Does canning freak you out? Yes, I’m talking about that big water bath canner, the jars of fruit preserves and dilly beans you ate at your grandma’s house… I remember when I first married Kurt, all my newly acquired relatives were canning everything. (I’ll be honest, there was a little social pressure to join the…
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In our farm budget each year, we have a line item for vegetable “buy-ins.” This week I thought I’d talk to you about the role of “buy-ins” for many CSAs. Wait, what’s a “buy-in”? I thought everything I got in my box was fro my farmer. A buy-in is an item that we purchase from…
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Have you been stumped by all the garlic products coming your way? Green garlic, garlic scapes, now “fresh” garlic… How are they different? And when do you get the “normal” dried garlic that you’re used to? Before I married a farmer, I had no idea there were so many versions of garlic. I just knew about the…
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How we keep the harvest organized and 400 boxes from getting lost in the shuffle. With 385 boxes to fill each week, there is (of course) an organized system we have developed to get it all packed in just under 4 hours. And it all revolves around 2 giant white boards and two checklists. In…
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The Sheet pan. This workhorse gets used almost every day in my kitchen. I whipped it out yesterday when I needed to freeze my 16 quarts of strawberries I ordered. Before we get started for the season, I wanted to devote an entire blogpost to the sheet pan, because it’s so incredibly versatile and you…
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My new Samsung refrigerator arrived today. It has French doors and a bottom freezer. It’s so beautiful. I can’t stop touching it. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to justify this buying decision? My former fridge was functional — a loaner from my Aunt Diane — but for my farmer’s wife purposes, it…
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CSA stands for “Community Supported Agriculture,” and is just one of the many ways customers who believe in “real, transparent food” can support a farmer. But it’s not the only way. What’s the difference between supporting a farmer through a CSA versus a roadside stand? Or a farmer’s market? Why would a person consider signing…
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Are you overwhelmed by all the peppers? This time of year, they can really start to get away from me, and after a while, my brain just shuts down, as I start to sing nonsense songs about Peter Piper. Yes, even I, the farmer’s wife, struggle to think what else I could possibly do with…
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Sometimes my son Josiah can be a picky eater. For example, if I use rye bread to make his peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, he won’t eat it. “It has to be wheat, Mommy.” If I put a piece of delicious beef roast on his plate, and it has “too much fat” on…
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