October 29th, 2008 by Margie
Dear Vegetable Husband customer,
This week will be the first week that you have full grown collards. Enjoy them; they are the greens in the plastic bag. We are on the last week of the bok choy. I cleaned the farm out of it. This veggie is so easy and flavorful.
Unfortunately, I was surprised to find the state of Georgia lacking in organic apples so we are doing without a fruit this week. Don’t worry! I have not given up. I drove up to wander the mountains and just talk to locals in Ellijay and Blairsville to see if I could find a small organic farmer with a few trees. Keep your fingers crossed! I have a good feeling about next week.
Please notice that your sweet peppers are loose in the basket and the HOT peppers are tucked away in a clear bag. You also have a clear bag of your parsley. This is a very strong herb with an interesting history. I am going to give more details on the history of parsley in the blog this week if you are slightly interested. Below is the list of your goodies for this week:
sweet peppers
hot peppers
collard greens
okra
Jericho lettuce
Chinese eggplanth
bok choy
parsley
Do not hesitate to call or e-mail with any questions you have. Remember, I am happy to talk FOOD!
Namaste,
Margie Thorpe
October 24th, 2008 by Margie
I have been on quite a journey lately, learning as I eat. The business is growing (slowly) thanks to folks like you that are “choosing” to support their local economy and in the process eat a lot better!!
Every night I play a game with myself as I sit down to dinner. “How much would this meal cost me in a nearby restaurant?” The truth is each dinner at my house would be around $60 to $100 and that is before my wine bill! Last night I sat down to an arugula and red pepper salad with strips of local goat mozzarella and a simple balsamic dressing that I made. The entree was roasted chicken, a chicken raised about 25 miles south of my house, with rosemary, lemon, and garlic served with brown basmati rice and Asian greens. So good! I took the pan drippings and a little beer and made a yummy sauce or light gravy for the rice. Gravy just sounds so heavy and southern to me. This was not heavy at all. Beer, not just for drinking!
We are all familiar with the saying “the more you learn, the less you know” but it has never been more true to me than now. As I learn more about the veggies that I am bringing to you and the food we are choosing to leave behind at the big grocery stores, the more I need to know. I am afraid to share on this page all the horrible things I am learning about the production of commercial produce but I can tell you it makes me less and less inclined to run by the market and supplement my groceries. I have been challenging myself to only eat and make meals from what my GA community is providing me. The challenge is becoming more of a pleasure and treat everyday. I am even baking my dog some dog biscuits from freshly ground GA wheat flour this week. I know! Don’t gag…(smiles). Few of us have time to cook for your family, not to mention cooking for the dog! Of course, I am the single woman so my dog, Maya, IS my family! Who knows, maybe vegetable husband can start a line of locally grown organic doggie treats! A girl has to dream!
Well go in good health!
October 22nd, 2008 by Margie
Dear Vegetable Husband customer,
Well there are some days where I feel like I should be paying you for the honor of driving the two lanes to several beautiful farms on a fresh fall day to hand pick your food for the week. Soon these road trips won’t be quite as blissful so I am soaking it up for now. The greens are so great looking at every farm right now and I am learning so much each week about how incredibly different this produce is from what we see in the conventional market. If any of you want more reasons to stay away from non-organics, talk to me sometime. I can give you more information than you want.
You each have a bag of tiny collard leaves. Just treat this like you would baby spinach. I think mine will get used for breakfast. I love lightly sautéed greens with my eggs. A little garlic never hurt the pan either. The basil is not going to be around much longer so I brought it back this week for a nice summer flavor once more. Enjoy! For some reason your recipe never loaded on the website last week so I am making up for lost time and adding several recipes for your fall greens. The bok choy recipe includes your peppers, basil, and eggplant.
Also, you are getting food from several farms each week and if any of you are ever interested in a fall drive in the country and want to know where exactly your food comes from, I will be happy to give you locations. I will be revamping the website soon and there will be links to each farm so you can have a virtual peak. Below is the list of your goodies for this week:
sweet peppers
baby collard greens
mixed salad
sweet potatoes
pears
bok choy
eggplant
arugula
basil
Do not hesitate to call or e-mail with any questions you have. Remember, I am happy to talk FOOD!
Namaste,
Margie Thorpe
October 15th, 2008 by Margie
Dear Vegetable Husband customer,
If you are like me, you have had a week of amazing salads. This week since the temperatures are getting a little cooler, we have cooking greens and lettuce in our baskets. For you salad fans, there are many weeks of salad greens left ahead of us. Next week, we will be able to harvest more of the baby salad greens.
We are still able to harvest sweet and hot peppers this week and some of you requested information on drying or canning hot peppers. I dried my cayenne peppers and I am chopping them up to store for the winter now. Please let me know if anyone would like to have more of something like this to put away.
The beans you have this week are from our friends at the Scharko farm. They were able to share with us what was growing in the mid-week. Enjoy these delicate beans. I tested them this morning – yum! There is a small pomegranite in each basket and these were a gift from the Whippoorwill Hollow Farm. They might be too small to be prime so I apologize if someone gets a bad one but I have reserved many for the next season.
We are also lucky to have some wonderful bok choy this week and I am loading several recipes this week for you on the website, one of which will be an easy bok choy recipe. You might not recognize one of the greens. That is your bag of broccoli leaves from the Mills Farm. This is a great choice for from the fields that you will rarely see in the stores. Enjoy your basket of Georgia nourishment. Below is the list of your goodies for this week:
sweet peppers
hot pepper
broccoli greens
okra
romaine lettuce
butternut squash
apples
bok choy
blue lake snap beans
pomegranite
Do not hesitate to call or e-mail with any questions you have. Remember, I am happy to talk FOOD!
Namaste,
Margie Thorpe
October 14th, 2008 by Margie
I hope that when you have a few minutes, you will read over the following article from the NY Times magazine. It is lengthy but a good read. I love hearing someone call on the white house to eat locally! Thank you for being the leaders in this.
New York Times Magazine: THE FOOD ISSUE
Farmer in Chief
By MICHAEL POLLAN
Published: October 9, 2008
Dear Mr. President-Elect…
