CSA and Grant Family Farms

What better way to start the blog again and start the summer but with a post about our wonderful CSA. What is a CSA? Well, a CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. We purchased a CSA share for a farm up in Northern Colorado called Grant Family Farms. With the share, we get a (very) large box of organic veggies each week and soon it will be accompanied by some Colorado fruit. We are supporting a Colorado family farm instead of some Big Food Corporation, getting excellent food, and encouraging our family to be seasonal localvores. We picked up our box yesterday and I don't think I have ever been so excited to see vegetables. Since it is still the early part of our season, this week's box consisted of lots and lots of green. We have bunches of spinach, some lettuce, baby greens, and some herbs. As the summer heats up we will be enjoying all sorts of vegetables...as for now, I am up to my elbows in spinach. Any good ideas for bunches and bunches of spinach?
Last weekend was the Grant Family Farms Spring Festival and CSA kick-off. The weather was rainy and dreary but we packed up the kiddos and went up to Wellington, Colorado to experience where the majority of our food would be coming from for the next 26 weeks. Although we were not able to stay long because of the soggy weather and crazy amounts of mud, we were able to get a good feel of the farm. I am dying to go back to really be able to experience it. Luckily, Andy and I will be able to experience it as workers. We got a working share for our membership meaning that our share cost a little less than a non-working share because we will work at the farm for eighteen hours. To be honest, even though I know it will be hard work (pulling weeks, cleaning up after chickens, and other farm chores I can't even imagine), I am excited! I want to learn about life working on a farm and learn about growing food.

Once again...almost an entire month has gone by without a blog...poor, poor, neglected blog. The really sad part is that so much has gone on in the last month that would have been fun to blog about...oh well, we'll try to do better in the next month.
We've added some chickens to our brood...six to be exact. They are wonderful animals and we have really been enjoying them. We got our chicks as a gift from my parents for Valentine's Day. The Denver Urban Farmer's Market has been our Saturday outing for the last month or so and they were selling the chicks there. I have been researching backyard chickens for a long time now and we finally took the plunge to start our own flock. We are striving to eat local and sustainable and these seems to be a good step towards reaching that goal. Andy has been gathering up free pallets and he will start constructing the coop very soon, for now though, the chicks are living in my loft in a huge storage container under a heat lamp.

Brecken has recently started insisting on wearing a tutu or "woowoo" as she calls it, around the house. It has been a struggle to get her out of the house without it on. This girl amazes me. She is a strong-willed, independent woman who is not afraid to let us know when something doesn't suit her right. She is starting to talk more and more. I still have to remind myself that it has only been just over a year since we became part of her life. She has just grown so much in the last year.

Quinn is also growing so much. At just under nine weeks old, he is right around 12-pounds. We have been blessed with the most laid-back baby every created. He is so content and sweet. I am starting to get braver with taking all the kids out by myself. I actually made it to Target last week with all three kids and it wasn't a disaster...praise the Lord!

Before and After

"Wow! I didn't realizeI looked that crappy."
-Andy Dunn, After a haircut and trim

I love the fact that my girl squeals with joy every time we go to Starbucks...we start them early at the Dunn household.