Hello everyone, Jess here. I hope everyone had a Happy Valentine’s Day!
As you may have read, we enjoyed a lovely Sunday Dinner with the Bucks, which included some Springdell chicken, rutabaga (from cold storage), carrots, and some fabulous orange cupcakes. Today is my turn for a Meatless Monday dinner, but my other half is taking me out to dinner tonight (I’ll be sure to keep it meatless)! Since someone else will be doing the cooking for me, it seems like a good time to share some Honorable Mentions and this new video about the Springdell Show and Tell!
I hope this video helps to explain how the Show and Tell works, and I hope you enjoy it!
As a Group A Springdell Winter CSA member, our last pickup was January 30th. As February vacation coincides with our next pickup (originally scheduled for February 20) it seems that we’ll be without a pickup for at least 4 weeks. This is not a time to fret nor panic! It’s rather a great time to re-evaluate the pantry and chest freezers to see what bounty we’ve stored there.
I may have mentioned this before, but this free printable Freezer Inventory list from Moms Budget is a great way to make sure that you don’t lose any items to the dreaded freezer monster. They also have some great meal planning printables that make it easy to take your weekly inventory and make it meal-ready. I’ve been visiting Moms Budget for years, and I hope you’ll find it a useful site, too!
My chest freezer is narrow and deep. Though it’s great for keeping things in a literal deep freeze, the inventory provides a little “notes” space where I draw a map to which part of the freezer the item is in. This helps me get in and out with out keeping the freezer door open too long. I usually store the meats at the top because it’s well-preserved, and easy to move to reach the frozen fruits and veggies below.
I don’t usually post about my smoothies in the Honorable Mentions, but we’re still busy making them daily over here! This one started with some blueberries, peaches, and collard greens frozen from the summertime. A little Kefir, almond milk, cider, are great liquids for thinning out smoothies. Any other little surprises are also fun to add (I’m talking to you, kale powder!) Smoothies are a wonderful way to get through any summer greens surplus.
If I keep the liquid to a minimum, the boys can be convinced that they are eating ice cream for breakfast, rather than collard greens.
Finally, I’ll leave you with this other little movie I threw together. You’ll recognize it’s a lot like the a video I’ve made before, but edited to answer the question “What CSA means to me”. I entered it into a CSA video contest brought to my attention by my friend from Fat Moon and Fresh Start Food Gardens, Elizabeth Almeida (Thanks, Elizabeth!!!) They’ll be announcing the finalists a week from today, and if I make it, I’ll be asking for your vote to help us win the prize of 1000 dollars! This would be a great way to give CSA365 a budget to work with. Imagine the possibilities… Fingers crossed, here’s hoping!
UPDATE: We will be picking up on Saturday 2/20 after all. Hence, tomorrow we’ll resume with a “Tell’ and begin 2/20 with a “Show”. I’m grateful to have a bounty coming, but also am grateful to have re-visited the chest freezer as well. Hooray for spontaneity!