Today's CSA bounty

Onion, Anaheim chile, okra, basil, eggplant and spaghetti squash! Since the only new thing was the spaghetti squash, no pics of the veggies this week. (Just for the record, the onion is almost the twin of last week's onion. What do they do to make them that big?!?)

But here are pictures of the margarita pizza that we made to use that incredibly fragrant basil. When my baby basil grows up, I hope it is this good! And, no, I didn't make my guys each vegetarian tonight. The other half of the pizza dough went to a lovely ham and pineapple pizza....

By the way, last week's CSA bounty made me look up some butternut squash recipes. We ended up having a Butternut Squash Sundried Tomato Dip. It was so good that there are probably religions being started as we speak just to make eating it - or possibly even thinking about it - a sin. Dang that was some tasty stuff!

Fall Preparations

Those of you that know me are aware that my personal new year starts about this time of year. Other people make resolutions in January and use the spring for cleaning and household projects. Me? It all happens in the fall. As always, that means that there is a lot going on in my house and head. But there are a few things that I'm really excited to be posting about, so I'm taking a few minutes to blog today.

Today was the first arrival of our CSA share - or, to be more precise - 1/2 share. CSA, in this case, stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, I pay them a seasonal fee and they deliver produce to my door at prices that roughly mirror the local farmer's market rates.

There are pros and cons to this approach: For the farm, this ensures some income while the crops are actually growing. For the supporter, locally grown produce - which means picked ripe and bred for flavor instead of shipping - delivered to your door! On the con side, the farm never knows how many shares they'll be selling when they actually plant the crop (you only have to register 2 weeks before) and I never know what I'll get every week!

So, this is week one from my local CSA. Based on the link, I expected most of this. But WOW! it looks good!

Potatoes, jalapenos, basil, butternut squash, onion, Anaheim chiles, okra and eggplant. DANG!

And look at the SIZE of that THING!













This one is for you, Ommi. See? They really do have okra everywhere. And they obviously grow well here. These guys are huge!




The other exciting thing that I'm doing is starting some new herbs from seed for herb garden planting in a few weeks. I know that some of you will find this a bit backwards, but you have to remember that life in the desert is strange. The summer is our harsh season. Fall and winter are good growing times here! The spring bed all started as plants, so these are a first for me.




They don't look like anything right now....









but some day soon they will be good stuff!