Here is a picture of just some of the gorgeous greens and other vegetables that were in my CSA farm share box last night!
It has been a long, cold winter all across the United States and in New York not much grows locally until Spring! So, last night I excitedly awaited our first delivery of our CSA farm share!
I am sure you have heard of CSA’s but just what are they, you might wonder! CSA stands for ‘community supported agriculture’ and they are a unique approach to farming that brings the farms and customers together to produce quality, locally harvested, sustainable crops to your dinner table!
With a CSA you become a “member” of the farm for a season by pre-paying on the produce you will receive, which enables the farmer to be able to afford to plant and harvest the produce! And, you in return receive a portion of the farm’s harvest!
I am a member of a CSA called My Farm Share. For anyone interested in this farm share in New York, they have offered a free small sample box so contact them directly about this and tell them that I referred you! Last year I signed up for the vegetable and fruit shares, however this year I am signed up only for the vegetable one. You can also add eggs to your share. Each Tuesday night beginning in June, we receive a box bursting with fresh vegetables for our week!
This morning, we received ample amounts of mixed lettuces, swiss chard, arugula, kale, radishes, garlic scrapes, bac choi and fresh basil! Not only does receiving new vegetables each week encourage me to experiment with vegetables I have turned out to love but might not ordinarily buy, but I have been able to really connect with and become educated about which vegetables are in season in my area.
When you have eaten vegetables that have literally just been picked and delivered to your doorstep and you taste just how fresh they are, you can literally never go back! Today, I am planning on making a large salad for lunch with the fresh lettuces and radishes and a large green juice and tonight I will make a fresh pesto with the basil- yum!
Garden Salad with Lemon Garlic Dressing
Mixed lettuces
Radishes
Optional: grated carrots, sliced tomatos, avocado, or any other vegetable that you have and love!
For the dressing:
4-6 tbsp olive oil
1/2 Lemon
Garlic
Dash of sea salt
In a large bowl, mixed the lettuce and then top with whatever vegetables you have on hand. In a separate bowl, mix the olive oil, lemon, garlic and sea salt and then top on your salad! Truly so delicious and easy!!!
Pesto Sauce
1 ¼ cups olive oil
2 cups chopped basil
1 clove chopped garlic
1/2 cup chopped pine nuts
1/2 cup parmesan (optional!)
Lemon (optional)
Mix all of the above ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. If you want a more lemony taste, you can add the juice of one lemon.
You can use this pesto sauce over regular pasta noodles, on top of pizza or brushetta, or even over fish! I will use mine over zucchini noodles, which I have sliced with a mandolin or hand slicer!
However you use it the result is delicious and it is always nice to have some in the fridge to spice up recipes! Check out my new blog Raw Mom Hot Dog Kids for daily posts of recipes for vegetables that are in season locally!
Proper nutrition is one of the most important influences on your
child’s well-being and affects every aspect of his or her development.
It affects how kids feel during the day, how well they can pay attention
and how much information they absorb in class, how much energy they
have, how well they play at sports and how well they interact with others. We all want the best for our children, and it is important to do what we can to improve our children’s nutrition now. The eating patterns our children have in early childhood will greatly influence, if not determine, their eating habits and overall health later in life. The earlier we encourage healthy choices for our child, the better. 
If you are training for your next marathon, or even just trying to enhance your running speed or stamina, add more dark, leafy greens to your diet!
Yes, I said “greens,” not “protein” as you might have expected! Protein is certainly an important part of a runner’s diet with respect to building, repairing and maintaining muscle. But, so often, when I look at a client’s diet log, I see that they are loading up way too much on carbohydrates and protein, but leafy green vegetables are sorely overlooked!
We’ve got to admit, we here at GirlieGirl Army eat more cooked foods than we’d like. Why? Because the one time we went raw, we’d never been thinner, felt better, or had more of a fabulous bounty of energy. And we can now thank Katharine Pennington for giving us a kick in the tuchus to get back on board with our sprouts;
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