CSA, Summer, School, Stuff

I signed up for my very first CSA. It's through a girl who works with me at the food bank and it's $10/week, which is much cheaper than other CSAs I've seen around town. Most are $25/week! With my AmeriCorps budget, I don't have a lot of wiggle room to spend, even for things that are good ideas/great causes, so the $10/week variety is perfect!

This was the first week, and we got:

• a parsley plant
• oregano
• chives
• spinach
• radishes
• green onions

I made a potato soup using the green onions and oregano. It's the first time I've ever cooked with fresh oregano. I just chopped it up and threw it in there... not sure if I did it right, but it tasted great so I guess that's all that matters!

My own garden is doing so great! I spent about 5 hours preparing it with compost and garden soil. I actually dug plots and put down mulch so I could walk around in it. It's a small garden, but we've got:

• 6 hops plants of 3 varieties
• 4 tomato plants
• an edible flower plant
• an african something or other that's a good tomato companion plant
• hot peppers
• garlic
• parsley

I still need to transplant the hot peppers and parsley. I'm not really sure about the garlic. I had some leftover cloves of garlic that started to sprout, so I just put them in a pot with some potting soil to see what would happen. So far, the sprouting part has just gotten kind of tall and withery looking. I'm not sure if this is how garlic happens or what. I also don't know when to pull it. More research required!

My own compost will probably be ready in the fall. I'm sort of obsessed with it. I love adding to it and turning it. It smells pretty terrible right now, but hopefully as nature gets to work it'll smell more earthy and good....instead of rotting and bad. These things take time. I just hope my neighbors understand! It's in a bin...

We got our guest room organized and it's much easier to work in there now! I'd like a bigger desk...but one thing at a time.

Thanks to Michael, our backyard is really shaping up. Once I get around to buying some batteries for my camera, I'll post pictures.

Happy Spring!!