June 13th, 2008

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Potential Trip Over my Birthday

Friday, June 13th, 2008

YEAH!! It looks like I will get to see my parents over the weekend of my birthday!!!!! I’m bummed that my brother, sister-in-law and nieces cannot come too, but at least I get to see some contingency of my immediate family. If this coming trip hadn’t worked out, I would not have gotten to see anyone until Thanksgiving….blah.

So it looks like we’ll be meeting kind of half-way in Erie, PA. I’m not sure what Erie, PA has to offer, but I’m sure they’ve got some neat stuff going on. And we’ll only be there for a very quick weekend.

Taking a Look at Home Delivery Produce

Friday, June 13th, 2008

Today I was reading on a forum about how some ladies were trying to reduce their food budgets. One woman with a large family mentioned that she uses a home delivery service for her produce. This intrigued me greatly! So I took a look at the website and by golly, they service all of Connecticut. Everything is organic too. Now normally, I’m not real picky about my produce needing to be organic because it is generally cost prohibitive. So don’t think I’m an organics snob. But the idea of locally grown, seasonally available produce which happens to also be organic and cost effective is making me think.

I could have a small box of produce delivered from this service every week for almost exactly what I pay on a weekly basis for non-organic, typically foreign grown, produce at the grocery store. Hmmm… I’d be helping small farmers/business owners (which I adore the idea of), not using as much gas (which helps the budget) and eating better.

This is fodder for another post, but I’ve got some insulin issues (not diabetic yet, but headed in that direction) which are playing havoc with my body. So I am looking to reduce (eliminate) refined sugars & flours from our diets. I’ll still use healthier, natural sweeteners and whole grain flours so we aren’t exactly doing the Atkins thing. I’ve not become a liberal, a hippie or even “green”. I just would like to have children and be around to enjoy them. Thus the absolute necessity to alter our diets.

Farmer’s Markets

Friday, June 13th, 2008

Tomorrow Dave and I begin selling our maple syrup at a couple of the local Farmer’s Markets. Specifically, we’ll be selling at the Somers and Stafford markets this summer. I am hoping and praying for good sales!!

We bought one of those nice canopy tents (tent top without sides). The material for our tablecloth arrived too late yesterday evening for me to make our tablecloth, but I’ll be able to finish it before the next market. I did make a big sign that says 100% Pure Maple Syrup, which will hopefully catch the eye of people and bring them to our tent.

I’ll take photos of our set-up tomorrow and hopefully Dave will be able to upload them. I’m pretty excited about this because if it goes well, it could really help us toward making farming Dave’s eventual full-time gig. That is the long-term goal anyway. Dave would give anything to be able to provide for us as a farmer. (For the Illinois readers, in New England producing maple syrup is very much a farming operation!)

Lately, I’ve been reading so much about how harmful eating processed foods, white sugar and white flour are too my body that the idea of growing lots of our own produce also sounds like a very good idea. So maybe one day in the not so distant future, Dave and I will have enough land to cultivate our own veggies/fruits and produce gobs of maple syrup!