Cats and CSA

[lydamorehouse]

 
Image: My CSA bounty and void cat licking her lips in apparent anticipation of yum.

As you can see, this week's full share of the Hmong Farmers Association is pretty decent. I got:

Carrots
Garlic Chives
Collard Greens
Head Lettuce
Green Onions
Sugar Snap Peas
Red new potatoes
(red) Beets
Red Radishes 
Zucchini (both green this time.)

The only things I had leftover from the previous box look like they will make it another week before going bad, and those are the herbs: dill and Thai basil.  

The only thing I am at all worried about consuming by next week is the collard greens, since they sent us a healthy amount, and *I* am the only one in the family likely to partake. However, I'm sure I'll find something fun to do with them. 

Despite not being a huge fan of the result, I am EXTREMELY grateful for the lettuce soup recipe that y'all passed on to me. I would have a pile of lettuce headed for the compost if it wasn't for that experiment. And, even though I wasn't crazy about CONSUMING the soup, it was super fun to make and try. As I said in my post about it, it smelled AMAZING. I have no idea why that didn't translate. I suspect that I may be more enamored of the things that go ON lettuce, like, ya know, salad dressing than the taste of lettuce itself. :-)

The only other food related plans I have for today involve making some homemade "bird biscuits" from this amazingly vintage book:


Image: A vintage mid-1970s era book about food for birds called "My Recipes Are For The Birds" by Irene Cosgrove.

Is it weird that I'm still oddly attracted to this kind of illustration style?

I'm going to try making something cleverly called "Finch Fries." I will post any resulting pictures and recipes, of course. Having read through some of the recipes sparked a conversation with my wife about gizzards, and whether or not it was, in point of fact, a good idea to add "sand" to anything one might make for the birds. I am choosing to leave it out, but I maintain that birds have no teeth and thus need grit and sand in their gizzards in order to help break down their food. Shawn wants to keep her aquarium sand for her pincushion "tomatoes." We did let the house spy inform us that most birds do in fact have gizzards, but apparently some have "soft" ones and thus I was convinced to let the birds find their own grit, as they know what their bodies can take.

In other news, knock on wood, but the heat seems to have broken somewhat.  We are currently hanging around 75 F / 24 C. It is still stupidly humid, but I kind of don't mind. I am excited beyond words that it's supposed to drop into the mid-60s (approximately 18 C) tonight.

Right, off to take advantage of the cool to bake bird biscuits... or rather biscuits for birds to eat.

Comments

[pameladean]

What a beautiful pile of produce. We often talk about getting a CSA share, but the more practical (also possibly most stubborn) person in the household is persuaded that we would let too much of it go bad. If one could get summer vegetables like this in cool weather I am sure we would not, but under the circumstances -- the abundance arrives in summer, summer is hot, our kitchens face south and are not air-conditioned -- I fear that person is correct. It is nice to experience so many other people's CSA shares vicariously.

I am right with you in being stupendously excited that the temperature tonight will get into the sixties. It's better than a birthday. Also I am very excited that RIGHT NOW I am sitting in my office where the air conditioner is broken, at my desk, typing on the laptop that has lived with me in my bedroom for the past however many way too many days we have been having this heat.

Willow is not Buttercup, but she is a very pretty girl.

P.

[lydamorehouse]

Your person's point about summer being the worst time to get all the produce because it is HOT and no one wants to cook is a valid one. I have, on occasion, frozen some of my bounty for use in soups and whatnot, but frozen food is never as good as fresh.

I was impressed that, despite last week's heat, we managed to consume most of what we'd gotten. I also have no central air, so my kitchen is insanely warm (although not also south facing, so probably not as bad as yours.)

I'm sitting with my laptop on the porch. It's so great.

[brin_bellway]

If I may ask, what made you decide to get an Echo? You're clearly not entirely comfortable with the idea, since you keep calling her "the house spy". I'm curious what made your cost-benefit shake out in favour.

[lydamorehouse]

We have three Echoes, one on each floor. We were early, early adopters. We often joked that our household is a fully-owned subsidiary of Amazon.com.

My privacy issues = zero.

Because I am a published author with a singularly unique name, it is INSANELY easy to get all the information in the world that you might want about me, including my full birthday and the city and state I was born in. It's on my Wikipedia page.

So, we like having a stereo? Someone to settle stupid arguments? Bad joke generator?

On the flipside, we do zero banking online. ZERO.

[brin_bellway]

Fair enough. :)

(Personally, I think my privacy is not *sacred* but *is* valuable†, hate voice-activation††, and actually strongly *prefer* that recordings of my conversations exist as long as those recordings belong to me†††. So I don't have a smart-home assistant, but I *do* wear a(n airgapped) microphone around my neck.)

---

†I'll sell my grocery profile to the grocery store for a few hundred a year, but not my entire credit-card transaction history to a third party for a couple dozen a year.

††I'm too autistic for this bullshit. Just because I *can* talk doesn't mean I *like* doing it. Give me buttons!

†††Why ever allow them to be forgotten, when we have the power to do better?

[sabotabby]

I love that illustration style. Also LOL@ the void cat.

[lydamorehouse]

Thanks! I'm glad I'm not alone.

[spiderplanet]

A fabulous looking kitty, and fresh radishes! What more could anyone want?

[lydamorehouse]

Decent weather? BUT IT SEEMS WE GOT THAT TOO!!

[kore]

That is for a WEEK? WOW. And it all looks so pretty!

Also LOL, pretty black kitty looks about ready to dive into the radishes.

[lydamorehouse]

I took a gamble going for the full share this year, but I'm currently not regretting it. It is a lot of food for only three people, especially given that in my household only ONE (me) out of three is fond of most veggies. My son will try anything; my wife, meanwhile, thinks the best food = meat and potatoes.

I think I just caught Willow cleaning her nose, but she does totally look like she wants to eat something on that table!

[offcntr]

Oh, man, I'd make our version of colcannon with the collards and potatoes. Fry up some bacon, set aside. Saute the collards in the grease, then add a little broth and cover to braise. Meanwhile, cook the new potatoes until tender. Pop the lid on your frying pan, stir in the bacon and taters. Consume!

I usually make this with Red Ursa Kale, which grows through the winter here, and gets slightly sweet. Collards might be a little tougher, but heck, there's bacon and potatoes.

[lydamorehouse]

Bubble and squeak! Excellent idea. I may have to do that. I have bacon in the freezer!! Thanks for the idea.

[j00j]

Bird... biscuits. If the birds give favorable reviews, let us know? TBH my parents might like this as forcible retirement entertainment (they're fine, it's just very anti-climactic).

Collards:
- I think I got other people to eat these in chip form once (like kale chips)
- If I can't get through a pile of greens the rest of the family won't eat, the freezer is an obvious solution.
- I've also been making pesto with whatever random greens-- haven't done collards yet but did kale+carrot greens+basil last time. And cashews because pine nuts are too dang expensive.

[lydamorehouse]

And I'm not convinced pine nuts even add that much to pesto. We've been making the standard basil pesto without them for YEARS. But, that's a lovely thought, too. I am always looking to experiment as I say above, even if the results make me go "mmmmm, maybe not again?" :-)

SOMETHING ate the muffins that I set out yesterday, so I'm thinking they are a hit. There were more birds, bunnies, and squirrels in our yard yesterday in general though, and I don't know if it was the muffins or just luck. To be fair, as I am about to report, the bird muffins actually smelled like something I might like to eat so I'm not entirely surprised if they are what attracted the extra wildlife.