What I am sure about is that April showers do bring May flowers and those flowers often turn into fruit, vegetables, herbs and other wonderfulness that farmers grow for us every year. And I am sure that sharing that food, once I get it from the Farmer with a friend is always much more satisfying than enjoying it alone!

And here we go- year 2 of Moraine Valley Community College participating in a CSA and year 2 of my friend Maura and me sharing the box of goods. So, what’s a “CSA anyway?” The acronym stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Small, food-producing farms (i.e., not industrial, mono-culture farms growing only one of corn, wheat, soy, canola, etc. to others for feed, processing, etc.) benefit from having capital on hand before the yield of the crop to ensure they have the funds for maintaining the soil, equipment, staff and so on to grow the food into saleable crops. Rather than going to the bank for a loan, many farmers have started offering this CSA as an option. Community members pay the farmer in advance of the crop. In exchange for their investment, they are guaranteed a set scheduled delivery of food from the farm as it matures. Sometimes this arrangement is referred to as buying a “share” of the crop or farm. More on the benefits for local economy, farmer independence, where to locate local CSAs or locally farmed food (ex., farmers markets or you-pick) can be found at LocalHarvest.org

For our CSA we get a box of different foods grown just down the road in St. Anne IL. It’s delivered to the College every week, with each week’s contents potentially different as it is dependent on the viability of the crops including weather, farming techniques, what was planted, what bugs are eating what, and on and on. Our Farmer practices organic and sustainable farming techniques, so dealing with Mother Nature is that much more challenging. Still, she has figured out the best way to manage pests, weeds and weather related challenges and is ready to deliver our very first box of the season!! I am so excited.

Each week we get an email update containing the musings of our Farmer- what’s happening at the farm; is there a new crop coming in; perhaps a deluge washed out the greens; or maybe the extra sunny days made the peppers come early… and then she includes what’s in the box. For giggles, here’s the first of the next 16 emails Maura and I and all the other CSA Members received:

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Eggs: This is week 1, so both weekly egg shares and half shares pick up eggs this week.  For those of you who signed up for bi-weekly eggs, please only take eggs on the odd numbered weeks.  If your name is not on the list for eggs, please contact me, but do not take eggs.  I will take care of the problem next week.

The rain has gone on its journey out of Illinois, happily for we farmers.  I would like a little warmer weather than we have today, but just to see the sun shine is a real treat.  Because it has been so wet, we have been ditch digging most days to drain the fields of water.  For the most part the water has flowed nicely, but I have seen a bit of crop damage due to the wetness of the soil.  It is all part of farming, being at the mercy of nature, but it can still be discouraging.   Almost all of our greens turned yellow or purple from too much water around the roots.  Some of the peppers curled up and died.  But, most things are fine and will come out of it just fine.  And, fortunately, I have enough extra plants that I should be able to replant the areas that died off, so we really do not have a loss there, just in the greens department.

I was able to pick strawberries today.  Hoorah!  I was worried they would be ruined due to the wetness, but they are mostly fine.  I do ask that you wash them carefully prior to use to make sure all the dirt is gone.   For those of you who were spring CSA members, Mr. Gray Bunny relocated to the berry patch and is very happily snacking on our strawberries.  And, I thought I hated the meeses to pieces, but the darn bunnies on this farm have gotten my goat!

I have started a new blog where there are little missives and the beginning of a collection of recipes.  Please feel free to contribute to our recipe list with original recipes.  I will send out recipes from cookbooks, etc via email, but not in the blog.  Here is the link to it. http://blog.genesis-growers.com/

Your box

• Strawberries – please wash them prior to eating
• Turnip greens – these are young and tender and can therefore be eaten raw as well as cooked
• Asparagus – I heard an idea for asparagus and tried it – Ymmm.  Wrap bacon around the individual spears and then roast or grill. What a treat!
• Rhubarb
• Kohlrabi
• Radishes
• Loose leaf Lettuce head
• Basil – I picked several different varieties.  The Thai is great for an Asian twist.  Purple and lemon are nice in salads, and green is your typical basil

