments

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:17:00 +0000

Mo-Pug loves an afternoon nap on the couch -

And her head gets VERY heavy sometimes... good thing she doesn't have to hold it up all on her own!!

monday at the farmers' market

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:56:00 +0000

Our squash and cucumber plants in the garden continue to grow and grow - but we have nothing to pick (yet!!). So we headed off to the Durham Farmers' Market this afternoon, where we found treats like these in abundant supply! Yellow squash, zucchini, pattypan squash, cucumbers, green squash... all good!!

When we came home though, I realized we needed garlic to make our pattypan squash casserole - so out into the garden went my son, and in he came with this. Fresh garlic, straight from the backyard raised beds! He was so proud that he helped grow something so wonderful - this is the first bulb we've picked this year (we'll let the rest continue to grow for a few weeks more so they'll be even larger when we harvest, unless we need a couple more for cooking first!). Gardening with kids is definitely rewarding, educational, and wonderful all at the same time!

One more photo to share - speaking of fabulous market treats, this weekend we came across the first new potatoes we'd seen this year at another local market. Roasted new potatoes and local chicken - last night's dinner was a yummy one!!

barrington open farm day

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 20:23:00 +0000

Today we headed to Barrington, NH for Open Farm Day. There's no way I can resist an opportunity to go and see alpacas!!

First we headed to Profile Alpacas - what a beautiful place! They had chickens strutting about -

And adorable Nigerian Dwarf Goats -

And what had to be the world's friendliest llama. He came running over to the fence when we approached, and stood with us for as long as we'd keep rubbing his head and ears. We'd stop - he'd walk away. We'd hold our hand out - he'd come over for more rubs. He even put his head down low so my 7 year old could reach his nose (did I get a picture of that?? No - but trust me, it was a precious moment!!).

Of course they had alpacas too - but the fences were high, so I didn't get any photos except some that were through the bars. No worries though - because the alpacas over at Sallie's Fen were more than happy to have their photo taken -

And one of them in particular, like the friendly llama at Profile, really liked having his head rubbed!! Alpacas are just the sweetest animal - so gentle, and so curious. And when they're happy, they hum. Adorable!!

While we were enjoying the alpacas, we noticed the unusual mulch in the garden at Sallie's Fen - leftover alpaca fiber. Now that makes for an awesome and interesting looking garden!!

It was a great time - I'm already looking forward to next year's Farm Day!

cucurbits gone crazy

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 17:47:00 +0000

I had a little trouble deciding the title of this post.
Sea of Squash came to mind. Or Why I Will Never be Without Rabbits Again.
But then my 7 year old said, on his way in from the back yard where he had been picking snap peas (47 snap peas to be exact - not that he was counting...), "Mom, the cucurbits are going crazy out there!" and I decided that definitely described exactly the situation in our garden. Our cucurbits (that would be our squash and our cucumbers) are definitely growing like nothing I've ever seen in our particular little raised bed gardens!!

This is just some of our squash, with a few cucumber plants mixed in. We never expected them to grow like this - if we had, we'd have planted them with a little more space between! The pattypan (far right) were put in as small seedlings, but the rest were grown from seed sown directly outdoors (we tried starting seeds indoors last year, and our plants all died when we transferred them outdoors - so we didn't try again this year).

I took this photo to try to show how large the leaves are growing - we've taken to calling the plants "prehistoric squash" on account of the leaves reminding us of dinosaur footprints (and on account of it looking like a jungle out there!).

Best of all, here come the baby pattypan squash - once the flowers open and are pollinated by all the bees that are flying around out there, the baby squash will start growing bigger - and soon I'll be having pattypan squash casserole... yum!!

So, why all the excitement over these giant-sized cucurbit plants?? Well, last year, we grew pattypan squash and we had an okay yield, but the plants grew to maybe half the size they are out there now. And our zucchini plants were very small last year, only yielding a handful of baby zucchini before withering away to nothing. Our cucumbers? Oh goodness - they failed miserably.

