Biking at night

Many of us are trying to bike as much as possible, and one of the limitations of bike riding, especially in the fall or spring (my favorite weather!), is that the days become a little shorter, and it may be more dangerous to ride early or late. I bought a new bike light that has a strobe feature, and was anxious to try it out, so the other day Tom and I met Helen and Tom for a little CSA-vegetable exchange and stopped to partake in some ice cream. As is usual, we had such a good time talking, we discovered that we were going to have to ride home at dusk. No problem! Take a look at the video and see what I mean. Who's going to miss me when they see this light? By the way, this is a CatEye light and I bought it at REI. They have a wide selection of lights.

Eating locally

Our lasagna gardening project is producing food in abundance! This past Sunday, Tom and Peggy trooped out to the garden to harvest tomatoes. We had to whack our way in, mainly because the 2 squash plants have decided to take over. You can see from the picture that some of the broccoli has gone to flower, but we have been able to harvest quite a bit of it first. The broccoli made a delicious cream of broccoli soup, and with the tomatoes we were able to make a fantastic spaghetti sauce. Yum.

Summer Reading

This summer I read'' Animal, Vegetable, Miracle'' by Barbara Kingsolver and I was quite impressed with the book. The author and her family moved from Arizona to an inherited farm in western Virginia and decided to 'live off the land' for a year. This means that they grew their own fruits and vegetables, and even raised their own chickens and turkeys for consumption. They also agreed that to supplement their diet, they could buy organic foods grown within a 100-mile radius of their home. The book is arranged sequentially, from April to the following March, and tells about the process of growing, raising and finally eating foods seasonally. Many of us have joined CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture groups), and reading this book has been a great affirmation of that decision. I have the book to loan out if anyone would like to read it.