Menus and Greenhouses

This past weekend we spent some time at our farm.  We almost finished our greenhouse.  All we have left is a small part of our roof and the shelves to build on the inside.  Our goal is for it to be done by the end of this month.  Our seeds should be here in a few days and we will immediately get some of those started in starter trays!  We have added two other families to our co-op farm this season.  We now have 6 families total and very excited for them to be joining us.

The greenhouse plastic use to be huge industrial plastic bags.  One of the families we work with on the farm had it stored in their garage for a long time, so we decided to cut the huge bags and use the big plastic sheets for our greenhouse!  I am proud of ourselves for keeping the plastic out of the landfill and thinking of a great way to reuse it!!!!  We have been so conscious about our carbon footprint and impact on this earth, that it is starting to just come natural to us.  Reducing our impact on this earth has fit its way into our daily rhythm, that it is just a part of our lives now.  That is how it should be and what I hope for everyone on our earth.  It's not hard work to nurture our planet!

 

Our neighboring farmer's bees!  They are working hard!

Our neighboring farmers torn down their shed and told us we could use any of the wood!  We got way too excited over wood!  This wood is perfect for making shelves for the inside of our greenhouse!  Again, we were happy to be recycling and reusing this wood! 

My husband being cute!

Ready to drill!!!

It was quite muddy out there!  I am surprised I could get this picture around my big pregnant belly!

Meet Chalo!  He is awesome!  He works for the farm we lease land from.  He is always stopping by to chat, see if we need any help, or take the kids for a ride! 

The kids exploring and having fun in the mud!

Bringing me the pitch fork!  Yes, I know he is barefoot!  Have you ever walked in mud barefoot?  It feels so good!  Don't worry I made sure there wasn't anything dangerous he could step on.

 

 Our greenhouse almost done!  Just need to finish the roof and put up shelves!  

More farm adventures to come!

On to our menu for this week.  We are doing so well with our menu planning and continue to try new things!  We do everything we can to eat healthy, organic, local, and sustainable food!  It is harder in the winter months but we are getting better and better at it.  I am glad my son is growing up learning the value of healthy food and knowing where his food is coming from!  This is a big life lesson that I am glad he is learning now!

MENU:

MONDAY:  Vegetable & Barley Soup with a green salad (moved from last week.)

TUESDAY:  Angel hair pasta bake

WEDNESDAY:  Vegetarian Cobb Salad and leftover pasta bake (*recipe to come)

THURSDAY:  Creamy Spinach Asparagus Soup and baked lemon-pepper salmon (substituting the chicken broth with vegetable broth)

FRIDAY-  Dinner with some good friends!

SATURDAY-  SOLV's Beach Clean-up! Eating at one of my favorite little restaurants on the Oregon Coast.

SUNDAY-  Polenta & Vegetable Bake and a green salad

What are you cooking this week?

For more meal planning inspirations, visit I'm an Organizing Junkie every Monday.

Happy cooking,

Alyson

"We have forgotten who we are, we have lost our sense of wonder and connectedness, we have degraded the earth and our fellow creatures, and we have nowhere else to go . . . " - Earth Charter

Menus and Seeds

Sorry for the lack of posts the past two weeks.  My husband did a lot of traveling the past two weeks which caused our scheduling and rhythm to be a little jumbled.  Then of course when he returned we needed a few days of straight family time.  So I chose to put my blog on the back burner while I focused on other things.  But I am back full force and with lots to write about!  Today it is all about seeds!   

I have been overly excited about Spring and find myself talking about it all the time.  It is driving my husband crazy since he is ALL about winter time.  His other love (besides me and his children) is snowboarding....oh and I guess photography too.  But come winter time, he is in love with that board of his.  So every time I talk about spring, he puts on his sad face.  Poor guy!  As he is tries to ignore the signs of Spring, we still will be ordering our seeds for the farm this coming week.  I am really excited and I think he is secretly excited!

We are buying our seeds through Abundant Life Seed Company because they are local and they have mostly organic seeds.  At our farm we are required to grow only organic seeds because the land we are growing on has been certified organic by the Oregon Tilth.  Anything that we can't find through Abundant Life, we will be getting at Naomi's Organic Farm Supply (which is an amazing store).  Today I just wanted to share with you all the different types of seeds we are growing this year at the farm.  

