What a Day!

Thank God It's Friday!  I don't know when I began to appreciate Friday's so much, but the last year or so Friday's have become like a friend that I am dying to see.  Maybe it is age or just the stress of life; whatever the reason, I am very glad to see it comes each week.

Weekends around here are often spent in the kitchen preparing nourishing foods for the coming week.  This weekend we will make beef broth and homemade yogurt as I have extra milk from the farm that needs to be used.  In addition, I will be making Oxtail Barley Stew - a family favorite this time of the year when a bowl of hot soup hits the spot on a cold day.

We are very fortunate to have local farms to source most of our foods from.  We purchase almost all of our meat from two local farmers.  To help with the cost of purchasing our beef and lamb, we usually make an annual purchase of one cow and two sheep.  This gives us all cuts of meat for the same per pound price.  To purchase chicken, we participate in a chicken CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program that provides us a certain number of birds each month during the growing season (did you know chickens had a growing season?)  We will purchase more the last month if we think we will need more for the winter as in our area the growing season for real free range chickens runs from May though October.  For milk we are part of a cow share program that provides us a source of raw milk each week to drink or to use in making cheese curds, kefir, butter, or yogurt.    

During the summer months we also participate in some form of a CSA for fruits and vegetables.  This year we will join a local pick your own farm to meet this need.  The membership at the farm means we do not have to pay the normal entrance fees and we receive a discount on the food we pick and purchase.  It is a win-win for us as a source of local produce/fruit.

Well, I guess it is time to get on with my day.  I will post more about my weekend food adventures over the next couple of days.