Over the weekend we were talking about what we'd done differently this year, and the answer is clear - rabbit poop. We've never purchased fertilizers or "inputs" for our gardens, and in the past we've instead used homemade compost (from lawn and garden scraps thrown together to rot in an outdoor composter) and worm compost. These are all good things - but this year we added lots of composted rabbit manure, as well as some non-composted manure (which will continue to break down and feed the garden throughout the summer) to the raised beds. And now, after reading and reading over the last few years about how animals are magical in what they can do for a garden (manure is your friend!!), I've seen the difference with my own eyes in terms of the size and color and health of our plants this year compared to last, and I'm amazed. Indeed, I will never be without rabbits again!!

garlic scape pesto

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:44:00 +0000

I've been talking a lot about garlic scapes lately, and wanted to share the recipe (it's a simple one!) for one of my favorite Spring treats - garlic scape pesto. The pesto we made this week had scapes from our own garden, as well as from two local farms, and was made starting with the recipe below and then adjusted for taste (we used less oil and more garlic scapes than the recipe calls for). I enjoy the pesto on toasted homemade bread, crackers, and sometimes pasta. It freezes well, so don't worry about making too much - just throw it in the freezer and continue to enjoy even once garlic scape season has passed!

Garlic Scape Pesto

1/4 lb garlic scapes, cut into pieces
1 cup grated Parmesan
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
salt

Place garlic scapes and olive oil in food processor, and puree until smooth. Stir in Parmesan and lemon juice, and season to taste.

That's all there is to it! Some people add pine nuts, walnuts, etc. just like with basil pesto - but I like it with just the Parmesan and lemon juice. Whatever suits your taste, go for it and enjoy!!

yard sale treasures and farmers' market fun

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 20:22:00 +0000

The Newmarket, NH farmers' market began its summer season today, and we of course had to go and get garlic scapes (thank you, Wild Miller Gardens!) and broccoli (thank you, Hollister Family Farm!). We'll be making more garlic scape pesto this evening, which is a good thing since I finished our first batch on toast with breakfast this morning... yum!! There were all sorts of other treasures there at the Market too - from meat and eggs to soup and seedlings, they had it all covered! The new location for the market is perfect - it's just next to the Stone Church, instead of in the Stone Church parking lot. This leaves more space for parking - always a good thing for such a busy little market!!

On the way to the market, we stopped at a couple yard sales. I was excited to find a cute cement planter for $1.00 -

And a play-yard that will work just perfectly for Mr Luke so that he and Yoda can be outside hopping about at the same time (they can't share a pen, as they squabble when they get together). Although I'm not excited about bringing too much plastic into the house, I think this play yard was well worth the $5 we paid for it - and I figure if we use it, it doesn't end up in the landfill!

Luke and Yoda were of course more than happy to try out their pens this afternoon...

Our final find for today was a fabulous food mill in near-new condition (the man selling it asked us what it was when we bought it - he said he found it in his mother's closet and had no idea - so he threw it in the 50 cent pile and figured someone would take it home... that'd be us!). It'll be perfect for making tamales from scratch, which my husband likes to do a couple times each year. And since making tamales from scratch means grinding corn, and last time we were grinding corn we burned out our blender (oops!!!) this food mill should make for more physical labor in the cooking process, but less reliance on modern appliances that aren't always up to old-fashioned jobs!!

Hope you're having a great weekend too!!

our thinking rabbit

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 01:52:00 +0000

Yoda is a thinking rabbit. His buddy Luke is content to just hop about and eat clover when he's outside - hop about and eat pellet food when he's in the hutch - hop and eat, hop and eat.

But if you put Yoda in his hutch, he looks for trouble - most specifically he looks to see if he can figure out how to nibble the cage wire in such a way as to make not just tiny holes - but rather as to make it unravel, 2 foot long piece by 2 foot long piece.

If you make a special trip to the feed store to get a food dish that hooks onto the side of the hutch so he'll stop dumping his pellet food every time you feed him, he'll watch you hook it on for a couple days, and then on the third day, he'll hop over after you hook on the dish, grab the edge of the dish in his mouth, LIFT the dish ever so slightly up into the air to disengage the hooks from the wire, and hop away to the other side of the hutch with the dish held in his mouth, to place it in the back corner where he likes to eat a little first, and then dump the rest.

Yes, this is not a rabbit for those who lack a sense of humor!!!

Anyway, so if you put him in the x-pen that contains Luke perfectly well in the yard, and then you lie a piece of fencing on top in an attempt to discourage jumping, Yoda immediately wonders how he can get around this obstacle and head for greener pastures!!

He really is a riot, our little Yoda friend!!

the garden is growing!

