a sure sign of spring

After a fast morning of breakfast, getting the kids ready to go to their grandmothers, chores, clean up and rushing out the door (OK so it was 9:15 by the time we got out the door) so I could go grocery shopping, yuck, and my man could get to the mill to work on an order at the mill, we stopped at the post office to get a weeks worth of mail. DaLaney asked for the magazine on the bottom of the pile and I offhandedly passed it back to her and we were off again. I am not a real big fan of grocery shopping, but I like to eat on a daily basis, as does my family. Living in Maine its hard in the winter to get local things, and even harder to strive to eat "seasonally", as you look at all the produce your surrounded by when you walk through the door! You know, no strawberries in February are growing here! Not to mention January. But somehow a pint wound up in my cart. I didn't even have my fruit girl with me! I've got a summer dessert that has been requested by several members of my family to make. So in they go, along with some blueberries. I'll snap a picture of it and show it to you. Oh man is it good! It's called Red, White and Blueberry Dessert. Yummy. Anyways... after reading the book my wonderful husband secretly bought via one of my sisters for Christmas a year or 2 ago, called Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, highly recommend it, we try to eat more locally and seasonally. Then the first time you bite into a sweet, fresh, juicy strawberry and the juice runs down your face you almost squeal with delight and think "it's been so long!!" Yeah I love strawberries! It's not always easy to be what is considered a localvore, in Maine, but we try. Yet another reason we farm, to raise our own. Although there are times it would be a whole lot easier to just grab something prepared off the shelf on one of those nights I think, "not another meal?!" groan... But then I stop and think about what is IN that food?! I don't really consider that stuff food. Shivers. And I just can't do it. Nope, it doesn't go in my cart and I move on and think alright, I'll make cookies from scratch and my own pie crust and my own home grown chicken and veggies for that chicken pot pie... But there are times I'm tempted. But it quickly passes. Thankfully. Oh just on another "bunny trail" here, my husband and one of his many brothers went to a meeting the other day and they stopped at a fast food joint, will not name it, and Matthew got a cheeseburger, and fries. He proceeded to take it apart to put it back together, guess that is why they call it fast food, and his brother laughed and said, "don't do it man, just put it together and cram it down your throat!"  He finished the meal and was sick to his stomach afterward. He couldn't believe he used to like that stuff. I guess we have "crossed over" when it comes to food, and knowing what real food tastes like. Sorry for all the bunny trails, I'm kinda all over the place today. Anyways my point with all this is to show that you can train your taste buds to like things like egg plant, mushrooms which I'm still working on, and the taste and texture of fresh eggs and chicken. The kids can too. I grew up not raising my own food and thinking that my food comes from the grocery store. I knew that hamburg came from a cow and yada yada, but it was nameless. I really was disconnected from my food. We did have a garden and Mom canned, which I'm thankful she taught me to can after I got married.  Matthew grew up in the country and his family raised some of their own food. I liked to tease him when we were first married that when we wanted pork chops for supper we went to the store and bought them, we didn't go out back and kill the pig for it! Now I laugh, because we have raised a few pigs! Funny how far you can come in 11 years!
Now what does all this ranting have to do with spring you wonder??  Well you remember that magazine I offhandedly handed to DaLaney? Well it was our  Seed Saver Exchange catalog!!! I love that catalog. I drool every time I look at it and all the wonderful colors and all the heirloom vegetables! I always make out my wish list in that catalog and it's always about 300$! I do want to save seed from our own crops, but haven't yet been up to that challenge. You have to be so careful with the cross pollination and non heirloom seeds contaminating your seeds. And covering them when they are in bloom and so on. So I have not done it , yet. I do need to learn and I think the sooner I do it the better! I love all the weird names of the different breeds of tomatoes and such, like Wapsipinicon Peach, Tommy Toe, Dragon! Purple Top White Globe! Love it! Can't wait for my purple carrots! The cover alone of the catalog it ripe with color! Can't wait to get my hands back in the dirt!
Alas, I have to go and finish taking care of my groceries and start making out my Seed Saver list and there is always another meal looming in my near future!
Happy planting!!

A sure sign spring is coming right around the corner when you get this in the mail!! The colors jump right off the page!!

I couldn't resist this wonderful clump of tomatoes!