CSA 2011 Pickup 4: Flowers Galore!

For my fourth CSA pickup of this year (I am so behind on posting these by the way) we got to pick the usual herbs, plus green beans and lots of flowers. When we first joined our CSA last year I was pleasantly surprised that we got to pick fresh flowers. I wasn't expecting that at all and it is so nice to have a fresh flower bouquet in my kitchen. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of all my loot which included carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet corn, eggplant, lettuce and so much more. But here are some shots from me doing my picking.

I was able to pick a huge bag of green beans, which requires a lot of bending. My back hurt but they were delicious!

The flower fields have rows upon rows of flowers and I am clueless as to the names of most of them.

So pretty! I ended up picking a bunch of the flowers that you seen on the bottom there. I think they are snap dragons.

Then I made my way over to the sunflower fields where we were allowed to cut 5 flowers. The outer rows had pale yellow petals and I wanted the darker yellow ones that were on the inside. So deep into the fields I went. I felt like Children of the Corn.

I took the above 2 pictures at eye level to try and capture just how tall these things were. I won't be going that deep into the fields again.

I love sunflowers!

The bouquet of snap dragons I ended up with.

And the bouquet of sunflowers. You can see the two different colors of petals here.

Join me next week as I post pickup number 5! Then I will be up to date. Lots of goodies to be seen and eaten.

Lots of Goodies from Our CSA

I am a few weeks behind on sharing my CSA pickups. I could have jut let it go, but the veggies are just so darn fresh and pretty that I MUST share them. Every week we seem to get a little more as more crop come to harvest. I am usually amazed with how much I leave with.

CSA Pickup 2

First week being able to pick fresh herbs. They give us some scissors and send us out to snip them ourselves. It smells so good here.

Then I was able to pick a huge bag of sugar snap peas. These are delicious and make for a sweet and healthy snack. I keep them in a bag in my fridge and just reach in and grab some whenever I need a quick bite. I just wish my kids would eat them.

First harvest of garlic scapes. This is the top half of the garlic plant and so funky looking. Have you checked out my Garlic Scape & Basil Recipe yet? Delicious!

The full stash! Romaine lettuce, kale, salad mix, basil, garlic scapes, tomato, strawberries, zucchini, summer squash, cilantro, parsley, radishes, sugar snap peas and broccoli.


CSA Pickup 3

More fresh herbs this week! I decided to get some close ups in the field. I was happy to be able to cut some dill this week. I love to break off some into a fresh salad. Yum!

The first fresh flowers to cut were Dahlia.

They look so beautiful sitting on my counter!

More garlic scapes. I just love taking pictures of these.

Biggest load yet. Salad mix, romaine lettuce, dahlia flowers, broccoli, broccoli rabe, cucumbers, basil, cilantro, dill, parsley, garlic scapes, white turnips, beats, tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash and cucumbers.


This upcoming weekend will be my 4th pickup. It looks like carrots, sweet corn, garlic, eggplants and cauliflower will be available. Can't wait!

Have you visited a CSA, farmer's market or farm stand recently? What delicious fresh foods did you pick up?

Gummy Lump Toys Review & Giveaway

We love wooden toys in our house, the quality is just so much better than some of the cheap plastic toys. So three years ago, back when we only had one child, for my oldest son's 2nd birthday I wanted to get him a wooden kitchen set. Now finding a wooden kitchen set that wasn't pink and girly was a small challenge, but I turned to Gummy Lump because they had a nice selection. We wound up buying the Melissa & Doug Country Kitchen from Gummy Lump. Three years later we all still love it. Here it is shown in our messy playroom. You'll notice the oven door is missing. We had to take it off because the twins were crawling in there and then closing the door which made me nervous. It has held up very nicely despite being beaten up by my boys every day.

Gummy Lump also has a large selection of Melissa & Doug play food sets and it seems as though they always have some kind of deal going on. Right now, all Melissa & Doug toys are 20% off PLUS if you buy 3 of the play food sets, you get the 4th FREE! My boys have several of the sets, I think their favorite is probably the Cutting Food Box.

We also have several Melissa & Doug Floor Puzzles in our house. Gummy Lump was kind enough to send us the Underwater Floor Puzzle to try out and add to our collection. The floor puzzles are for ages 3 and up and contain 48 puzzle pieces. When put together, the puzzle measures 2 feet by 3 feet.  What is great about these large floor puzzles is that the pieces are nice and big which makes it easy for little hands to grasp and manipulate. My boys love dumping the pieces out on the floor and putting them together. The twins are still a little young for these, but they still enjoy participating and helping. I will often steer them to where the piece goes and they will "snap" it in. When they are done, they love breaking it all up and starting over again.

Now I have talked an awful lot about Melissa & Doug Toys so far, but you will find more than that at Gummy Lump. They also sell Automoblox (LOVE these), Plasma Cars, Haba Toys and so very much more. If you are looking for quality, fun and educational toys for kids, Gummy Lump is definitely a site you need to browse!

Shop
As I mentioned, Gummy Lump currently has some great deals going on. All Melissa & Doug toys are 20% off and don't forget the play food special of buy 3 get 4th free!

Giveaway
One (1) winner will receive a Melissa & Doug Underwater Floor Puzzle courtesy of Gummy Lump Toys.

Mandatory Entry
Visit the Gummy Lump site then come back and tell me your favorite product, one that is not mentioned in my review.

Extra Entries
- Follow me on Google or subscribe to my RSS feed
- Subscribe via e-mail. Your email must validate or it will not count.
- Add my Green Mama's Pad button to your sidebar or add Green Mama's Pad to your blogroll. Leave your blog link.
- Follow @GreenMamasPad and @GummyLump on Twitter and and tweet this giveaway. You must have at least 50 followers and include a link to this post. You can tweet once daily. Leave link to tweet in comment.
- Blog about this giveaway. Your post must include a link to this post plus a link to Gummy Lump. Please leave link.
- Stumble this post and comment with your ID.
- Stumble one of my non-giveaway posts and tell me which one.
- Become a fan of Green Mama's Pad on Facebook.
- Become a fan of Gummy Lump on Facebook.
- Visit the Gummy Lump Blog and enter their Train Table giveaway. Leave me a link to your comment there.

This giveaway is open to US Residents 18+ only and will end on Wednesday, January 20th at 11:59pm EST. One winner will be chosen at random using Random.org and will be posted on the Winner's Announcement Page. Winner has 48 hours to claim his/her prize otherwise a new winner will be picked. You must leave your e-mail address in all of your comment(s) so I can contact you. I will not share your e-mail address with anyone, it will strictly be used to notify you if you win. Good luck!

Please note that the opinions and views expressed in this review are my own and based on my personal experience with the product. You may encounter a different experience with this than I did. Gummy Lump provided me with an item for review and is providing an item for the giveaway.