Canned and Frozen

This is our second summer participating in a CSA (community sustained agriculture). We get a large selection of vegetables each week; salad and leafy greens, root vegetables, herbs, tomatoes, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, and the list goes on. We don't get all of these things every week, but we haul home about a bushel basket full of goodies each Monday.

Last year I worked hard to use up all the vegetables each week, pushing two and sometimes three veggies on my family at each meal. Sometimes I didn't get enough of something to make a complete dish (for example, when we get green beans we get 1/2 pound, but that's not enough for our family. So I would buy more at the grocery store to fill the gap). To add insult to injury, I have a small garden in the back yard where I grow tomatoes, herbs, and whatever else strikes my fancy at spring planting time. By the end of last summer we just couldn't look at another vegetable.

Then I got smart, but too late in the season to be of any benefit.

This year, I am putting up the vegetables that can be easily frozen (like green beans and peas) or canned (like beets), using some for baking (like zucchini), and serving the rest (like leafy greens, carrots, and cucumbers.

It's pretty fun to be preparing foods that we'll be able to enjoy when snow has blanketed our little patch of earth and gardens have gone to sleep for the winter.

And I do mean ENJOY, for we have rediscovered the pleasures of flavorful produce. Conditioned by years of eating mass produced vegetables, we have grown accustomed to food with mild or washed out flavor.

And another benefit to storing vegetables for the winter is that we no longer dread my weekly runs to the farm to pick up more vegetables.

Maybe it's time to go blueberry picking and start planning for apple season.

Mystery Solved

Unless you are the type to look for it, it isn't often that one gets to experience mystery, adventure, or unexpected learning. For Patrick, me, and my parents on Isle LaMotte, today was one of those mystery-leads-to-unexpected-learning days.

My parents bought a beautiful home on the shores of Lake Champlain a few years ago. They have entertained there, renovated the kitchen, painted walls, rebuilt the basement, and spent summers enjoying the views of their cliff-top dwelling. In that time, they have surely walked in and out of their front door a "gazillion" times.

Either completely unnoticed or noticed but not pursued, a small curiosity has been quietly waiting to be discovered by these new homeowners. Today, the wait was over.

After spending the afternoon playing in and lounging by the lake, I was putting my wet shoes by the door when I noticed this small thing attached to the frame of the transom window. At about eight feet high, it was difficult to see, but I thought it might be a lever to open the window or a special key of some kind. I poked at it and wiggled it a bit to see if it would come down, and it turns out that two small finishing nails were all that held it to the window frame…so I removed it.

It did indeed seem to be a key of some sort, but it wasn't clear what it would be for. And to make it more curious, on the front of this "key" was a pictograph that was in some way familiar to me. It didn't take long to conclude that the pictograph was actually a Hebrew symbol, but we still didn't know for sure what this thing was. As we discussed the possibilities I remembered back to my days at Trinity babysitting for many orthodox Jewish families. They would often have a thing attached to the wall near their front door that was important to the practices of their faith. Could that be what this "key" is?

Enter Google. A little research revealed that, as a matter of fact, what we had discovered was a Mezuzah placed there by the previous owners.
A mezuzah is a piece of parchment inscribed with specified verses from the Torah. These verses comprise the Jewish prayer "Shema Yisrael". A mezuzah is affixed to the doorframe in Jewish homes to fulfill the mitzvah (Biblical commandment) to inscribe the words of the Shema "on the doorposts of your house" (Deuteronomy 6:9. The parchment is prepared by a qualified scribe who has undergone many years of meticulous training, and the verses are written in black indelible ink with a special quill pen. The parchment is then rolled up and placed inside the case.

Wait. A parchment scroll? So far all we had was this thing with the Hebrew symbol on it. Could there really be a scroll in this tiny thing? It took some surgical digging (tweezers, forceps, and a patient hand), but that's exactly we found. How fun!

I continued to research the mezuzah. The Hebrew symbol on the case turns out to be the Hebrew letter "Shin" which stands for the S in Shaddai – one of the names for God. The Shin also serves as a one-letter acronym for "Shomer Daltot Yesrael" which means "Guardian of Israel's doors".

The case is mounted on the door frame and is to serve as a constant reminder of God's presence and His commandments.

The scroll has the following passages printed in Hebrew:

Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 11:13-21. 13 So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the Lord's anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you. Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

My last act was to reroll the parchment scroll, replace it in the case, and replace the case to its original position "on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates".

My favorite part of camping

It's Not Easy Being Green

Summer CSA pick ups have begun! Check out today's load; leeks, scallions, escarole, leaf lettuce, mesclun mix, Asian salad mix, baby bok choy, baby spinach, potatoes (although I didn't take any since they're not on our protein diet), and parsley!

I'm not exactly sure how we're going to get this all eaten before next week's pick up, but we'll do our best.

In addition to all this green stuff, I've come home with a dozen roasting chickens.

Memorial Day

My favorite visitor to the Essex Junction Memorial Day Parade.

I wonder if they need a tuba player.

Let the Garden Grow

Yesterday I weeded the garden (with some help from a handsome handyman) and turned the soil.

Today I planted the stuff that came in my Burpee order.  I placed the order a couple of months ago and the shipment arrived the day after Joerg and I returned from our trip to Indonesia.

Two kinds of tomato (the third variety they sent was the wrong one - not what I ordered), two kinds a hot pepper, basil, sweet peas, and green beans.  I still have some herb seeds to sew, but I should be able to get that done this week.

I also set up the sprinkler system.  I really like my Mister Landscaper stuff!

Indonesian Sunset