Vegetables:
Arugula
Beans- (4 different varieties)
Broccoli
Beets
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Corn
Carrots
Cucumber- (3 different varieties)
Eggplant
Kale
Lettuce- (3 different varieties)
Melon
Mustard Greens
Onion- Scallions
Peas-(2 different varieties)
Peppers- (1 sweet variety, 2 hot varieties)
Potatoes- (3 different varieties)
Pumpkins
Radish
Spinach- (2 different varieties)
Summer Squash/Zucchini- (2 different varieties)
Swiss Chard- Rainbow
Tomato- (7 different varieties)
Tomatilllos- Purple
Watermelon
Winter Squash- Acorn

Herbs-
Basil (2 different varieties)
Cilantro
Chamomile
Dill
Fennel
Oregano
Parsley
Thyme

Flowers
Bee's Friend
Marigolds
Nastutrium
Sunflowers
Zinnias

We already have garlic and strawberries in the ground and growing!  I can't wait to get my hands dirty and all the seeds planted.

What are you growing this year?

Tomato sprout from last season!

With all this seed talk, let's bring it into my menu for the week.  I am glad my husband is home this week and we can have our family dinners back.  It was really hard to plan and cook for just me and my son, basically cooking for one and a half.  So I cooked only quick easy dinners.  This week I am reconnecting with my food and the cooking process that I love.  I am still using one to two recipes a week from the cookbooks I have at home and will post a separate blog with the recipe within a week. 

MENU:

MONDAY:  Vegetable stir fry with brown rice

TUESDAY-  Whole wheat spaghetti with homemade tomato/veggie sauce and steamed broccoli

WEDNESDAY-  Egg salad sandwiches and Warm Red Quinoa Salad

THURSDAY-  Fish tacos* and homemade Spanish rice *recipes coming up next week

FRIDAY-  Spring Asparagus & Broccoli Soup and Baked Lemon-Herb Salmon

SATURDAY-  A family dinner in celebration of my son's 3rd BIRTHDAY!  Homemade pizzas and a big fresh green salad!

SUNDAY-  Baked potatoes and leftover soup (for hubby and son).
                   Work party/dinner for mama!

For more meal planning inspirations, visit I'm an Organizing Junkie every Monday.

Happy growing & cooking,
Alyson

“Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle…a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining to unfurl.  And the anticipation nurtures our dream.” – Barbara Winkler

Yearning for Spring

I am ready!  I am ready for more sun!  I am ready for mother nature to paint some colors on our trees, flowers, and bushes.  I am ready to get my hands and feet dirty while digging, planting, and tending to our garden and farm.  I am ready to get our baby chicks (yes, I said chicks.  I can't wait).   I am ready to watch new growth outside.  I am so ready for spring!

I am so ready that for the past week I go outside every single day and look around to see what new growth I can see.  I watch to see if the tulips and daffodils have started poking through the dirt.  I watch to see if the trees are starting to bud.  I listen for all the birds and maybe just maybe I can hear a baby bird.  When I do see new growth....I get REALLY excited!  So excited that I have to show my little family.  My husband thinks I am funny when I pull everyone over to see this small little green thing pushing through the dirt or forming off the end of a tree branch.  But I notice the small things and that is why he loves me. 

We have started our preparations for the growing season to start.  Our green house at our farm is up and will be finished in the next few weeks.  We are having a farm meeting this week and making our final decision on the seed order.  Then ordering the seeds!  YES!   We are preparing to get our chicks very very soon!  I can't wait to get out to the farm and to our back yard garden and start working.  I read that pregnant women who garden and farm have easier and better labors.  So...I will be out there on the farm everyday till I go into labor.

For those of you that don't know, we lease certified organic land with two other families to grow organic produce on.  Last year was our first year and our learning year.  This year, we have a better understanding and a feel for how mass gardening and farming works.  We are working on being able to provide CSA boxes for our local community and finding ways to educate the community on growing food and eating healthy.  Everything on our farm is done organically and with a positive impact for this planet.  Check out our Seed the Farm Organics facebook page!  I will be blogging a lot about this in the next few months......with recipes using our grown produce,  how to preserve what you grow for the winter months,  gardening tips,  lots and lots of pictures, and updates on what we are growing!  We do have a Seed the Farm Blog, which is somewhat in "under construction" mode.  I will be blogging there too but linking back and forth with this blog.

