Cooking with Bounty

Last night, I had a craving for spring rolls and a Vietnamese dish for which I have no name. And so I asked myself, "Self, What Would Archie Do?" Luckily, I decided Archie would call Anonymous K to find out how one might go about making such a meal. Archie, clearly, is a very smart guy. Once I got home from the store, Dr. J had a craving to take Maisy for a run. Actually, she might have just had a craving for me to stop whining about Maisy's poor behavior. Either way, I said I'd trade her a run with my dog for dinner, and she agreed. And what was born? Free-spirited fellowship. Spur of the moment, completely unplanned, impromptu fellowship. And we didn't even freak out about it. Or if we did, we totally made it seem like we didn't.

Anyway, what, you ask does this have to do with the farm blog and farming? Well, it has everything to do with the farm because a lot of this meal was made with food from the farm or the CSA share (aka Farm Box). A few things came from SuperTarget (gasp) or the Asian grocery store, Shuang Hur. I even marked where the food came from for you in the picture (FG = Farmer Gower, of course).

Those are some good lookin carrots.

Rice paper in water.

My spring roll technique needs work.

Dr J., humoring me re: the ridiculous bowl situation.

Me, eating out of, yep, Corning Ware. But I'm still proud enough to display the meal in my signature pose, naturally.

In the end, everything turned out to be pretty tasty. The sauce was definitely not right (at least not at first. After a second, it got close to the right flavor...), and my lack of large bowls was definitely a difficult problem. But, you know, we're free spirits, so we just rolled with it.

Projects on the Farm

The Good
Quite a few things have been happening on the farm in the last few days. More things are sprouting (spinach, look far right), first and foremost, which is a nice little boost of confidence for this farmer. Also, the mint apple plant seems to have risen from the almost-dead for good, and after removing some of the almost-frost-nipped leaves, looks pretty good!


The Bad
The woodchuck (aka MiniChuck), on the other hand, has been finding new and inventive ways to bring trials to the life of the farmer. As if the hissing and staring down wasn't enough! Now, MiniChuck has decided to sample the watermelon plants. According to MiniChuck, three plants, three snacks:








The Ugly
Now, let's all get on the same page here for a minute. I know this "fence" isn't going to win any awards anytime soon. Although, I did take a "green approach" by using some of the rocks I found while prepping the area to block some of the gaps in the fencing. *ahem* However, if I'm really lucky, it might just keep MiniChuck from snacking on the leaves. And, more importantly, snacking on the farmer.














(as usual, click for a bigger picture...)








Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 72F
Yesterday's low: 53F
Warnings: None. It's finally sunny!
Mood of the farm: feeling safe and secure with the new fencing
Reason to consider a new career: let's just say my fencing skills leave something to be desired...