January 25th, 2012 by Becky Striepe

This has been one spooky winter, hasn’t it? Any time we have shorts weather in January here in north Georgia, it feels like things are just a bit off. That warm weather has meant we’ve had a longer growing season, though, and our baskets have been bountiful! This week’s basket is shaping up beautifully despite some rocky moments pulling the food together. The Georgia hoophouse cherry tomatoes and local spaghetti squash fell through, but Margie was able to replace them with cherry tomatoes from an organic farm in Florida and acorn squash from a farm here in Georgia.

Despite the warmer weather, we are reaching that point in the winter where the bounty starts to wane a bit, and that means leaning on our friends in neighboring states to fill out our baskets. We had to borrow a couple of veggies this week from Florida farmers, and you can be assured that as soon as our local Georgia farmers can supply us, we’ll see baskets that are 100% Georgia grown once again.

Margie and I chatted a bit about local food this morning, and for both of us it’s as much about supporting small farmers directly as it is about fresh, healthy eats. Getting goods from neighboring states when the pickin’s here are slim may up the food miles, but it still helps put our food dollars directly in the hands of farmers rather than those of a large corporation, and that’s so important in this economic climate.

If you need some recipes for this week’s basket, we’ve got you covered, too! Read the rest of this entry »

CSA, Georgia CSA, local food, seasonal cooking, seasonal food, seasonal recipes

January 18th, 2012 by Becky Striepe

Margie is down in New Orleans this week on a much-needed vacation, but never fear! Laura Louise and Mary are on the case, getting those lovely veggies and making sure they make it to your front door. This week we’re getting a nice mix of root veggies and greens, and our herb is thyme.

I don’t know about you guys, but I always have trouble figuring out what to do with those beets. Sure, you can juice them, but if juicing’s not your thing you probably struggle with those bright red veggies each week. Sunchokes are another one that stump me after I’ve gotten them for a few weeks in a row. Never fear! I’ve tracked down some recipes to help out with the beets and sunchokes in your basket that also use some of the other veggies we’re getting this week.

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Atlanta CSA, beet recipe, beets, CSA, eat local, Georgia, Georgia CSA, local food, roasted vegetables, sunchoke recipe, sunchokes

January 11th, 2012 by Becky Striepe

I believe strongly that you get back from the universe what you put out there, and this week at Vegetable Husband was a prime example of great karma!

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Atlanta, Atlanta CSA, carrots, CSA, GA, local farms, local food

January 4th, 2012 by Becky Striepe

After the freeze earlier this week it was a bit of a struggle to fill those baskets, but Margie pulled out all the stops, and we are lucky enough to have lots of lovely organic veggies to eat this week. Hurrah!

We’re fortunate to have a basket of sustainably-farmed food from farmers we trust, but you might be feeling a little bit overwhelmed looking at some of the veggies in those baskets this week. Never fear! We’ve got a couple of great recipes that use some of the trickier vegetables in your baskets!

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dill, local food, recipes, sunchokes, turnips, winter food recipes, winter recipes, winter squash

December 21st, 2011 by Becky Striepe

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to ride out to some Athens farms with Margie. When we passed that hay snowman above, I knew that we had to have a second Vegetable Husband Christmas card this year.

Our first visit was out to Mills Farm, where I got to see how Alice and Tim Mills make our corn grits and corn flower. I have to say, it blew my mind! Tim basically built the mill mechanism out of spare parts, and it mills the corn without a lick of electricity! Their donkey, Luke, runs their mill. Check out the mill in action:

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Athens, hunger, local food, Mills Farm, power of community