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:13:00 +0000

We stopped by the Durham farmers' market this afternoon, and Wake Robin farm had BROCCOLI!! Yum, yum, and more yum - broccoli for dinner tonight!! Folks also had snap peas, snow peas, cucumbers, strawberries, beets, and lots of greens and garlic scapes. We came home with eggs, broccoli, snow peas, and cucumbers - and then headed out into our garden to see how things were coming along.

Mo of course kept an eye on Luke, to make sure he was eating clover and not vegetables...

Which Luke was more than happy to do -

Anyway, on to the plants...

The Brussels Sprouts are growing (after getting cabbage worms last year, we thought about not growing Brussels sprouts again - but I just love them so much, we had to give it another try, even if it does mean we'll be picking worms off the plants again!).

Someone/something has already been getting to the broccoli plants... will be keeping an eye out to see who it is and how we can encourage them to go eat elsewhere!

The pattypan squash are growing like crazy - as are the kale and more Brussels sprouts in the background!

Lemon cucumber plants are looking good -

And the kale, well - it's growing and growing and growing!!

The garlic is getting tall and the stems are getting thick. We cut scapes off all but 2 of the garlic plants, and the scapes are going straight into tonight's stirfry!

Saved the best for last - when we checked a couple days ago, the pea plants were flowering -

And now, the peas are growing!!

If you have a garden this year, I hope it too is growing happily and well!!

farmers markets are fun in the rain!

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:09:00 +0000

Even though it's raining and COLD right now in New Hampshire, today's farmers' markets were still full of goodness! We went to both Exeter and Lee, and came home with garlic scapes, cucumbers, kohlrabi, garlic/dill quark (yum!!!), asparagus (probably the last for this year, according to the farmer...), ground beef, and eggs. Since we also stopped at Warren Farm this morning for snap peas, and the lettuce, kale, and spinach in our garden are growing like crazy and allowing us to harvest just about daily right now, we're looking forward to some veggie-filled meals this week!!

Since peas are best enjoyed soon after picking, tonight's dinner will include Garlic Snap Peas (recipe courtesy of Green Earth Institute) -

Heat: 1 1/2 teaspoons canola oil.
Stir in: 1 large clove minced garlic.
Add: 1 1/2 cups sugar snap peas.
Cook and stir 2 to 4 minutes on medium heat. Remove from heat.
Sprinkle with: 1 teaspoon lemon juice.
Season with salt and pepper and serve over rice, if desired.
Serves 2.

tomatoes in may

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Thu, 27 May 2010 20:10:00 +0000

Yes indeed, we went to the Exeter farmers' market this afternoon, and Heron Pond Farm had greenhouse-grown tomatoes! They also had strawberries, which we didn't get since we have some of our own growing outside (though ours aren't red yet) - but it was nice to see such treats this early in the Spring!

We did bring home more than just tomatoes - we got chicken, baby bok choy, cucumbers (another amazing sight this early in the season!), duck eggs (which I've never tried before - so I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how they are!), and Brookford Farm yogurt.

Then when we got home, we harvested another big bowl of kale from the garden - so tonight's dinner will be a stir fry of kale, bok choy, onion, garlic, and chicken - with a cucumber salad on the side. I'm hungry already!!

kale, kale, everywhere kale!

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Tue, 25 May 2010 11:46:00 +0000

We spent lots of time in the garden this weekend, as the 10-day forecast gives us no chance of cold temperatures, so it was time to get the tomatoes planted! For tomato seedlings, we planted Juliet, 4th of July, and a grape tomato variety whose name I can't recall right now. We also planted (from seed) green beans, zucchini, pattypan squash, 2 different varieties of cucumbers, and crookneck squash... plus 2 pattypan squash seedlings.

But the most fun of the weekend was harvesting a bowl full of our own grown-from-seed curly kale, to add to a stir-fry dinner Sunday night. The full dinner consisted of almost all local ingredients - the chicken, garlic, and onion were all from the farmers' markets. The kale from our own garden. And the rice, salt, and soy sauce were from afar.

This was our kale, pre-harvest - there's still plenty of it outside - we picked the outer leaves, and so more leaves will keep growing (and we'll keep adding them to stir-fries!!).

As for the rest of the garden, we have lettuce growing bigger every day (we've been harvesting the outer leaves of the lettuce plants for salads, and leaving the inner leaves to grow larger) -

The peas are growing taller (though I wonder how the very hot weather predicted for the next 2 days is going to affect them)...

