Dance Mom

I didn't think I would become an activities chauffeur with a preschooler, changing my schedule to get kids to practice, etc. But I did sign Gina up for dance class with full knowledge that there would be a show at the end of the year, complete with extra practices and photo day; at the time it seemed so far way. So yesterday I left work an hour early to pick up the kids and take Gina to dance practice. Of course I cut the time too close, especially with freeway traffic so we were a full fifteen minutes late. I then forgot that practice ended at 6:30pm and not 6:15pm so we were hanging around the lobby for half an hour (since it ran late) with a very antsy almost 3yr old and baby. Dylan was great, smiling at everyone who came by, but just as Gina finished he had had enough and started crying. So we get to repeat this two more times.

Eat with the Seasons CSA
I love the idea of buying directly from farmers and supporting local farms. A few years ago, I tried Mariquita Farms CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture). Every week I picked up a box of fresh produce, mostly vegetables and then tried to find the best ways to use them. There wasn't any choice in what we got in the box, so a lot of fennel and kale went to waste. At one point we got some very potent onions which I really liked in the potato salad that I made, but Vic still complains about that dish to this day and mentions "those smelly onions" every time I bring up Mariquita Farms. The one bright point was the strawberries, bright red, juicy and full of flavor. I almost considered signing up again just for the strawberries, but didn't.

Currently I am getting fruit from another CSA, Frog Hollow Farms. This CSA is all fruit, and all year round. In the winter we enjoyed apples, pears, kiwi, avocado and citrus and now with spring, we are getting cherries, apriums (a cross between apricot and plum) and peaches. The kids eat a lot of fruit from the box as we are bringing it home which is great, though it is some times difficult to get them to eat it once we are home. But we are working on that.

While I love all the fruit from Frog Hollow, I also would like to get vegetables in the same way. So now we are trying a new CSA, Eat with the Seasons. One good point of this CSA is that each week I get to choose six items from a list of what is available. So this week we got broccoli, carrots, chard, potatoes, blueberries and strawberries, all things that we eat on a regular basis. The carrots smelled wonderful in the bag, very sweet. Gina snacked on one right when we got home. Most of the blueberries didn't make it home, the kids ate them up as we drove home. The one disappointment was the strawberries, they are organic but not as ripe as I would have expected. So next week we will get two containers of blueberries and I will have to track down my favorite strawberry vendor at the Saratoga farmers market on Saturday.