Vicki
Genesis Growers
8373 E 3000 S Rd
St Anne, Il  60964
815 953 1512
www.genesis-growers.com

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I canNOT wait to get my hands on those fresh berries and the greens and the kohlrabi and… well, all of it! I know for sure that basil is getting chopped with the turnip greens & loose leaf lettuce and topped with hunks of roasted asparagus and radishes for a robust, flavoral dinner salad. I’ll make a vinagrette-0oo maybe with some of the strawberries!- and drizzle the salad that will accompany my rhubarb corn muffins. The kohlrabi, you ask? I’ll make that into pickles. Mmmm…what a yummy, summery dinner I have to look forward to this weekend! [FYI: these links are not my own recipes... I'll probably use a few to inspire my own work]

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, and experienced myself, folks explain how local food is so fresh it’s really a different experience than grocery store food. Try it yourself and then tell me all about it on Facebook or email me @ sustainability@morainevalley.edu. Not sure where to start? Check out LocalHarvest.org to find your own amazing summer dinner fixins’…Happy Summer, y’all!

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) just released its 2013 Sunscreen Guide rating the safety and efficacy of more than 1,400 sunscreens, lotions, lip products and makeups that advertise sun protection. What fascinates me most about this report is that the stuff we think is protecting us from terrible sun damage and cancer can actually be exposing us to more frightening threats!

This year, 25 percent of products on the market meet researchers’ standards by offering strong and broad UV protection and posing few safety concerns.

What sunscreens made the list this year? Click here to see EWG’s 2013 Sunscreen Guide.

Even though 1/4 of the sunscreens looked at made the best list, they are not enough. The vast majority of sunscreens available aren’t as good as most of us think they are. EWG’s advice to you is to use the tips in the guide: wear sun-protective clothing, stay in the shade to reduce intense exposure and schedule regular skin examinations by a doctor.

Here are some highlights from this year’s EWG report:

• The 184 best beach and sport sunscreens
• EWG’s eight sun products to skip this summer
• Sun Safety Tips 

“The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) revised its May 9 reading at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii, saying it remained fractions of a point below the level of 400 ppm, at 399.89.”

The measurement stayed just under the 400 ppm mark! Do we breath a sigh of relief? Did we dodge a bullet? I mean, for the last 800,000 years we have never broken the 300 ppm level, so I am not sure that the revised measurement really makes me feel all that much better…

In 2009, the Pentagon made a formal claim that climate change was then (is still now) a threat to U.S. national security.

And for those of you (how!?) still on the fence about whether climate change is real, is caused by CO2-e, is man-made or not, etc. This video is awesome! It uses no climate models (something anti-climate change folks use in their debate to say it’s all guess-work) and it’s not funded by or produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (again, often sited as spinning fallacies and using scare-tactics claiming it’s all for the sake of folks like Al Gore to get rich or whatever…). This is based on historical, peer-reviewed, science. Science. Not speculation. Not feelings or emotions. Not guess-work. Science.

The evidence for climate change WITHOUT computer models or the IPCC

Read more at: Scientific American: 400 PPM: Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere Reaches Prehistoric Levels By David Biello (May 9, 2013)

REPOST: By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News Braised black beans and plantains. Tofu roasted in Asian sesame sauce. Falafel and cucumber salad. These aren’t menu items from a high-end restaurant; they’re lunchtime grub for students at a Flushing, Queens, public school’s all-vegetarian cafeteria, the first in New York City to nix meat and believed to be one of the first public school in the nation to serve only vegetarian fare. … full article linked below

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/01/17999627-nyc-public-school-swaps-chicken-nuggets-for-tofu-becomes-first-all-vegetarian-cafeteria?lite%3

Missing Illinois’ Lost Wetlands, in regard to the recent rains. They note that

Illinois has lost 90% of its original wetlands. They’d be storing 8.5 trillion gallons of rainwater right now if we still had them.