32 days till the first day of Spring!

Enjoy my "new growth" pictures.....

Tulips!

My hydrangea bush is budding!!!!!

What are you growing this year?

Happy growing (soon),
Alyson

"Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!" -Robin Williams

Menus and Farms

I'm here!  Blogging has definitely been on the back burner lately, which is kind of a good sign.  Our photo business has been booming and life has just been busy.  I'm trying to get back in the swing of things in this blog world.  I have some great ideas that I want to create here.  I hope to continue blogging about 3 to 4 times a week.  Let's see if this busy mama can do this!

Our farm has been on full force this past week.  We got peas growing and seeds planted!  This last weekend we planted corn, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and kohlrabi.  I can't wait to start seeing the little sprouts pop out of the ground.  One of our partners of the farm is looking into getting a couple chickens this summer.  We have enough land where we can build a chicken coup and area for the chickens.  I will keep you posted on this project but I think it will be so amazing to enjoy our own fresh eggs. 

I am excited for this upcoming season of fresh growing food from our farm, my father's garden, farmer's markets, and local co-ops!  It is so prodigious to raise our son in an environment that supports healthy, organic, and local food.  That is where our change will happen, in our children.

Here is our menu for the week:

MONDAY-  Tortellini Primavera

TUESDAY-  Veggie Stir Fry (Drew's night to cook)

WEDNESDAY-  Auntie and Ayden dinner date with MJ and AC. (I work and my husband is in school late)

THURSDAY-  Polenta & Vegetable Bake and a garden salad

FRIDAY-  Camping in a yurt at Manzanita Beach with friends.  BBQing salmon and veggies.

SATURDAY-  Camping.....Salmon burgers and tuna pasta salad

SUNDAY- Lemon-Garlic Shrimp and a tomato caprese salad

Happy cooking & eating,
Alyson

"'Just living is not enough,' said the butterfly. 'One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.'"-Hans Christian Andersen

Menu Plan Monday

Bring on the sunshine!  I hear this week will be full of sun here in Portland and I already have a lot planned this week to enjoy the much needed sun.  Our farm is also longing for some sun in order for the soil to dry a little before we till the land.  I'm anxious to get the seeds in the ground.  We have planted 55 tomato plants in starter trays already and plan on starting more vegetables in trays in the next week.  I can't wait to get farming!

I have a lot to blog about this week.  So expect about a blog a day with lots of musings about our adventures, ideas, pictures, events, and our changes!  For now here is my menu plan for the week!  Cheers to yummy, delicious, organic food!

MONDAY-  Sauteed zucchini, broccoli, capers, and olives in a lemon garlic sauce over whole wheat pasta.

TUESDAY-  Poached Salmon with Piccata Sauce, whole wheat couscous, steamed broccoli (Drew's night to cook)

WEDNESDAY-  Penne Spinach Bake*

THURSDAY-  Hungarian Mushroom Soup* with homemade bread

FRIDAY-  Green Pizza with homemade pizza dough and a garden salad

SATURDAY- BBQ salmon, veggie kebabs, and BBQ pineapple

SUNDAY- leftovers

*RECIPES:

PENNE SPINACH BAKE- (from my mother's Wellspring Heart Program cookbook)

Ingredients:
2 cups uncooked whole wheat penne pasta
1 28 ounce jar of spaghetti sauce or homemade sauce
1 (1 pd) package frozen cut leaf spinach, thawed and squeezed
1 to 1 1/2 cups fat-free sour cream
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp onion powder
1 (19 ounce) can white kidney beans or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups fat-free mozzerella cheese
1 tbsp Italian seasonings

Directions:
Cook penne pasta  as directed on package. Drain.

Lightly spray an eight inch square (two quart) baking dish with non-stick spray.  In medium saucepan, heat spaghetti sauce over low heat.

In large bowl, combine cooked penne, spinach, sour cream, Parmesan cheese and spices, mix well.  Add beans; toss gently to mix.

Spoon mixture into sprayed dish.  Spread with one cup warm spaghetti sauce.  Top with remaining penne mixture and remaining ingredients.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes or until thoroughly heated. 

