September 25th, 2008 by Margie

I feel so incredibly lucky to be able to wander from one farmer that is providing me with fresh goat cheese to another harvesting okra and potatoes for us and on and on.  This beats the hell out of the line at Kroger!  Of course it takes days to do it and even Kroger isn’t that slow (smiles).

I hope those of you that ordered some cheese from me enjoyed it.  Just say the word if you would like more.  The source is there and I will be happy to add it to your delivered order.  I hope to have many items like that for you to order with your veggies such as the coffee you tried.

This week I visited a grit mill to see about some fresh ground organic grits for all of us.  I loved the experience and now I know so much about building a mill!  I even met the mule that provides the power for my grits.  The place is outside of Athens and it is called Mills Farms.  They are lovely people and the grits are incredible.  I am going to try some fresh ground flour from them this week.  Cool, huh?  Growing up here in the West End of Atlanta, I never thought about the fresh origin of flour – sad but true.  Thanks to some wonderful community organizers, we are bringing gardens alive all over the intown area so that even the city kids can have some idea of where t heir food originates.  I wonder if I could adopt a goat where I live?

September 24th, 2008 by Margie

Dear Vegetable Husband customer,

This week is truly transitioning into fall.  This morning before heading to the farms, I had to run back in for a scarf to keep warm.  OK that was early, but the cooler days are coming.  It is definitely showing in what we will eat this week.  There are no more summer tomatoes.  Well, I have a few on my kitchen counter, but none left to pick.  The sweet potatoes are coming in and all the fall greens are growing quickly.  You will notice that your beautiful basil is going to flower now.  I did not remove the flowers because if you dry your herbs, they are so nice looking.  If not, just toss in the garden.

You have a nice winter squash in your basket this week.  Who needs a dessert when we are eating butternut squash with our main course!  I am posting a recipe that uses butternut squash & pears so you can have a nice fall smell to your house.  I have also added several spices this week.  The bay leaves are dried at the farm so you can put them away for your soups this season and I am making pesto to freeze with my basil.  I know we will not have much more of it in the fields.  The parsley is just good in anything so enjoy!  As I mentioned earlier, you want, you can hang your basil and parsley in the kitchen and let them dry to store.  It is always nice to know where that dried spice originated.

One more thing…I hope you enjoyed your coffee samples from our friends at 1000 Faces coffee.  Please let me know if you would be interested in ordering coffee in the future.  I am also visiting an organic grit mill this week to consider bringing you fresh ground grits to order along with your basket on request.

Enjoy your basket of Georgia nourishment.  Below is the list of your goodies for this week:

Sweet peppers
Heirloom variety eggplant
Okra
Butternut squash
Sweet Potatoes
Basil
parsley
Bay leaves
Golden delicious apples
pears

Do not hesitate to call or e-mail with any questions you have and enjoy the recipes I post on the website each week to help you use some of your ingredients.  Remember, I am happy to talk FOOD!

Namaste,

Margie Thorpe

September 17th, 2008 by Margie

Dear Vegetable Husband customer,

I had a farmer tell me today to make sure my clients know that everything we do depends on nature.  Crops can come in early, continue to produce late in the season or not produce at all.  Scary but true!  Luckily this week, nature has worked in my favor.  We have a couple of items starting to come in from the fall harvest and the roma tomatoes we thought were gone have continued to produce this week.

This is an awkward time in the fields.  The farmers are turning under the summer plants that are done and planting all the fall items.  We should have greens, greens galore soon.  I can’t wait for Georgia-grown broccoli later in the season.  For now, things will be changing week to week.

You have sweet peppers but no hot ones this week.  I did not bring back any eggplant this week since many of you seemed to be more than tired of this veggie.  Maybe I will give you a bit more before it completely disappears but for this week, we have none.  Instead I have more than one fruit and you have several spice items.

Below is the list of your goodies for this week:

Sweet peppers
Okra
green beans
Roma Tomatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Basil
Bay leaves
Garlic
Heirloom Watermelon
Muscadines

Do not hesitate to call or e-mail with any questions you have and enjoy the recipes I post on the website each week to help you use some of your ingredients.  Remember, I am happy to talk FOOD!

Namaste,

Margie Thorpe

September 11th, 2008 by Margie

This week I made it a regular route to visit the lovely folks that run Whippoorwill Hollow Farm and then to the Full Moon Farm in Athens.  The morning was spent tasting the muscadines and apples that Andy had available for me at Whippoorwill.  The apples are great!  That’s why I got us all some this week.  These are summer apples and a golden delicious variety, very firm and flavorful.  I hope to be buying produce here for a long time.

Full Moon had received two inches of rain the night before so our green beans were still wet from the showers since they were picked the morning of your delivery.  Yum!  Once again, these beans are so tasty.  I steam them briefly and then add to my salads every day or eat them on their own.

After picking everything up, delivering all the baskets out to all of you and then talking to a few of you on the phone I am feeling a strong sense of community.  I have done a lot of wonderful things in my life for work, but never have I felt so comfortable with the community around me.  I actually have a sense of euphoria when I set out early in the morning on Wednesdays to gather from the farmers all the food for your week.  Meeting with the wonderful friends that help me unload and load the produce each week is such a pleasure.  We clean, sort and measure for your delivery while talking about the week in review.  The final step of the big day is when the baskets are loaded and I am on my way to your home with the special guest that has volunteered to help get that basket to you while I am still on crutches.  Every step of the way, talking to the farmers, talking to my generous friends and finally talking to my supportive customers (that’s you!) leaves me with such an overwhelming sense of “community!”

Have a great health-filled week!

September 10th, 2008 by Margie

Dear Vegetable Husband customer,

I really have to face the music now.  Summer is truly ending.  I was told by my contact at the farm today that this could be the last week of tomatoes for now.  They will replant for a green house season of tomatoes but for now the romas that you have this week represent the end of summer.

For those of you that love the okra, it is back this week.  I am going to cook some with a few hot peppers and some tomatoes.  I am actually beginning to like okra for the first time in my life.  I think after tasting it raw on the farm, I realized that the less I cook it the better I like it!  Of course growing up in the south, I thought vegetables were these overcooked mushy things on the plate that were meant to hold salt and usually came from a can marked Del Monte.  See why I love going to the farms now!

You have sweet and hot peppers in your baskets.  The red jalapenos are in a clear bag.  Careful now – they are red for a reason.

Please continue to tell me what you like, what you dislike and what you have never had before.  I know some of you are tired of the eggplant season but it won’t be available much longer and frozen eggplant and tomatoes makes a nice winter treat.  Many of you had never eaten muscadines until last week.  Well you have a few more this week.  I am juicing mine.  Oh the juice is amazing!  You also have some summer apples to tease us for the upcoming fall apple season. Below is the list of your goodies for this week:

Eggplant
Sweet peppers
Hot peppers
Okra
Celeriac
Green beans
Roma Tomatoes
Potatoes
Basil
Apples
Muscadine

Be sure to check out the recipe for your celeriac.  It is from Farm 255 in Athens.  Do not hesitate to call or e-mail with any questions you have and enjoy the recipes I post on the website each week to help you use some of your ingredients.  Remember, I am happy to talk FOOD!

All the best,
Margie Thorpe