Fruits of Labor

Our peaches are coming fast and furious. I am determined to allow as few as possible go to waste, however, it is next to impossible to keep up with them. I took a few days off of climbing up into the tree picking the "just starting to get soft" peaches and now I am in trouble. Now many are in the "eat me this moment" stage. So back at it I will be. I love our peaches, and most stone fruit in general, but as far as growing, the citrus is much easier. They will last many, many months on the tree and even on the ground for days provided they stay dry. But not so with stone fruit. You better be ready, because when they are ripe, you only have a couple of weeks and then they are gone. They have either fallen to smash on the ground or our friendly neighborhood birds have pecked away at them all. Maybe friendly isn't the word to describe the birds. The other day while up in the tree, one was squawking terribly at me. I felt like I was in intruding on its space until I reminded myself that we were the ones that pruned the tree this winter and thinned the fruit one by one this spring. We are also the ones to rake the leaves in the fall and pick up the fallen fruit in the summer. So I do believe I have every right to be in the tree picking its fruit!

Our raised bed garden on the side yard isn't doing too bad either. Mix tomatoes and basil from the garden, garlic, cheese and olive oil from the farmers market and some lavash bread from Trader Joes and you have a pretty tasty lunch!

I hesitated about putting a garden on our side yard by the street. I wasn't sure if our neighbors would appreciate the look of it. But I found it to be quite the opposite. Every time I am out tending it or picking something from it, if someone is walking by they comment about how much fun they have watching the garden grow. I have conversations with people I have never met before because of the garden. So it has been a blessing.

We are using the abundance of peaches to make more contacts with neighbors as we have been delivering fresh peaches to most all of them. Jathan and I realized and are convicted that we have not been using the opportunity we have in the neighborhood for the gospel. So that is going to change. The peaches have helped us open the door with communication and now we are working on more intentional contacts. You can pray for us if you think of it.

Romanesco Broccoli

In my post below, I talked about trying new vegetables that you might not otherwise try if it weren't for the Farmers Market. Well about a month ago I was introduced to a new vegetable called Romanesco Broccoli or Cauliflower. Click here for a link about it (and a better picture).

I thought I would introduce you to this odd vegetable. I think it is the prettiest of veggies and after hearing a farmer and some other people at the market going on and on about it, I started asking some questions. So I got the information I needed to try it at home, and I am oh, so glad that I did.

It you get a chance to ever try it (maybe your market sells it too). You have to.

Here's what I did.

Wash, cut and arrange on a baking sheet.


Press garlic and mix with extra virgin oil. Brush on the cauliflower. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt. In a 500 degree oven, bake for atleast 15 minutes or until it begins to brown. Remove from oven and sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Enjoy.

It doesn't even taste like cauliflower.

Farmers Market

Saturdays can tend to be very busy days around here and I am sure that it is true for you too. But most every Saturday we make time to get to the local Farmers Market. Maybe not all of us go, depending on what time games are and so forth, but at least one of us will go and hopefully several of us will get there. It has become part of our Saturday tradition.

Why?

For several reasons...

#1 You get very fresh, in season, local produce. It hasn't traveled across the country or across the world for that matter. It also hasn't been treated or coated to keep it looking good.

#2 You support local farmers.

#3 The kids get to meet the farmers that grow the food that they are going to eat. Maybe that sounds silly, but anymore kids think everything comes from a grocery store with having no idea of the work that went into growing it. I want the kids to understand that food doesn't just appear in the store. Meeting the farmers helps me teach them where their food comes from and to be thankful for the hard work the farmers put into growing it for us and to God for blessing their crops. It also teaches the kids about the seasons of vegetables.

#4 We eat a whole lot healthier. Vegetables have become a big part of our meals now. Maybe many of you started your kids out right even from the womb, eating lots of lots of veggies. Well, I admit, I did not. I use to hate veggies. Green beans were the only vegetables that I ate. But, they had to be grown by my grandpa and canned by my grandma in order for me to even eat those. So when my grandpa passed away and there were no more green beans, I was in trouble. Grandma finally encouraged me to try cans from the store, but I still didn't prepare them all that often. So the farmers market has changed that for us.

