Tomato seedlings

Now is the time of year when I can really believe that spring is here. Never mind the summer-like weather we had last week--it's time to order tomato seedlings from Verrill Farm! The deadline to order is April 2nd, so I'm actually a week early this time.

I say this every year, but this year it will happen: my garden is going to kick ass! One the the few things I've always had great luck with are tomatoes; thanks in no small part to the great quality seedlings I get from Verrill Farm every year. The other things that I've had great luck with are snap peas and Swiss chard, so those will be reappearing again this year. Besides that, I'm not sure. I think I'm going to go pretty simple this year--besides tomatoes and snap peas, it'll be mostly greens and herbs.

The photo in this post is from spring of 2010. I was digging around in the garden to get it ready and found a crop of rainbow carrots from summer 2009. They weren't quite ready in the fall, but over-wintered well and ended up being pretty tasty! (I know, nothing to do with tomatoes, but this is the best photo I can find at the moment.)

Time to make a visit to the garden center for seeds. Maybe this year will be the year when I finally have an amazing garden. If not, if it's even slightly better than last year, that's an improvement and I'll take it, thank you very much.

South Village Sugarhouse, Ashby MA

505 South Road, Ashby MA 01431

978.386.6823

southvillagesugarhouse.com

This year, we ended up at South Village Sugarhouse in Ashby MA. After inadvertently taking the scenic route (somehow, I had plugged the wrong address into Google Maps), we finally made it here at dusk. We were greeted warmly by Dave Rainville, who took us out behind the sugarhouse so Talia could see a dripping tap in the fading daylight. Having recently seen a Curious George episode where George makes maple syrup, she thought it was very exciting to see the real thing.

Dave walked us through the process and explained his set up, as we watched the sap boil away in the wood-fired evaporator. In the photo above, he is showing us all the minerals, etc., that settle out of the syrup and get filtered out before bottling.

It was lucky that we ended up getting there later than we had planned, as the batch he was working on was just about finished. Here's Dave pouring out samples for us to try. We bought a couple of quarts to bring home and replenish our dwindling maple syrup supplies.

Sweet and delicious! Someone was not in the mood for having her picture taken, but I couldn't help myself.

Here's the evaporator boiling away.

If only I had a fancy camera, this picture would have been amazing--the view of the sugarhouse as we left in the dark, with sparks flying out of the chimney as logs were tossed onto the fire. You'll just have to use your imagination. Or, better yet, stop in for a visit yourself.

Kielbasa

This month, in our share from Chestnut Farms' meat CSA, we got uncured kielbasa. Delicious! I have to say that I've never eaten much meat as adult, mostly just when I'm craving real BBQ or a good burger. However, ever since joining Chestnut Farms' meat CSA, I have been amazed at how good it is. We rarely buy meat outside our CSA share (besides chickens, in season, from Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds), so I am pretty spoiled with the flavor. Healthy, happy animals just taste better, I guess.

Maple season has begun!!!

Here is the evaporator at Drumlin Farm in Lincoln MA. And look! It's steaming! I don't know what it is about maple season, but it makes me want to jump up and down with joy. We'll be back at Drumlin Farm in a couple of weeks for their Farmer's Breakfast fundraising event. They serve pancakes covered in their own maple syrup as well as sausage and potatoes, also from the farm. And coffee and other breakfast drinks, too. I can't wait!

We just came to wander around a bit today. Besides the maple sap boiling, we also found some adorable baby goats.