I heart vegetables

The other day I was checking my bank balance and I became confused when I saw a check for $250 on my statement. These days I never, ever write checks. Pretty much the only checks I write are to Steven for my “rent” (aka, my share of Steven’s mortgage), and that is definitely more than $250 a month. Then I remembered that I had the brilliant idea, like every other young yuppie in Madison, to join a CSA, and that the check I had sent off the farm at the beginning of March had been cashed. Yes, I am the proud owner of a half-share in a farm located in Belmont, WI.

I knew that I wanted to join a CSA this summer, but I also know Steven and me, and we have a tendency to get busy and let our produce go bad. From what I’ve read about farm shares, I knew a full share was going to be way, way too much produce for the two of us. I did a lot of research about what my options were. Living in Madison makes this an incredibly easy thing to do. All I had to do was go to the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition (MACSAC) and find the list of farms participating. I knew that I definitely wanted a farm that had half-shares, and that would also have a convenient location for us to pick up the goods. I narrowed my choices down to one or two farms and decided that Two Onions Farms was my best bet. So every other week from June to November, Steven and I will be swinging by Atlas Deli on Whitney Way to pick up our share.

I cannot wait to have a bunch of awesome, locally grown produce to use in my kitchen. No more staring at the disgusting selection of produce available at the Pick ‘n Save, not knowing where the hell it came from (my best guess is probably somewhere I don’t want to know the details about). Instead I know that it will come from Belmont, from people who care.

Last summer I also built myself a little garden bed in the backyard to grow some of my own vegetables. It had a less than stellar turn out, but I blame that on the fact that I bought my plants way before I was ready to put them in the ground and I seriously stunted my peppers by doing so. My two tomato plants did wonderfully, and my basil plant also did very well. This summer I think I’m going to grow my herbs in containers on the deck and reserve the garden bed for tomatoes, peppers, radishes, carrots, and salad greens. I have to build some sort of contraption to keep the birds away from my salad greens because they definitely had a field day with those last year. I’m hoping that I learn from my mistakes this time around, and therefore this year will have the awesomest vegetable garden on the street. This will probably be pretty easy, since I think it’s the only vegetable garden on the street.

My other produce/garden related goal for the summer is to get a compost bin going. I have no excuse not to. I just need to figure out what will work best for me and Steven.

Seriously, Spring and Summer? Get here as fast as you can! Love, Julia.

Aarf aarf

I woke up this morning not very pleased to find that it had started snowing. I tried not to believe what the weather people were saying. I think they make it up most of the time these days. Yesterday afternoon Steven and I took a long, invigorating walk after work. It had been a bright sunny day, and for once we felt motivated to actually do something. My poor little brain can’t even fathom how we got 6 freaking inches of snow less than 24 hours later, on Good Friday of all days. I know that Easter is obscenely early this year and every thing, but this is ridiculous. Seriously, Mother Nature better make this up to me big time this summer.

Lately I’ve been feeling bad at how I let this winter get the best of me. Granted I’ve never before seen this much snow in my lifetime, I still feel like I could have done things that would have helped me enjoy it more, or at least not despise it so much. I didn’t go cross country skiing once this winter, nor did I get any snowshoeing in. That’s just pathetic considering the amount of snow we had. I am at least partly proud of myself for going to a night hike again this winter. The weather wasn’t as great as it could have been (too much cloud cover), but it was still good to get out and get moving for one brief moment this winter.

I think that’s why I feel so disappointed at the moment. I fell for the spring tease. You would think after living in Wisconsin all my life, I wouldn’t fall for that shit any more, but then you would think wrong my friend. The tease at least did get me thinking about moving again, and I went for quite a few walks this week and even got some strength training in again. My poor muscles haven’t been the most cooperative, but I can hardly blame them because they were rarely ever exerted this winter.

Spring has also really made me want a dog. I grew up in a dog family, and now that I live in a house and am a little bit older and more settled, the time is right for a dog. I think a dog would help me stay active and that we could do a lot of fun things together. I would need to take the dog for a walk before and after work. I would need to take it to obedience class. I would need to take it to the dog park to socialize with other dogs. It would force me into at least getting out of the house, if not get me into new situations, meeting new people. It’s always easier to talk to people about their pets. Everyone can agree that pets are awesome.

I’m not so sure Steven is completely convinced that now is the right time for a dog, but I’m slowly bringing him around to my point of view. I can hardly resist the dogs on the Humane Society page at the moment, and I have been torturing him with their pictures all day. I’m going to have to try really hard not to go there tomorrow and scoop one of them up right away. Of course, I need to do a little more research. You know, find out where the dog parks are around this town, figure out which kind of breed would be good for me, find a kennel close by for when we go on vacation; that kind of stuff. Soon though, soon I hope to the proud owner of a shelter dog.