Thursday, March 3, 2011

Spring and My CSA


I am so waiting for Spring. I am looking forward to planting the veggie garden and watching it grow. Even more I can hardly wait for the first of the harvest. The early green make my mouth water just thinking about them. The sad thing is that there is never enough from the garden to make me happy.
I did some thing about that this year I joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Some of you may remember that Art and I belonged to one several years ago. The produce was great but the weekly haul up to Boulder was not the best part of our Saturdays. We found that Miller Farms is at the weekly farmer's Market in Old Town. I love their produce, it comes from their farm in Platteville. We often went during their sale time and brought several bags of produce home each Sunday. What fun it was to plan meals around the fresh
veggies.
This year we will return to the Old Town Farmer's Market in Arvada and continue to get our produce from Miller Farms. This time it will be through their CSA. We bought a full share. We will get fresh from the farm produce for 18 weeks and have access to their harvest days with more produce in the fall. The great thing about this CSA is that it not only has great quality but it is convenient.Unless I find a reason to wander around in Old Town, we can be
back home in under 30 minutes. Furthermore, I know that I will not end up with a bag full of things the family will not eat, (we are not big Kale fans for instance.) You get to choose from what they have brought to sell that day so if you do not like squash get some more tomatoes.
You might want to check out the CSA at Miller Farms yourself. They sell at most if not all of the local farmer's markets up and down the Front Range and even out I-70 from Evergreen to Vail. If you choose to get a share be sure to list me as the one who referred you.
I am so very much looking forward to this summer's CSA. I know that it is going to be great.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

A Lifetime of Love


Book Sneeze: An Amish Love
An Amish Love is a wonderful trilogy of love stories by Beth Wiseman, Kathleen Fuller and Kelly Long. Long and Fuller’s writing styles are virtually identical which lead to a near seamless transition between the first two novellas. That both are stories about young love adds to the flow. Wiseman takes a somewhat different topic on of renewed love and does it with a slightly different style, equally enjoyable.
An Amish Love will want you to visit if not move to the charming town of Paradise Pennsylvania. In the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch country this town provides the perfect setting for the Amish way of life and their English counterparts. The main characters on all three stories are Amish at heart. Each has a mending of the heart to tend to and although the women are the stronger characters in the tales they each need the love of a good man to complete their heart. Love and forgiveness play starring roles in each of the characters. Indecision, the melding of old ways with the new and well meaning friends and family all provide for entertaining conflict on each page.
This is a wonderful book to learn a little more of the Amish lifestyle and how it has evolved. It also provides a platform for understanding that some things are permanent and some things are best left in the past. There is a sub context that the things that are left behind still make up the person and life becomes what you want to make of it. The strong work ethic characteristic of the Amish is present here not just in the labor force but in labors of the heart.
This is a book well worth your time. Be sure to pocket a few tissues as reading through your own tears becomes difficult at times. The three couples are well characterized and believable. They will take your heart away.
I review for BookSneeze®