Weeks 9 and 10: Tomato, Tomatah

Last week, the rain continued in Maine. And no, I'm not trying to sound like Eliza Doolittle. Ted decided to drive out to the farm on his own and came home with more tomatoes (yellow and red), a dark purple pepper and some wonderful smelling sage. His comment on the visit, "It was a very colorful day at the farm." No flowers this week. The fields were too muddy and wet. Instead Ted brought home a unique arrangement from a neighbor of ours. She puts flowers out on her driveway each week - and they're always free. I always look forward to her bouquets, and wish I had time to spend in her garden. There's a lot I could learn from her I'm sure.

This week, the kids and I went to the farm and were amazed by the boxes of tomatoes that were piled up in the barn. Lauren and Will each grabbed their own and ate them like apples. In fact, Lauren had one tomato in each fist. I'm loving the variety of colors that are available - red, yellow, purple and variations of the three. I was tempted to pick an enormous heirloom tomato, but decided it wasn't practical. Boring, I know, but when you have a family, it's better to choose what's going to last the longest. Justin also had a mixed bag of cucumbers, peppers, squash and eggplant to choose from. We love eggplant, but these are small, and definitely not designed for Ted's eggplant parm, which requires large and plentiful eggplants. Again I took the practical route and chose a few peppers and a cucumber, which weighed in at 2 lbs. exactly.

Justin has chicken available weekly and we have yet to by them. As a friend of mine put it, they're fairly "spendy." $17 will buy you a 4 lb. chicken. This is when I have an internal battle with myself. On one hand, I want to buy from my local farmer. On the other, $4.25/lb. is tough for a family on a budget. I guess it's all about balance—buying local when we can, and purchasing more economical options at the supermarket. At least we're still buying natural, farm-raised chicken when we shop. Anyway, I think others are feeling the pinch too. Justin offered free sage and rosemary to anyone who purchased a chicken, which makes me think they're not selling as quickly as he'd like.

I tried to pick flowers with the kids, placing Will down on the ground, and assisting Lauren with her scissors. This was a tough balance. Lauren's constantly on the move, and Will started eating some crab grass. There were also a few turkeys on the loose which seemed to be stalking us. I managed to cut a few clarkia and one sunflower, but that was about the extent of it. The clarkia is starting to die back—there weren't nearly as many as two weeks ago. But it's cool to see the sunflowers growing in abundance. Will demanded to hold the one that I chose - a nice combo of yellow, brown and orange - he held it in his hand, inspected it and then dropped it on the ground.