T-Minus.....10 days...

yes, only ten days left before the shackle is on. i mean, before our big day. :D

cake.....check.
cater...check.
flowers....check.
hair appointment...check.
place settings and other stuff.....check.
party favors....check...
Photo ideas for sara......crap, gotta work on that.

man, i feel like i’m forgetting something....really. ed’s parents are coming in this saturday. my spa day is this saturday. can’t wait!


here's a teaser of the event.....but not the same colors.....

beautiful tree cake topper by apryl...she's rad!

aack! i just remembered.....i need to write my vows.....

Season End Review of a CSA....

Well, the end of the growing season is ending soon. we’ll see how the rest of the CSA does in the fall boxes. the CSA we tried out this year was Rise and Shine Farms in Fallon, NV. how to put this diplomatically. They are by far worse than the self righteous hippies that populate Berkeley. I haven’t even gotten to their “produce” yet. I believe that they treat thier subscribers like crap. Why? Because we were the second causality of ”sharing”. When we gave feedback to Great Basin Basket, we never got the treatment we got from Rise and Shine. We’ve been members of various CSAs from California to Nevada for the PAST TEN YEARS. I’d like to say that we have an idea of the concept of CSAs.

This started with a water issue that they had at the beginning of the season. They had a visit from the water district authority. the water authority found that they were in violation of home water use regulations and was ready to shut them down. Rise and Shine put out a call to their subscribers to “rise up and fight the man”. i never “rise up and fight the man”, unless i have proof that they are screwing the little guy over WITHIN the confines of regulation. i had a suspicion that the farm did not have the proper water permits so i did a little digging....the farm had NO PERMITS to water farmland beyond sustenance farming. so, in other words, one can use the water from one’s home well to water crops that one uses to feed oneself and family. but Rise and Shine is a CSA, there is money exchange. One non-subscriber asked the question of refund in the event of not being able to water the crops and got some run around. they posted a negative review of the farm on the google place page for their poor treatment by the farm. the farm responded by “sharing” this information with its members. the response from the most vocal of the members were those poo-pooing the reviewer and calling them “lame-os” for not supporting the farm.

does this sound familiar? does this sound like the political rhetoric that is going around right now? does this sound like tea baggers? i’ll leave that up in the air for now.

now the it’s our turn.

We sent an email letting them know that even though this was a hard year for a lot of farmers, we were disappointed at their baskets. we would get a dozen eggs and five sad looking produce. now for the produce/egg share alone, it’s roughly 25$/week. 5$ per item is just way too much. i can go to whole paycheck and get a bunch of produce for 25$. we didn’t even get into the fact that their produce suck! safeway does a better job at the quality of the produce they truck in. This was their email to the subscribers....

really? i’ve used public humiliation as a teaching tool when i taught martial arts. but come on....nobody can have an opinion other than “You’re doing great!”?

here’s what the sheep said....on FB...really? how blind are you people?

I may not agree with the farm’s philosophy on food, but i will never treat people like this. spray their honest opinion as a humiliation tactic and then solicit the followers for sympathy. Bad business skills.

But then again, i guess that if one has never known food, other than the local safeway, then they’ll never know what real food is. we are not “naysayers”, we just present the truth.

Rise and Shine....you want respect?  you have to earn it.  you are not entitled to it.  so, don't frack with me.  i will spray and i will spray more......


  i will support a nevada farmer, just not this one.

The Canning Adventure

i’m not even so sure where to begin. I have so many things to yammer on about but not enough time or motivation to actually sit down and do it. Between planning my wedding and other summer activities, i really don’t have a bunch of time to do the blawg thing.

Well, here it is....the first of a slew of (hopefully) posting that will culminate with my big day. yes, all mine. ed is just an accessory. kidding.

it was a saturday. one of those nice days we have left in summer. well, it was one of the few nice days we had this summer. yes it was a strange summer. anyway, i digress. sara and i had talked about making salsa and canning the said salsa. we did a trial run with some of the “bargain produce” that we brought back from berkeley bowl on one of my errand trips to the bay. it was tasty. so we decided to go whole hog...i mean whole tomaters...and raid the reno farmers market. our booty, i mean bounty, was lots of tomatoes, onions, peppers, and some beater peaches.

 the recipe we loosely followed (from epicurious.com) was as follows:

Roasted Jalapeño-Tomato Salsa With Fresh Cilantro

Yield: Makes 2 1/2 cups
1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes (about 10 medium), preferably plum
2 to 3 fresh jalapeño chiles (1 to 1 1/2 ounces), stemmed
Half of a small white onion (2 ounces), sliced 1/4 inch thick
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro, loosely packed
1 generous teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar (we used lime juice instead)

1. Heat the broiler. Lay the whole tomatoes and jalapeños out on a broiler pan or baking sheet. Set the
pan 4 inches below the broiler and broil for about 6 minutes, until darkly roasted — even blackened in
spots — on one side (the tomato skins will split and curl in places). With a pair of tongs, flip over the
tomatoes and chiles and roast the other side for another 6 minutes or so. The goal is not simply to
char the tomatoes and chiles, but to cook them through while developing nice, roasty flavors. Set aside
to cool.
2. Turn the oven down to 425 degrees. Separate the onions into rings. On a similar pan or baking
sheet, combine the onion and garlic. Roast in the oven, stirring carefully every couple of minutes, until
the onions are beautifully browned and wilted (even have a touch of char on some of the edges) and
the garlic is soft and browned in spots, about 15 minutes total. Cool to room temperature.
3. For a little less rustic texture or if you're canning the salsa, pull off the peels from the cooled
tomatoes and cut out the "cores" where the stems were attached, working over your baking sheet so as
not to waste any juices.
4. put everything in a big bowl. with a hand blend, BLEND!!!! Blend to desired consistency. Stir in the cilantro.
5. Taste and season with salt and lime juice, remembering that this condiment should be a little fiesty in
its seasoning. If you're planning to use your salsa right away, simply pour it into a bowl and it's ready,
or refrigerate it covered and use within 5 days. or CAN IT!