Lettuce and my Life

It seemed like a good idea last year, actually like a brilliant idea. I was finding that since good produce was no longer right around the corner, I wasn't buying it as often as I used to (compared with other places I've lived). So along the same lines of people joining gyms with the intention of working out each week since it's already paid for, I bought a farm share, as mentioned previously. That way I would have a well stocked fridge - with fresh produce each week.

Last week I couldn't wait to leave work to go get my first box. It was a little difficult as I had to leave work early (i.e. at 5 pm when I normally should), as I had an evening meeting in town. But yet again, this is intentional. I know that every Tuesday I am forced to leave work on time and enjoy the summer nights. So I brought the box home and of course the boys had to check it out. It was like Christmas - not knowing what you were getting. The excitement mounted...

Little did I know. Granted I knew it would be difficult keeping up since the box does feed a bit more than just one person. But I thought the early months I would be able to ease into it since the crops are somewhat minimal. So last week, I was a bit surprised to open the first box to discover more than just a head of lettuce (as alluded to in the orientation). Here you will see a nice selection of produce. But if you look closer, what I have is a head of red leaf lettuce (a big head too), a head of (I don't know what kind - normal) lettuce and hidden in there between the two heads of lettuce - do you see that bit of plastic bag - yup that's a huge pile of mixed greens. I don't even buy that much mixed greens when I go to the store - it's like 10 pounds (or a bit less, but still tons). Plus I hadn't planned so well and still had a bit of Boston lettuce left over in the fridge from the store. No problem, I like salads, I could do this. I needed more greens in my life, that's why I signed on. And prep for salads is minimal so I wouldn't wimp out because of being pooped from work.

So I dug in. My standard PB&J sandwiches have been replaced by salad. When I come home and have dinner I have salad. I have salad with fruit. I have salad with beans. At first it was a big bowl of salad, now it's just a side salad. And I wasn't making a dent. I couldn't bring myself to eat salad for breakfast and I started to wonder if you could OD on some of the vitamins. Calculating ahead, counting the fact that I would be in town on the weekend and could eat 4 maybe 5 salads, I still wouldn't finish it up before the next box. What to do.

My brillant idea - I had a Friday salad party lunch at work. I brought in salad - basically the big bag of mixed greens - almost untouched, as well as some toppings. Everyone else brought in other toppings, dressings, etc. We had about 7 people eating salad. People even had seconds and all that got finished was the bag of mixed greens (it was a big bag). It was a huge hit - I do work with a bunch of environmentalists so they're more of a produce versus junk food crowd anyways.

So I almost made it. I still have about two half heads of lettuce left. But last night when I picked up my second box (sorry no pics), there was only one head of red leaf lettuce, so I have a bit of a reprise, at least on the lettuce side of things.

The fun thing is trying out the other food they include. Last week, what looks like white radishes in the picture are actually Japenes turnips, I think called Kabu. The food comes with a newsletter which had a great receipe for sauting the turnip and leaf portion in butter and lemon juice. It had such a great nutty flavor - I totally had no problem eating those. And this week I got escarole. I have to admit it took me a while to figure out the red radishes were not the escarole, but what I thought was a second head of lettuce was. It's got a bit of a bitter taste, but I found a receipe to cook them. Also got a huge zucchini and some radishes (as mentioned).

Lastly, to add to my whole experience with becoming a dominant herbivore (not that I wasn't one before, just less quantity), is my biking experience. So, being an environmentalist, the idea of having your food be local makes you warm and tingly. It seemed a bit silly to than hop in the car for a quick drive to pick it up. The bike trail is right near by, the weather was great, it wasn't hot and humid yet, why not? So I dusted off my bike, pumped up the tires (ok it's Nick's bike, but hey, he's in India, so it's mine now), and headed off. Again, such a simple plan. Yet, you don't notice things in a car you notice on a bike. One is that the whole trip is up hill - didn't really notice that before. Second, a short distance by car is a bit longer on bike. And thirdly, the bike trail is gorgeous - an old reclaimed railway line, but all you see are the backs of houses - hard to get your bearings. I had a bit of being lost in some of the residentail areas having gotten off the path at the wrong point, but finally made it to the pick-up. And I have to say, that last hill was a killer. I was definately not expecting so much in the way of hills. They kept coming, one after another - steep ones too - where you're standing up cycyling to make it up the last bit. I felt the burn, the heart was racing, out of breath - it was definately a good cardio run. But I was a little worried, would I have enough energy to make it back. Not having thought this out, I hadn't brought water (opps), I had forgotten in my excitement of the new box of goodies, that I had started getting hungry at work around 3 pm and hadn't grabbed a snack (double opps), and I bascially jumped into the deap end exercise-wise so the body might not really have much left in it. Worse case I figured I could just walk back, with the bike and the food - a bit cumbersome but doable. But surprise, surpise, after loading the produce into the back pack and heading off, I discovered that simple rule of physics - what goes up must come down. I basically coasted the whole way down. It took about 30 minutes of solid biking to get there and about 10 minutes to get back home - definately sweet. Of course, there is that one bit of a hill right before my house, which just uses up the last bit of energy. So I got home, unpacked and hunkered down for a night with the boys. And not to be outdone by his brother Winston, here's a picture of Walter and I resting (he likes to snuggle up into the armpit).