Day 4 - BLT

During the lunch hour, I ran a few errands and then planned to stop by the farmer's market, but it was so cold and dreary I decided to stop by Trader Joe's instead. I headed straight for the free food kiosk, where they were handing out this really decadent bacon dip on melba toast. I also had a small cup of coffee, but only because I tilted the coffee urn for myself and about 10 others so we could all enjoy the last drop.
I did my shopping and came back around, and a new store clerk was handing the bacon and toast snacks, so I had another one. Then she called out,
"Anyone want some bacon?"
As I was going to mention that the bacon was really good, I then realized that she was done with this dish. She actually wanted to hand out the leftover bacon, huge salty strips of BACON! Way too much salt, but really good.
I bought a banana for 19 cents and raced home so I could have the lettuce part of the BLT (that's bacon, lettuce and toast). I made a large salad with garden greens, a small beet, the rest of the wheat berry salad, sprinkled with a handful of pomegranate seeds. It looked like something that would be on the cover of Martha Stewart magazine only she would have put some pancetta on top, but that would have been a bit over the top, eating that with all the extra bacon already in my stomach.
I sat down next to my cats, who left me alone with my salad since it wasn't covered with pancetta, and thought that it sure is a nice time of the year when I can enjoy such high quality lettuce.
The bad news about the banana is that it is very green and I won't be able to enjoy it for a couple of days. I had a tangerine from partner Earl instead.
Tomorrow I will have a balance of $1.97

Day 4 - Soap Flakes

Last night we almost had a disaster, when a certain overzealous dishwasher dumped a mug of soaking almonds into the hot soapy water. After fishing most of them out, counting them, and washing them several times, I decided that they were very clean yet still good enough to eat. I made some almond milk with a dash of Italian sea salt, and it frothed up pretty well in the blender and I hope not from the soap. It tasted pretty good over the corn flakes from partner Arlene, with some pomegranate seeds from partner Alex and tea from partner Otto.
I don't know how people eat these flakes in the morning. I was hungry about ten minutes later. So for a mid-morning snack, I enjoyed the last of the rice medley with a bit of the dressing from Alex, mache and red onion from the garden and some fresh vegetable broth with a touch of sea salt and some dried parsley.

Day 3 - Afternoon

I planted potatoes in the garden today, and it was a huge job because I had to move and mix very much new soil and then shovel it back into the planting barrels. I ate a huge salad for a late lunch, with a mix of garden lettuces, arugula from trading partner Walter, radishes, snow peas, almonds and the wheat berry salad. I also finished the last of the bean soup made yesterday.
For an afternoon snack, I finished the vegetable stew, with some rice medley and fresh garden coriander.
For dinner, I ate a large serving of stuffing made with vegetable broth, celery, leek, parsley, bread crumbs from trading partner Arlene, sage from partner Bret, thyme from partner Tomas and salt. It was served with turkey breast from trading partner Cindy, garden beet greens and turnip greens from Colin. I had another Tootsie pop for dessert.
I am snacking on dried apples as I type this.

Day 3 - Naming the Partners

Well, I sure have blown through all the 2010 hurricane names quickly. Before I started this project, I didn't really know how many partners I had. Now I need an additional list. I read that they don't go to the next year's list if they need more hurricanes, they just use the Greek alphabet. But that is more boring, so I am going to go ahead and use the 2011 hurricane list. One more example of me not following all the rules to the letter.
It was either that or start using Messier objects.

Day 3 - Kraut

This summer, my mother decluttered her home, including many family farm relics she could no longer use, not that she ever used them in the way they were intended anyway. My grandmother owned several tin kitchen storage containers marked "FLOUR" etc. but Mom stored plastic bags inside instead. There was another contraption she stored right alongside a giant iron coffee grinder that she used for a doorstop. We weren't sure what it was. I had thought all along it was an apple corer, but upon closer inspection, there was no central core. It looked like a 10-pound mini pizza cutter.
We called a local college with a thriving history museum, and an expert in local antiques came over to pick up the donations. We asked him about the apple corer and, surprisingly, it is a cabbage chopper. I had never heard of one of these, and haven't ever seen one on Ebay, either.
We forgot to give the old crock to the historian. It had been in one or another garage for about 70 years, and was cracked and repaired several times. We ended up throwing it outside by the mailbox with a "FREE" sign, hoping someone would rescue it.
With $1.50 today, I decided to "buy" some salt. Actually, I purchased a huge container of sea salt last week because I needed lots to make sauerkraut. I haven't eaten any of the salt until now. This morning I started a fresh batch of sauerkraut so I can enjoy some during this February challenge and also the Locavore Lite 2010 challenge.
It would have been really fun to make sauerkraut just like grandma probably did, with her cabbage chopper and her large pickling crock. I hope my kraut will be just as good as hers probably was.

Day 3 - Settling in

Today I continued to settle into my early-springtime routine. I am busy preparing the garden, cramming in as much as I can between the rains, and cooking with tons of leeks and celery.
Like yesterday, I woke up early and felt like cooking, so I started making almond milk and broth from all the vegetable scraps. I also put two more trays of parsley into the dehydrator.
I made a wheat berry salad using a similar recipe as yesterday's potato salad. I added the bits of leftover pimento gracing the bottom of the olive jar.
I was pretty hungry this morning, so I had a packet of the nutrition drink from partner Igor, some cooked garden-grown amaranth seed with honey, a bit of the leftover vegetable stew with rice medley, some Earl Grey tea from trading partner Virginie and a few pond scum tablets from partner Igor. I had to fight off the cats to get the pond scum for myself. This isn't from a local pond, it's from Japan.

Day 2 - Dinner

I did quite a bit of work in the garden today and came in very hungry. For an afternoon snack, I made a potato salad out of my newly-purchased Idaho potatoes, mixed with dressing, olive brine, garden parsley, onion, daikon radish, celery, fresh jalapeno pepper, celery seed and mustard seed. I also had a small amount of yesterday's vegetable stew, topped with garden coriander.
I ate a late dinner, a bean soup made with the finest horticultural beans from partner Richard, carrots from Colin, ham from partner Shary, fresh thyme from partner Tomas, with garlic, celery, leeks and hot pepper from my own gardens. I finished the rice salad, and added lots of shredded garden lettuce. More dried apple slices for dessert, with a warm mug of lemon balm tea.
I don't usually have this much salad, but I am enjoying the salad dressing, knowing that it is expensive to buy and that it will go to waste if I don't use it up quickly.