HUNGARIAN MUSHROOM SOUP (from the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen)

Ingredients:   (yields 4 to 5 servings)

2 tablespoons of butter

2 cups chopped onion

1 1/2 to 2 pounds of mushrooms, sliced

1 teaspoon salt

2 to 3 teaspoon dried dill

1 tablespoon mild paprika

2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

3 tablespoon  flour

2 cups of water

1 cup of milk (I use non or low fat)

black pepper, to taste

1.2 cup sour cream (I use non fat)

finely minced fresh parsley, for the top

Directions:  (1 hour to prepare):

Melt the butter in a kettle or Dutch Oven.  Add onions, and saute over medium heat for about 5 minutes.   Add mushrooms, salt, dill, and paprika.  Stir well and cover.  Let cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally .  Stir in lemon juice.

Gradually sprinkle in the flour, stirring constantly.  Cook and stir another 5 minutes or so over medium-low heat.  Add water, cover, and cook about 10 minutes, stirring often.

Stir in milk; add black pepper to taste.  Check to see if it needs more salt.  Whisk in the sour cream, and heat very gently.  Don't boil or cook it after this point.  Serve hot, topped with freshly minced parsley.

For more meal planning inspirations, visit I'm an Organizing Junkie every Monday.

Happy Eating & Cooking,

Alyson

"Laughter is brightest where food is best."  -Irish Proverb

Menu Plan Monday

What a great time we had in New Mexico.  It was a much needed vacation with some great friends.  We got to celebrate our friend's 30th birthday, spend some quality time with her beautiful family, and see the rich culture of New Mexico.  It's always so nice to be around good friends who share the same values as you.  The kids had a great time playing together as the parents caught up!  We also did a little bit of work while in New Mexico and met some future clients.  They booked us and we can't wait to come back to New Mexico in June to shoot their wedding!

Traveling always throws you off just a little when you return home.  I was able to do a menu plan last week with Jess in New Mexico but I never found time to sit down and blog about it.  So sorry for the lack of a menu plan blog last week.  I am finally caught up with things that needed to be done and this Monday has been a relaxing, productive one!  We are still having a great time with menu plans and continue to try new healthy meals.

Spring is here and that makes me so ecstatic for the variety of fresh food that is coming our way.  We were able to go to the Portland Farmer's Market opening day this Saturday (the first day of Spring).  It was so great to see so many people out on such a nice beautiful day supporting local farmers and businesses.  It gave me such a teaser for this growing season.  Our growing season this year is going to be bigger than we have ever done it.  We have our small little garden in our backyard and some pots that will be full of herbs.  Then we will be walking down to my father's house to help in his huge garden.  AND the biggest step we are taking this season is leasing a 1/2 acre of organic land for our little organic farm that we are starting with another family.  This is a huge commitment for us but we are so excited and ready to be a part of the food revolution.  This year is going to be our "testing" year and hopefully next year we will be selling to CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), Farmers Markets, or Co-ops.  For this season, if everything goes well, we will be putting together boxes/baskets of a mix of organic vegetable and fruits to sell (at a discounted rate) to people we know.  We are beyond excited for this opportunity!  Keep checking my blog for more details and musings about our farm! 

Here is our menu plan for this week:

MONDAY-  Broccoli, tomato, and mozzarella Stromboli with a fresh salad. (My friend, Jess, gave me this recipe.  It was delicious!  We used homemade pizza dough and homemade tomato sauce.  We also substituted mushrooms instead of salami and fresh broccoli instead of frozen broccoli.)

TUESDAY-  Spinach Enchiladas (Drew's night to cook, while I work)

WEDNESDAY-  Grilled halibut, grilled asparagus & zucchini, and whole wheat couscous.

THURSDAY-  A friend of ours is having an art show at Alberta Street's "Last Thursday".  We will have dinner at one of the many delicious restaurants on Alberta Street before attending the Art Show.  

FRIDAY- Salmon Chowder (I am making this in the slow cooker for my husband & son.  I will be having Happy Hour with some girl friends.  In this recipe, I will omit the bacon and add celery and carrot.)

SATURDAY-  Whole Wheat Fettuccine with Shiitake Mushrooms & Basil

SUNDAY-  Black Bean Soup and Vegetarian Taco Salad

For more meal planning inspirations, visit I'm an Organizing Junkie every Monday.  Enjoy some pictures my husband took at our future farm. 

Happy cooking & eating,
Alyson

"Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity."  -Lindley Karstens