And the garlic is the happiest garlic I've seen this early in the season -

And now we eagerly await the emergence of the beans, cucumbers, and squashes that we seeded. So far this year, life in the garden is super good!!

photos from the festival

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Sun, 09 May 2010 20:16:00 +0000

We had a great time at the Sheep and Wool Festival - even though it's extremely windy and rather chilly in NH today, there were plenty of folks bundled up in hats, coats, and even mittens, checking out the sheep, alpacas, vendor booths (such amazingly beautiful yarn and fiber for sale!!), and other exhibits out at the Hopkinton Fairgrounds today. Thought I'd share a few photos - it was so windy I was having trouble holding my camera still, so please pardon the blurry alpacas!!

A bunch of friends, hanging out together -

So cute!

Having a little hay-snack -

The sheep and angora goat displays were fun too -

It was definitely a fun day - I'm looking forward to next year's festival already!

luke meets mo-pug

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Fri, 07 May 2010 15:37:00 +0000

It's a beautiful sunny day in NH today, so we spent the morning outside working in the gardens. We seeded another round of spinach and lettuce, weeded the snap peas, and built another trellis out of fallen sticks for the second round of snap peas which were seeded a couple weeks ago and are already about 2" tall. This warm May weather has been great for the gardens, for sure!

While we were outside, Mo-Pug was running around the yard, and Luke was running around in an x-pen (yet another Freecycle treasure!). When Mo noticed Luke, she went over to check him out -

Mo was very curious about Luke - but Luke was even more curious about Mo -he jumped right over to the edge of the pen to get an extra-good look (or maybe sniff...)!

Once everyone's curiosity was satisfied, it was time for a nap in the sunshine!

sheep and wool (and alpaca!) festival

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Fri, 07 May 2010 12:29:00 +0000

The NH Sheep and Wool Festival is coming up this weekend at the Hopkinton State Fairgrounds. The NEAOBA Alpaca Fest will be running on the same days, same place. I like sheep - but I seriously love alpacas. They're adorable, curious, adorable, friendly, adorable, useful fiber animals. Did I mention they're adorable?? Whenever I'm around them, I can't stop smiling!! And, like llamas, they hum when they're happy. Happy humming farm animals - really, how could that not make a person smile? Anyway, although the weather this weekend in NH isn't looking like it's going to be the best, I'm hoping the rain showers will let up long enough to allow for a good time at the festival. Sheep, alpacas, sheep-herding demonstrations, weaving and spinning demonstrations, craft projects/"make and takes," educational workshops... lots of fun to be had! We'll be there - how about you?

our own baby spinach

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Wed, 05 May 2010 20:11:00 +0000

We planted spinach seeds outside in a homemade cold frame on April 1 - and today, we harvested enough baby spinach leaves for a salad (we cut the outer leaves from the plants, leaving the smaller center leaves to continue growing - according to what I've read, this method should allow us to harvest from these same plants until mid-June, if all goes well). This is the first time we've grown spinach here in our garden, so we're quite happy with our success so far.

We also planted seeds from the same seed packet in another garden bed, but didn't use a cold frame. Those plants are much smaller and probably won't be ready for harvesting for at least another week or two, from the way things look -if they even make it that long. They're not particularly strong plants, and keep toppling over under the weight of their own leaves. I'd never gardened with cold frames before, but this year we built 2. Under 1, we have spinach, kale, and lettuce - and under the other, we're planted broccoli seeds. Next year, we'll plant all our early Spring greens in cold frames, as it's pretty remarkable the difference not only in size but also in strength that the seedlings in the cold frames are showing. All good!

a new (to us) veggie

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Sat, 01 May 2010 20:29:00 +0000

Yes, I have never tried a parsnip before. And I am not a big fan of carrots, to which the parsnip is closely related. But one of our commitments this farmers' market season is to try more "new to us" foods - and when we stopped by Brookford Farm's stand today at the Portsmouth Farmers' Market to buy potatoes, they mentioned that they had Spring-dug parsnips - so we decided to get a couple to try.

Several people stopped us as we walked around the market to give us parsnip cooking hints (you have to love how friendly folks are at the markets - I can't remember the last time someone stopped me in the grocery store to talk all excitedly about what was in my cart!!). Anyway, some folks said parsnips are best when roasted as part of a "meat and potatoes" dish - others said boiled and mashed is the way to go - and someone else mentioned parsnip "fries."

