Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Where were we

The long blog silence was not due to overly festive St. Patty's Day celebrations that required a long recovery period. Nope. It was due to baseball, lots and lots of baseball.
From Irish Clover


We've hit the phase in Little Clover's athletic career where longer practice times are deemed necessary by the coaching staff, and his acedemic career where there is no shortage of homework. In short, something had to give to maintain sanity at Clover Fields and what gave out was the blog. Baseball season has come to end and now I've got a bit more time on my hands. Honestly, it feels as if summer vacation has started even though we have a couple more weeks of school.

The influx of time couldn't have come at a better time. We signed up for a CSA this year and we planted a garden. I'd like to conduct a little experiment on how plausible is it for a family with two working parents and an active kid to eat a primarily ecotarian diet. Yep, you heard me, "ecotarian." This Earth Day, I discoverd I am a "tarian," and the discovery was a bit of an eye opener. I've flirted with vegetarianism, but it never felt quite right. I wanted to be an exclusive locavaore, but it isn't the right fit for me either (I love seafood way too much), but being an ecotarian seems like the right fit. We are going to give it a go and the CSA and garden are a step in that direction.

This is our first CSA and we didn't exactly know what to expect. Imagine our surprise when the first week's installment included fresh eggs!

From Irish Clover


Italian braved the tornado warnings in our area to provide his family with food, and the trip was well worth it when he began unpacking the CSA bag to find shiitakes, tomatoes, radishes, greens, and eggs. We celebrated with one of the best salads we'd ever had. I cooked swiss chard and chicory for the first time in my life. The swiss chard held the lovely flavor of the butter, but the quick saute was all wrong for the chicory. That one is going to take some experimentation.

I couldn't pick up the CSA since I was out of town at:
From Irish Clover


Maryland Sheep and Wool was like a knitter's mecca. There were vendors and animals everywhere. I did eat a lamb sausage while at the festival. I couldn't resist. I also walked away with some gorgeous Blingpaca from the loop and a Golding spindle.

More info to come on Maryland Sheep and Wool and CSA week 2.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Happy Mother's Day

I spent this morning with my traditional Mother's Day breakfast in bed watching "Miracle," Little Clover's favorite movie of the moment, with Little Clover and Italian, and it was perfect. I love my breakfast in bed, and I especially love having it with Little Clover and Italian right there with me. After all, they are the reasons why I get a Mother's Day at all and for me, I love having them be a part of the celebration.

In previous Mother's Day posts, I've spent time thinking of the mothers. Today, I want to raise a toast to all the people who make us mothers, to the children we have, the children we've lost, the children we've adopted, the children we've longed for but have never met, the men who have fathered our kids, the other women who have mothered our kids, to our fathers and to their wives, to anyone who has a played a part in make us mothers (step, adopted, what have you), thank you for giving us today.

From 2010 CSA

Flowers from our CSA, run by a mom and the people who make her a mom.