Farm Fresh

Folks, I just ate a strawberry.  My darling husband bought some at the store (since ours aren't producing yet).  Nothing against him, but that was one of the most tasteless things I've ever eaten.  Rather like a store-bought tomato in winter.  It looked like a big luscious strawberry but it sure as heck didn't taste like one.

Maybe I'm spoiled.  I'm used to fresh produce.  After all, tonight I made a dynamite dinner of bacon-wrapped roasted fresh asparagus with balsamic vinegar.  The taste blew me away.  Even roasted, it was crisp and tasted so GREEN that my tastebuds did the happy dance. 

There's nothing like fresh-picked spinach either.  Store-bought just can't even come close.   The "toothiness", the green taste . . .and the NUTRIENTS that just can't be beat.  I've even developed a taste for chard and spinach salad.  Chard tastes green too--just what we need for coming out of the winter blahs.  Yeah, it's a little tougher than lettuce or spinach, but for me that really isn't an issue.  I like texture in my meal.

Then we get to my favorite subject, fresh eggs.  Eating an egg that was laid the same day you eat it is an amazing experience.  Forget what you get from the store--they're watery, washed in chlorine, old, and pale.  Truly fresh eggs stand up on a firm white and (thanks to me picking greens for my chookies) have glorious orange yolks, not washed-out yellow.  They're high in GOOD cholestorol and have way more vitamins and Omega-3s than store-bought to boot.  After you have a fresh-laid (un-chlorinated) egg, you'll never buy from the store again.  I still swear that the secret to my fried chicken is that I double-batter the pieces using fresh brown eggs, then flour and repeat.  They fry up much lighter and tastier.

I'm picking asparagus like crazy.  I'm eating it like crazy too!  Now that it's cooled off, we're getting about 2 lbs a day, but when it warms back up, I expect to be closer to 4 lbs.  The raspberries are starting to bud, and I'm planting blueberries.  Even though it's cloudy and cool (I feel like a mushroom!) growing conditions are great. 

Folks, make it a practice:  eat local, buy local, eat seasonal.  You can preserve veggies in a lot of ways, but if we all eat local, we can make a dent in the GMO market (that thinks it's taking over the world).