We decided to go with oven-baked fries, and followed this recipe from the Green Earth Institute website:

Parsnip Crisps
Cut parsnips into French fry shape. Toss with olive oil and sea salt. Spread on cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees F. for 40 minutes or until crispy outside and tender inside.

The verdict? Parsnips might not be my favorite veggie find ever - but they're pretty tasty! An excellent kick-off to farmers' market season - and I'm already looking forward to seeing what "new" food I can bring home next week!

Speaking of next week, the Exeter farmers' market opens this coming Thursday (May 6) - check out Seacoast Eat Local for farmers' market schedules and more opening dates!

garden update

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:32:00 +0000

As we in New Hampshire await rain and possible snow tonight (eek!!!), I thought a garden update seemed in order, as a reminder of the warm sunny weather we were having just a couple days ago!

We planted snap peas, lettuce, kale, spinach, and broccoli seeds back a few weeks ago - and garlic back in October.

The broccoli is not feeling photogenic yet, but the peas are coming right along - and soon will be tall enough to start climbing the trellis we "planted" for them, made out of sticks and branches that came down in the wind storm that struck our region back in February.

The spinach, kale, and lettuce have been enjoying the nice warm Spring, and are in serious need of some thinning out (it's on the to-do list!).

The mint that we transplanted last year from a perennial bed in our yard has started to come back, and the chives we planted from seed last year are back as well. Missing from this picture is a pot full of oregano transplants that we got from a Freecycle friend this week - the oregano is in a bit of transplant shock, but is starting to perk up and look much happier than it did when we first planted it!

But my favorite success story so far is definitely the garlic - we planted garlic for this year in two different raised beds, and the early warm-up has it growing strong and tall already! I'm looking forward to garlic scape pesto... yum!!

luke and yoda

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:56:00 +0000

While we were outside gardening this weekend, Luke and Yoda spent time hopping around on the grass, getting used to eating small quantities of the new Spring growth that's popping up.

There seem to be many opinions as to whether domestic rabbits can eat grass without it bothering their stomachs, but what I thought made the most sense was something I read that said to try acclimating your rabbits to grass a little at a time - see how they do and whether it seems to upset their stomachs - and if they seem to be doing well, then increase the amount they have the opportunity to eat a little at a time.

Our plan (if all goes well with our little guys eating grass) is build two smallish "rabbit tractors" (similar to the idea of chicken tractors) so we can have Luke and Yoda safely contained while outside on the grass much of the summer - that way they can eat their fill (we'll also continue giving them rabbit pellets to eat as well), get some exercise after being caged much of the winter, and also help fertilize our yard (which, as you can see from the photos, could use whatever help it can get in certain areas...). All good!

april tomatoes

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 15:00:00 +0000

It's April and we have cherry tomatoes ripening on the UNH tomato plants that we bought back in March! The plants are living in our sunroom, up on top of a high shelf so they can take full advantage of the sunlight that comes in through our skylights. I'm looking forward to picking up some salad greens at the Portsmouth farmers' market on opening day next Saturday (May 1) and adding our own cherry tomatoes to our salads!!

I'm also looking forward to getting back to blogging - I've been busy gardening, wrapping up the homeschooling year, etc. and haven't been too good about the blog writing lately! But, as they say, I'll be back...

Meanwhile hope you're enjoying your Spring!

a challenging challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:37:00 +0000

A couple weeks ago, I started thinking about setting a challenge for myself - to avoid big box stores for the rest of the year. One of the interesting things with this is of course defining "big box store" - we all think of Walmart and Target, Lowes and Home Depot. I'd consider Petco a pet-themed big box store, and there are other places that come to mind too as places I'd rather avoid (chain pharmacies like Walgreens, for example).

But what about "local chains" (like Pet Quarters, which has locations only in NH and Maine)... or what they call "locally owned franchises" - Ace Hardware comes to mind. Are these to be avoided, or are they ok alternatives when a truly local, independently owned, small business alternative isn't available?

I haven't quite figured that out yet. I'd like to think that I can shop exclusively at independently owned, small local stores - but is that even possible any more? And if I'm buying Tylenol (national, factory-made product) at Calef's (local, independently owned store) am I really making a difference?? Do I want to avoid both the non-locally-owned stores and the products that are made at far-flung factory locations???

