And hello summer! It’s been one of those weeks when I’ve really appreciated the air conditioning at city hall while Bill has been toiling in the sun. We finally broke down and put in the window A/C units – it gets to be unbearably hot upstairs in the boys’ room, and Bill just deserves a little comfort in the living room after a hard day’s work. I hope you have managed to keep cool.
This week’s picture gallery is completely unrelated to our market stand (big shock!). I just had to put up this cool snail picture. Noah found him hanging out on the mushroom logs.
And these are the boys in Uncle Aaron’s motorcycle helmet. They looked completely nuts. Like upside down exclamation points. In addition to bringing the highly forbidden motorcycle to our house, Uncle Aaron was also kind enough to bring the boys wooden swords from Japan. Just what they needed.
This week was a big one at the farm – Ben turned 5 and Bill turned 38! It just so happens that Ben’s birthday (June 25) falls on the same day as the Harry Potter party at the Children’s Museum in Normal, so I am off the hook for one more year. I have yet to throw a kid-oriented birthday party. My parents always come up, and my mom makes a cake. We have our friends over (no kids!) and keep it simple. I hear about the more elaborate kid parties being thrown in other households and feel guilty for about a nanosecond. Some day my kids will really resent my poor parenting!
Movie endorsement: We saw Up this past weekend – the new Pixar film about the old guy who flies away in a house with a wayward boy scout. It’s very charming, but the 3-D doesn’t add much. And I was amazed that a kid-targeted 3-D movie would include 3-D glasses that are too big for a kid’s head (unless you have a big noggin’ like Noah).
One last non-farm tidbit – I took the boys to a Catholic wedding recently, which included a full mass. They were fascinated. They’d never seen a crucified Jesus before (we Protestants tend to just stick with the empty cross). Noah thought Jesus looked a bit like Abe Lincoln. Ben wanted to know why the priest put the golden chalice away in the “secret compartment” – he figured it was so that no one would steal it. And the bell ringing during the preparation of the communion was a real treat.
But let’s get down to the business of VEGETABLES! Here’s what you need to know …
1. It’s the LAST WEEK for garlic scapes. That’s right, no more scapes until 2010. Sniff, sniff. If you haven’t yet tried them, this is your chance.
2. It’s the FIRST WEEK for CARROTS, SHALLOTS, and GREEN PEPPERS (although the peppers will be in short supply).
I’m not going to tell you what to do with carrots, as that seems to be obvious. But let’s talk about shallots. They are totally essential for a high-falootin’ dinner, according to Uncle Aaron, who is a dynamite chef. Shallots have a pinkish flesh. Roasted until tender, the bulbs are meaty, sweet, mild and tender. According to Deborah Schneider (Vegetables A to Z), shallots are best known for their roles in sauces, raw and cooked. Throw them into a vinaigrette for salad, julienne them onto greens, or cook gently like a baby onion.
**NEWS FLASH**
There’s a cool CONTEST out there called “Love Your Farmers Market”. If you go to , you can vote for the Bloomington Farmers Market. The market with the most votes wins $5,000! And every vote helps promote local food, family farms and sustainable agriculture.
For the next market, here’s what you can expect:
Carrots
Shallots
Green Peppers (not many!)
Fennel
Kohlrabi
Sugar Snap Peas
Swiss chard
Head Lettuce
Spinach
Garlic Scapes (LAST WEEK!)
Beets
Onions
Garlic
Salad Mix
Kale
Collard Greens
Arugula
Basil
Parsley
Broccoli
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call us at 309-467-9228. You can also email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com, although during the farm season we can’t guarantee that we’ll be checking the email as often as usual.
Best,
Mercy
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