The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas, and throw the bad ones away. ~Linus Pauling

I had some good ideas last spring.  I planted a garden with tomatoes, green beans, peas, radishes, peppers, carrots, lettuce and spinach. Later on in the summer we planted strawberries and raspberries.  I also signed us up for a weekly CSA box that started the end of May and just ended this past week.  Clearly, my idea was to try to figure out a way to get more fresh and local produce in my house (and hopefully in our bodies).

Today is our first really rainy day.  The heat has been turned on, the heavy socks have been dug out from the back of the drawer and I pretty much want to just stay inside. I already miss the sun.  But this post isn't about how I need to figure out where in the world I put my Vitamin D, but rather it is meant to be a reflection on how my first garden and CSA experience has gone.

Let's start with the garden.  I am counting it as a success and is certainly something I want to do again next year.  That said, I will do things differently.  I don't think I will even bother with lettuce and spinach again.  The slugs just ate it all no matter what I did.  I don't like eat radishes enough to eat as many as I was getting and the pepper plants were a lot of work for what I ended up not getting from them.

I will plant more green beans next year so that I have enough to put in the freezer.  I will do tomatoes again for sure, but will be smarter about giving them more room.  I love homegrown carrots but they were a lot of work and even though I thinned them religiously, they never really grew big enough for more than a little nibble.  The peas were a favorite so I will do more than two plants but will also have to figure out a slug plan because the were also a favorite of our slimy friends.  Peas were really the only things that I grew that I was able to convince Taelin to eat every time.

Now, the CSA box.   The positives were many.  I tried a lot of different veggies because of the CSA box.  I made napa cabbage salad, homemade pickles, and grilled lots of veggies. We got a lot of berries all at once, which forced my hand to make jam that we have been enjoying since.  My freezer is well stocked with shredded zucchini, tomato sauce, roasted jalapenos, pesto and tomatillo salsa.  But, there was also a down side.

There are many veggies that we just didn't like or use.  I tried kale in four different ways and never grew to like it even a little.  Most of the greens we got, like swiss chard, ended up being given away or wilted in the back of the fridge.  I didn't like squash before and I don't like squash now.  We are just not that adventurous when it comes to veggies, we tend to eat the same rotation over and over, and are okay with that.  And there was the amount, we eat them every day (for me sometimes with every meal and for snacks) but even though we were sharing the box with two other families, it was just too much for us.

Another piece that was a challenge sometimes that doesn't have anything to do with what was actually included in the box, was how we went about getting it.  The box was dropped off at a friends house sometime on Tuesday afternoon/evening.  It wasn't ever really consistent and to be honest Tuesday is the worst night it could have been, especially once work started up again.  Then I had to go over and the get the veggies either before or after Weight Watchers.  It just wasn't really that convenient.

So, what will I do next spring?  I will plan and planted a garden for sure.  I probably won't be ordering another CSA box though.  There are things that we got in the CSA box that we used a lot of that I think I want to try and grow like zucchini, cucumber, potatoes, and maybe even garlic.  That might mean building more boxes. (Lorie?  Did you read that?)  Another thing that I am considering is taking the same amount I spent each week for the CSA box and just taking that down to the Saturday market to support the local growers.  That way I can get what I know I will use, I can have it and consider it when I am menu planning on Sunday and buying something new if I think I might want to try one thing (instead of the sometimes 4 or 5 new things a week).  I think it will just be a better match for us.

But for now, I will enjoy the last few tomatoes that we will get lucky enough to get off of the plants that are left in the backyard, use the last bits of our CSA box from this week and hope that the rain actually breaks later next week so I can clear out the raised beds for the winter.

(And I will admit that I have started to mentally make the "to-do" list for all the inside projects now that the rain has begun...another bunch of ideas....but more on that later!)