This has been quite the busy, busy week – Miss Thing’s birthday was this last week – so it’s been a slew of preparations and hooplah for her party this weekend, so my weekly update is a little behind schedule. This week was a bit of a week of fail, as I had a couple of recipes that are – shall we say, Learning Experiences? But overall – a good week. My newest FFTY came on thursday afternoon – and we had managed to work our way through all the previous week’s produce (except for those apples – we’re still stockpiling apples… good grief, will the apples ever cease?)

So let’s see, last week I received and made:

• 6 Small Artichokes – Chard and Artichoke Dip
• 4 Ginormous Navel Oranges – snacks
• 4 small Avocados – Used in Panzanella, salads and tossed in some leftover Roasted Zucchini Tomato Pasta
• 2 lbs Pink Lady Apples – snacks and some leftovers
• 2 lbs Gold Blush Apples – Caramel Apple Bars
• 2 lbs Zucchini – Roasted Zucchini Tomato Pasta
• 2 pints baby tomatoes(!) – used in Panzanella and in Roasted Zucchini Tomato Pasta
• 2 lb Red Norland Potatoes – Roasted Potato dish fail (it was edible, but not fantastic)
• 2 lb Yellow Onions – Various
• 2 Meyer Lemons – Used in Salad dressings
• 1.5 lbs Leeks – Chard and Artichoke Dip
• 1 pint Strawberries – snacks
• 1 bunch Green Chard – Chard and Artichoke Dip
• 1 lb Snap Peas – a failed attempt at Orange Mint Peas & Carrots
• 1 lb Mixed Baby Lettuces – Used in Salads
• 1 bunch Italian Parsley – various
• 1 bunch Nantes Carrots – Chard and Artichoke Dip and a failed attempt at Orange Mint Peas & Carrots
• 1 bunch Red Radish – Used in Salads
• 2 Green Garlic Heads – Used in Roasted Potatoes fail and in Panzanella

I didn’t churn out as much quality work this week as I might have liked, but it was still fun. This week, I did take us back down to the mid-size box. The difference between the larger box and the medium box this week wasn’t signifigant enough to warrant it this week. I try to keep an eyeball on the boxes each week so that I can pick the box that I think will best suit us… I mean, extra strawberries are great! Extra apples? meh. So this week the biggest difference was that one box had grapefruit – and I don’t like grapefruit.

In this week’s box, I received:

• 4 Artichokes
• 2 lbs Tangelos
• 2 lbs Fuji Apples
• 2 lbs Cameo Apples
• 2 lbs Zucchini
• 2 Cucumbers(!)
• 1 pnt Strawberries
• 1 lb Asparagus
• 1 bunch Chard
• 1 bunch Broccoli (about 3 heads)
• 1 pnt Cherry Tomatoes
• 1 bunch Nantes Carrot
• 1/2 lb Rhubarb
• 1 Portabella Mushroom
• 1/2 lb Snap Peas
• 1 Green Garlic

I was also supposed to receive 1/2 lb Mixed Lettuces, but the lettuce was MIA – so I called them up and mentioned it, and they’ve promised to send me something extra next week to make it up. So this week is a little bit cook-heavy as far as the veggies go – no lettuce for salads. Not a big deal though.

So aside from everything with Miss Thing’s birthday shtuff – it was also Beltaine on Friday, which I might have enjoyed more if it hadn’t been raining all day. Plus side to the rain is that my allergies have eased – but the downside is of course – the damp. Rain still sucks. I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much though, goodness knows we need the rain out here to replenish water supplies. Anyways, to celebrate Beltaine – I went to a ritual with this circle that I’ve joined a couple of times before, and it was lovely. After the ritual, they invited me to join on a more permanent sort of basis – so yippee! no longer simply a guest.

It’s kind of scary, trying to get to know a group of people all at the same time – so I’m sure there will be some adjusting going on, but I’m really looking forward to it. I’m also thinking about doing a moon this month, we’ll see what happens. We finally got the yard all cleaned up (craiglist + a little $$$ and we now have a semi-respectable yard, yay!) We’re seriously considering signing up for a weekly service. I mean – if Mr. Man leaves the yard work up to me, then everything will probably end up dead (I can’t grow things – they tend to die) and he just doesn’t have time to do it right now with all that’s going on at work. I’m sure our neighbors will be happy to see us taking care of it more, too.

On a only semi-related note, we also had a guest living in our front yard this week. I woke up to take Miss Thing to school on thursday and discovered a ginormous pile of dirt in the front yard, and a small (2″-3″) hole. Discussion with an exterminator revealed that we probably had a gopher. Unfortunately, Mr. Man and I came to the conclusion that we needed to go ahead and let the exterminator do his thing. I feel a little bad about that – I mean, for one thing – it’s not like I do much with my yard anyways, and if a gopher’s getting his happy on in the yard, I’m actually kinda cool with that, and for another, it’s not really his fault that my yard is in his habitat, ya know? But I don’t really want Mr. Gopher going to get friendly in the neighbors yard when he’s tired of hanging around our place. ‘twouldn’t really be kosher. It did give me a little sad, though.