Mid-Summer Update

 I realized this morning that the kids have been out of school for a month now, and I just counted up that we've been home for supper 10 times! I had no idea that we'd be travelling so much this summer. This means that we haven't been doing very well eating local meals unfortunately, and I haven't had anything to blog about. Don't get me wrong, I've been enjoying our time out of the house, but I'm getting sick of restaurant food! We still have a few more days of travel ahead of us this week, then we'll be home for a week before I have to make another quick over-nighter to pick up Sydney from camp. The rest of August will be spent in the garden and  kitchen, getting the kids ready for school, and enjoying the last few dog-days of summer...all of my favourite things!!

Mother Nature has been slow to produce this summer, so the abundance of Foodland Ontario "Grown Close To Home" fruit has just started to trickle in to the grocery stores, so thankfully I'm not behind in my canning. There was absolutely nothing at the biggest of our grocery stores yesterday, so I spoke to a produce manager and he said he can't believe how little they are receiving for fruit right now...he figured 80% of what they normally get has not been arriving! I picked up a bunch of bananas and left sulking. The smaller grocery store behind our house had a small display of baskets filled with peaches, so I happily scooped up one of those. On my way home I stopped in at Frosted, a brand new bakery that just opened up last month, to find something to bring to my Father-In-Laws house for dessert. The lady there told me she had strawberry rhubarb pies in the oven made with strawberries from Bealieu Farm (same place where I picked my berries a few weeks ago) and garden rhubarb. Score! I paid and stopped in again an hour later to pick up the piping hot pie. It was a resounding hit at dinner! Hooray for local fruit!

Today I have to deal with my CSA box that I picked up frm Shannon D yesterday...who was kind enough to pick it for me from the darm delivery Wednesday night! The bin weighed a ton and was too full to snap the lid on! I guess that's a bit of a "problem" with a summer CSA share...it keeps coming even if you aren't home to eat it. That's fine, I'll freeze what we can't eat.

Off I go. Happy Eating!

Shannon A.