These things really do keep me thinking!! I certainly don't have all my answers yet - but I'm working on it - and to my thought, if I'm pondering these things, I'm already shopping more carefully and conscientiously - which has to be better than the alternative, right?

So meanwhile, as I try to figure this out, I've been buying pet food at places like this...

And lumber from places like this...

And what I have already have learned is that I, for one, am much happier driving out to a lumber yard that's surrounded by forest and blue skies, than I am driving out to Home Depot where I'm surrounded by nothing but parking lots and more stores!!

This is going to be a fun adventure!!!!

my favorite sign of spring

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:14:00 +0000

I like crocuses, and chirping birds, and the reappearance of my garden frog statues from under the snow - but my favorite sign of Spring is, without a doubt, the arrival of the UNH cherry tomato plants. These plants are available at their annual Greenhouse Open House - but you can also buy them direct from the greenhouse a couple days prior to the event (which is March 26 and 27 this year). Rumor has it they sell out super quick at the open house itself - so get there early for the best chance of getting plants of your own!

We went over to UNH today, to pick up a pair of plants. The ones we got already have tiny tomatoes on them - and if the past years are good predictors of the future, by late April or early May we'll be picking red tomatoes for our salads, from these cute little plants growing in our sunroom. The tomatoes aren't as sweet as those that are grown outdoors in the summer - but they're pretty tasty (and I love when visitors come by our house and say "are those TOMATOES??" - and I get to say "yes indeed they are!!").

So, if you're looking for an awesome Springtime activity and you're nearby to UNH, grab a couple tomato plants and have fun watching tomatoes grow inside your house too!

farmers' market trip

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:32:00 +0000

We went to the Seacoast Eat Local farmers' market in Exeter today - for the first time, we decided to go toward the middle of the market (which runs from 10-2) instead of toward the beginning. Made for a nice, peaceful trip through the aisles, since the crowds had diminished - and indeed, as promised, there were still plenty of goodies left when we arrived!

We picked up Empire apples (I'm loving that the New Hampshire orchards have apples from their cold storage that they're bringing to the markets still now in March!), potatoes, onions, rutabaga, and carrots. We still have plenty of local chicken, pork, and beef in the freezer, so this was a meat-free shopping trip.

Next weekend (3/20), there are farmers' markets in Newmarket and Rye, and then the following weekend (3/27) is the next Seacoast Eat Local market in Rollinsford. I'm looking forward to seeing what will be available at the markets as we head toward Spring!

lesson learned

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:11:00 +0000

So last night, we decided to take a drive out to Home Depot to pick up wood for the 3 new garden beds we want to build this year. For 12 six-foot lengths of untreated pine (we make our beds out of pine - some folks use cedar - but we find pine works well), we paid over $75 (eek!!!). Half way home I realized we had made a big mistake - why were we going to Home Depot when there's a small, locally owned lumber yard right in our own town?? We called the lumber yard this morning, and asked their price for the same wood. The answer? Just $23 and change! So guess which family will be returning to Home Depot this morning, bringing back last night's purchase, and stopping by the lumber yard this afternoon?? Yep, that would be us!!

Lesson learned - when you need something, look to the local guy first!! It's certainly not always the case that what you can find locally will be not only less expensive but also better quality - but it frequently works out that way. We're so conditioned to think "big box store" when we need something - it's a habit that's not easy to break. I haven't shopped at Walmart for years, but I still go to Target, Home Depot, Lowe's, etc. more frequently than I probably even realize. I wonder if I could go the rest of the year without shopping a big box store. Hmm... that's a challenge I might have to consider for myself. Stay tuned!

here comes the garlic

noreply@blogger.com (Colleen) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:14:00 +0000

After last week's windstorm (we were without power for 6 days, lost a cute little Japanese maple tree we had in our yard, and have been cleaning up branches, limbs, and sticks for days now!!) we've been spending a lot of time outside. What a wonderful surprise when we pulled back some of the leaves that were on one of our garden beds to check on the garlic, and found several of the cloves we planted back in the Fall already sprouting up from under the soil! We covered them back up to keep them warm for a bit longer, but it seems Spring really is almost upon us! With the return of the gardening season, I'm hoping to get back to more regular blogging - this year, we're expanding the garden beds, planting much more than we did last year, and are really looking forward to a wonderful summer!