Art Spirals

From Cool Things

Aren't these gorgeous? The blue hubbards are new to me. The farmer said kids love them if you tell them they're alien jackolanterns. They are sweeter than pumpkin, and can be substituted for it. I'm 45 and I've never made a pie from scratch, and I told the farmer, I guess no "mrs. smith's" pies this year, I'll have to learn how to make pie crust. he assured me I could buy pie crust since I was making the hubbard squash from scratch!

Now this food is REALLY local, it's from my own pear tree. The tree has put out thousands, or so it feels, of pears this year...and I've been drying them, in a 200 degree oven, to make pear chips. They have such a cool look and texture, don't you think?

From Cool Things

From Cool Things

From Cool Things

If you're interested, as I am, in eating local foods (see other posts), here's a neat link to the New York Times compilation of articles they've run on the subject:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/l/local_food/index.html?8qa&scp=1-spot&sq=&st=nyt

Watercolors from 2006.

Oh, we weren't speaking of veggies? well, we were awhile back, when I showed you my wonderful produce from the organic farm cooperative I belong to. Here in lil' old El Paso, Texas, we're on the cutting edge...as witnessed by the New York Times. Cool article on owning a share in a farm. Ok, our farm, Mysterious Horizons, isn't mentioned there, but everything they talk about, we're doing. and last week, for the first time, we had pasture raised chickens from Brookhaven Farms in Las Cruces. Feels good to support local, organic businesses and have good healthy, tasty food too.

I'm in the second year of belonging to a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture. While there aren't any CSA's in El Paso, YET!, I am lucky to find one in Las Cruces, NM ...considered local when you're in the desert southwest, even though it's 40 miles away. The CSA is Mysterious Horizons and the produce is WONDERFUL! Farmer Jeff comes into our local farmer's market starting in summer through October, so the pickup is easier once that gets into swing. Here's a picture of the first weekly distribution:

Isn't it beautiful?!!