#5 It has us trying vegetables that we normally wouldn't try. The farmers at our Market are excited to share recipe ideas with you.

#6 It is just fun. Once a month there is a bounce house. The kids love that! I love the bounce house because it is free. We almost always run into friends (in addition to the farmers that we love).

So anyway, that is a glimpse into our Saturdays. I know that in most places, markets are only running in part of the year. We are fortunate to have ours all year round. But I do encourage you to attend. It is a lot of fun and healthy too.

Here are some pictures from about a month ago of one of our Saturday visits.

How to make olive oil

This post is not going to contain a "How to" video, or even go through the steps one would take to make olive oil. Number one, because I couldn't really tell you all of the steps and number two, most of the people reading this do not have easy access to an olive grove anyway, so it wouldn't be too useful. This post will, however, show you some pictures of a place that does press olive oil and maybe you just might learn a little bit of how it is made.

We are trying to ease in slowly to school, so today we joined a homeschool field trip group touring an olive oil plant. It was very interesting, indeed.

Here are some pics below...

Above: Olives are taken through and the rotten olives are taken out along with any leaves that are still attached.

Below: The olives are washed and ready to be ground.

Below: The olives are ground up, seed and all. The result is a something of an oatmeal consistency. Then the liquid will be extracted.


Below: Here is the olive oil after the water has been separated out. There are still some impurities that froth up to the top.


Below: Paige and Drew in front of some olives that are about to be pressed.


Below: The kids enjoying a game of tag by the olive grove.

At the end of the tour we got a lesson on buying olive oil. I had read recently about how great California olive oil was because of the purity of the product. I learned more about it today. After the liquid is extracted out, the oil and the water are separated and you have olive oil in a very pure form. Italians do the same thing. Only that olive oil stays in their country. The waste that is left over, after the liquid is extracted, is pressed a second time using solvents and sometimes mixed with other oils. This is what is sent to your grocery store. The Italians won't use it. A lot of the nutritional value that olive oil is known for is now gone when this process is done.

It isn't always easy to find California olive oil, but I was happy to find that I can go directly to the grove (just down the road from me) where it is pressed and buy it by the bottle, case or gallon. So if you are looking for good olive oil, come for a visit, and I will hook you up!

Tamales!!!

A Mexican Christmas tradition is to make tamales. And oh, do I love tamales. In case you have never had them, you have to try one sometime. Of course I have learned that not all tamales are alike. I have been disappointed a couple of times when I spotted them on the menu of a Mexican restaurant and then when I dug in, it wasn't quite what I wanted. I have found, though, that of all the tamales that I have had that came from my own area, have not disappointed me, not even once! I believe the reason that they are a Christmas tradition and aren't served as much the rest of the year is the work that they take in preparing them. It is a two day process when you buy the masa (corn dough) already prepared. Our good friend Joe, said that his family use to truly make them from scratch, meaning, grow and grind the corn and raise and slaughter the pig. Well this year, Joe showed me how to make tamales almost from scratch (we didn't slaughter any pigs are grind any corn). But we did prepare the meat with our own homemade sauce (but then again I didn't grow the chili peppers either, oh well).

So one day last week the kids, my mom and I went over to Joe and Gloria's to learn how to make tamales. While Joe and I worked on the tamales, Gloria had several crafts for the kids to make to keep them occupied. They always enjoy going over to their house.



Here are some pics of our tamale making time:

Day one:

Cutting the meat into small chucks and getting the fat off.

Chopping the garlic.

Joe is soaking the corn husks so they will be ready to use the next day to wrap the tamales in.

Splitting the chili peppers to get the seeds out.

Day two:

Spreading the masa on the corn husk.

Yummy Tamales!!!
Muy Bien

Of course there is some waiting time, like when the tamales are steaming. So Joe got to play with the kids during that time.



And since day one we didn't have the tamales ready to eat, Joe and Gloria cooked us up some tacos for dinner. And oh how we love Gloria's tacos!!!!!



Now a warning if you do try a tamale, please unwrap the corn husk. I know from experience that it makes the tamale a bit chewy! :)