in Montreal

our market is done for now, and the CSA has ended, so we decided to take a little trip to montreal. we couldn't do it during the summer, but at this time, we can leave the field for a few days, and shandra was kind enough to look after our chickens and cat while we're gone, so here we are!

we drove up yesterday, and all went well. the kids were very excited about seeing my parents, buca and bucu, again - it has been a few months.

today, ed and i went walking around the plateau, while buca and bucu spent time with sena and aiyana. it snowed on and off throughout the day, but still, it was fun walking around the city. we stopped for some lebanese food, which wasn't great, but then we found a small patisserie on mount royal, with wonderful croissants, fresh out of the oven. we hung out for a while and i sipped my excellent coffee while ed read "non-toxic farming" to me. we're both into it. that was fun!

ed and i were also excited to see the new bike stations all around the city, where people can rent a bike to get from one place to another, for a reasonable fee. the cool thing is that you can drop the bike off at many different locations around the city, so you're not restricted to returning to the point where you started from. i think this is a great way of getting around, cutting down on car usage, traffic, emissions, etc. the other exciting thing we saw was compost pickup around the plateau area. i read a pamphlet saying that 2000 households in that neighborhood were signed up for this service, and they composted hundreds of tons of food scraps over the past few years. all right montreal! maybe other neighborhoods are doing similar things?

tomorrow the weather is supposed to be nice, and we are planning to go visit my old neighborhood in NDG. i'm excited about taking sena and aiyana there to show them where i used to live. we'll be stopping at this one place i used to like for croissants and coffee - fortunately both my kids love cafes - i taught them well....

on monday we are driving back to connecticut, in time for a high nutrient density farming course ed and i want to attend on monday night.

last week sena was invited to eastern state university, to speak to a classroom full of students about her interest in whales and about her pamphlet, which she put together and has been distributing at the farmers' market this season. she was nervous about it at first, but finally she got comfortable enough with the classroom environment and the students listening to her, and she was able to answer their questions and talk. at the end of her talk, she was given a beautiful gift - a book about the ocean, with amazing pictures and lots of interesting information. it's not a kids' book, but more like an atlas of the ocean, and we're all enjoying it. also, many of the students who listened to her wrote something at the beginning of the book, and it was all very nice, telling her how much they appreciated what she's doing and thanking her for it.
all right, sena!

last week of the CSA

i'm sad about the end of the CSA. it was a great idea to start it this season, and both ed and i feel very positive about it. we put out a survey for our members, and so far their responses have been very positive as well, and helpful as far as suggestions for next year. more about the survey to come...

in the meantime, here's our CSA table last week.

carrots, radishes, beets

 red and golden beets

greens and roots (and in the background the new sliding door ed built to our basement. it replaces the green tarp we had there previously. ed got a lot of compliments on it.)

carrots, bok choy and radishes

 ok, i know i'm getting a little crazy with the carrots, but i can't help it - one more picture:

purple top and golden globe turnips. we've been loving these guys cooked home-fry style, with a little (or a lot for me) salt and garlic sauce on top

rutabagas - amazingly delicious, to me, the ultimate comfort food at this time of year. i cook them like mashed potatoes, boiled and then mashed with salt, pepper and lots of butter.

peace

what it looks like under the covers

this is what our field lookes like these days:

sand bags and hoops, over spinach rows (just coming up) waiting to be covered with plastic for the winter. the covered rows in these pics are mostly root vegetables (beets, carrots, etc.) and they have cloth covers. these veges won't be in the ground much longer, so the protection is temporary. and that sad looking bed on the right in the second picture is the last of our tomatoes, after they got hit by frost! they've done amazing this season.

and this is some of what's under the covers

always amazed at what comes out of the ground...

peace

cousins - Sena, Aiyana, Julia and Stella

can't believe these are my kids and my sister's kids. i feel like i'm still a kid myself...
they're so sweet! we are really lucky.
peace