Tag: Family

Boo!  It’s Halloween!   …or It’s Your Cholesterol

Boo! It’s Halloween! …or It’s Your Cholesterol

October for farmers is like May for high school seniors.  You get a case of the screw-its.  Or the more vulgar f%#&-its.  Or just 'senior-itis'.  You remember ---- all the learnin'  you needed to do is done.  Graduation is just around the corner and nothing you do now can mess that up.  You're walking regardless of whether or not that book report was handed in. [caption id="attachment_745" align="alignleft" width="300"] Halloween zombies removing tomato plants from the fog-laden fields.[/caption] So here we are in October, with 2 markets finishing up this week.  It feels good.  REALLY good.   We're doing a CSA...Read More

The FarmGirl Cooks… and So Does Her Dad!

[caption id="attachment_620" align="alignright" width="223" caption="Sonny preps corn to blanch and freeze for winter."][/caption] Don't get me wrong... Mom does too - just not as much as (or with the enjoyment of) Dad. And most of his creations start the same way:  "Cut up some bacon and put it in a pan, then put in the ________". Do you remember the cilantro-chile sauce I made a few weeks ago?  I shared some with Dad (because SURPRISE!  he popped in when I was making it), and then gave him a bit to take home.  A few hours later, I get a call.  "I took...Read More

Life Happens

[caption id="attachment_597" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Chilly Walk at Sunset"][/caption] I had lots of ideas in my head and planned to write up some new recipes this week, but sometimes, as we all know, things don't go as planned. Too much going on farmwise - we had a light and scattered frost on Tuesday morning.  That means the 15-minute Tuesday drive around the farm took about 40 minutes instead.  Dad and I always take a ride around checking out which crops (or plantings of multiple crops) are ready for harvest each week.   So we hopped in the Jeep Wrangler (Mom's baby from 1987.... still with...Read More

The Little Black Dress in the Kitchen

 * So here I am trying to type and post these recipe ideas and The Boy is being very affectionate and needy.  He's wonderfully happy, and ridiculously talkative, as any young man would be after riding along with Papa in the John Deere for the last hour.  He is emptying the contents of his piggy bank (ie coffee can with slit in lid) on my desk between me and my keyboard.  He reminds me of my cat (RIP, Miss Book), climbing all over me 'in the heat of the moment' like nothing important is going on (no comment) and why can't I interrupt?  This is...Read More

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

...or,  Watch what you do and say because your child WILL repeat EVERYTHING, both good and bad. [caption id="attachment_155" align="alignright" width="112" caption="Cucumber Tendrils"][/caption] The plan was for Thomas to go to The Shore with his dad for a few days, so we went 'shopping' in the fields for snacks for the trip. Kirby cucumbers, baby carrots and green beans are all great raw and hardy enough to store in a cooler bag for 2 days plus they have the added benefit of being the few veggies the boy will eat these days. I've given up trying to figure out what his...Read More

Timing is everything.

My darling boy is turning six next week, so for his class' April birthday celebration, we made up goodie bags using some of Papa's homegrown popcorn on the cob. We wrapped printed instructions (available at www.bialasfarms.com) and a brown paper lunch bag (because you can pop it in a bag in the microwave) around one cob and tied it with cotton string. Those cobs went into cellophane goodie bags with a few other treats.We put the goodie bags in the kids' cubbies at school and they were all abuzz over it. No feedback yet, but we know 6-yr-olds! As I...Read More

You’re getting warmer!

My favorite tradition of the Easter season is coloring eggs. I don’t really EAT that many hard-boiled eggs, so I leave those safer-to-color ones for the kid, and I color raw eggs*. I’m much more careful than I used to be - no more full-hand grabs into the coloring liquid. I have mastered the use of that little wire holder in my 30-ahem years. I just love being creative and seeing what kind of cool designs and colors I come up with, and it’s a wonderful hour or more spent with my little guy. He’s getting quite good at it...Read More

Sometimes it takes a while to get the good stuff….

What do you do when you're in the 6th grade and have 2 hours to kill between the time you get off the bus and the time your mom gets home from work? Yep. You watch tv. And what do you watch when it's 1983 and your parents didn't have cable and 2-13 was it? You watch General Hospital (because NOBODY watched CBS, c'mon!) and switch to Julia Child and The Frugal Gourmet on PBS at commercials - withOUT a remote. So, when I wasn't learning about life, love and the pursuit of all manner of illicit activities with Luke and Laura...Read More