CSA 2009, Week 5: June 27, 2009

Mostly greens this week! Turnips, beats, kale, garlic scapes, squash and zucchini, spring onions, salad greens, head lettuce, fancy lettuce, tons of cilantro, and (one of my faves) kolhrabi!!

New flowers in the pick your own garden this week: poppies!

CSA 2009, Week 4: June 20, 2009

That's a lot of greens: lettuce mix, head lettuce, garlic scapes, beets, turnips, radishes, zucchini, braising mix, and kale.



Not only were we inundated with greens this week, but the wildflowers were just to beautiful to resist. I picked 4 bouquets for the party we hosted on Saturday. So pretty!! I need to learn the names of all the flowers... one day. But for now I can appreciate how beautiful they are to look at!

CSA 2009, Week 3: June 13, 2009

Each week's pick up is getting more and more bountiful! This week we had spring onions, lettuce mix, radishes, garlic scapes, Swiss chard, and summer squash. I also picked flowers, dill, and cilantro from the garden. The herbs smell heavenly!

I mixed the dill with chickpeas and served them over brown rice cooked with the spring onion. For an added zing, I added lemon juice and a dollop of yogurt.



Flowers!!

This morning I cast on for a new pair of socks. This is the second pair of socks that I'll be making with this yarn. I frogged my Jaywalkers due to poor fit. The new pattern I choose (Herringbone Rib Socks) is nice and stretchy and, so far, I like the way the pattern and the yarn work together.

Elephantine hat-trick, radishes, and a princess lioness

They are done! Three mix-and-match Elijahs. And boy do my hands hurt. I calculate that each Elijah took me 12-13 hours. Nothing like Cascade 220 Superwash on size 4s for that many hours to give you a hand cramp. But they are way cute and I can't wait to give them to the recipients! These little guys are for three little boys, ages 5, 3, and -8 weeks (i.e., still in utero). :) I hope they like them!

Tonight I cut up some radishes from this past Saturday's CSA haul. What beautiful colors!

One more random picture to share. Here's little Miss Chloe, The Princess Lioness. Yes, I put a feathery scrunchy (favor from a baby shower - -not something I willing purchased!) on her head. She posed proudly. Or she was too lazy to move. One or the other.

CSA 2009, Week 2: Saturday, June 6

CSA week 2: kale, radishes, spinach, salad, peas, spring onions, asparagus, strawberries, garlic scapes. And from the pick your own: wildflowers and cilantro. Yum!



I finally took pictures of my "Little Green Monster," a pattern of my own creation. The only thing it's missing is 4 little buttons. I'm thinking red would go well with the green... hmmmm?

This was a fun project, not only in that I improvised the pattern but also in that I used 2 different yarns: the light green is Karabella Aurora 4, a sport weight merino, and the dark green is Spirit Trail Fiberworks "Brigit," a fingering 100% superwash merino. It adds some depth and texture to the sweater and it helped my use up some project leftovers. Win-win!

CSA is back!

Yay! CSA Week 1!! This year we have the Saturday morning share, so my "CSA partner" (a dear friend :) ) and I went for a 3.5 mile run before heading to the farm to pick up our goodies. This week's haul: braising mix, asparagus, spring onions, collard greens, strawberries, cilantro, irises, and wildflowers. What a great morning!



Oh, and I just picked 5+ pounds of strawberries with some of my knitting/spinning buddies this afternoon. Yet another activity where we don't have to look at each other when we talk... I think we're developing an unhealthy pattern. :)

Alco-tourism in San Francisco

Actually, we went to San Francisco (probably one of my fave cities ever!) for a wedding. But why not turn it into a little mini-break for us, right? My only regret is not bringing more knits. It was cold! I could have used some more wool!


I really love San Francisco.




A pair of hand-knit socks came in handy on a particularly windy day.








Here's a mini-sampler at Beach Chalet (stout, red, wheat).







We found the Rogue Brewery in town. Surprisingly, the walk to the brewery seemed much longer than the walk home. :)







Our favorite brewery was the Magnolia Pub on Haight, which featured some awesome cask conditioned brews.



Knitting a few rows of my jaywalkers in between sips of my Blue Bell Bitter. (Sadly, since arriving home, these socks have ended up in the frog pond because they fit terribly. I'll use this yarn for another pair of socks.)





Of course, there was yarn to be purchased! Here's a new little buddy I met at Imagiknit. What a fantastic store.




And here's the purchase from Imagiknit. One skein of Malabrigo merinocash for me and one for a friend. Lettuce and Smoke.








And a little souvenir from Bluebird Yarn in Sausalito. Paca-Peds HT from the Alpaca Yarn Co. It's superwash Alpaca Hand-Dyed Sock Yarn with 360 yards of the colorway and 90 yards of a coordinate solid heel/toe color.





And on a food related note... two exciting finds! First, I tried some fresh-caught bay abalone. So cool! (Yes, that's my swallowtail shawl keeping me warm!)








And, a kumquat tree in our cousin's backyard in Sacramento. These beauties came home with me.