in search of produce

yesterday, the boys and i joined haley and her precious daughter, charlie, on a quest for fresh, local produce. we drove out to a new hydroponics farm in hastings and then to a fantastic produce stand called "county line".

the hydroponics farm was really neat. all they have right now is lettuce, some onions, strawberries and spinach, but by summer, they will be adding a whole list of other things. and the best part is, it is a u-pick farm!! we picked a small bag of spinach (which gabe and i had this morning in our green smoothie. yes, i finally tried it, and i must say, i am really a fan!) and made plans to return on monday morning and pick some strawberries.

as for "county line", all i have to say is wow!! it was so much better than i imagined (for those of you who have been telling me how great it is for so long, i am sorry i never listened). it has an enormous selection of produce and most of it fresh out of the field. in fact, while we were there, two men drove up on a tractor (highlight of the day for gabe) pulling a huge trailer of just-picked produce from the field next door. by far my favorite thing that i brought home was a cluster of carrots still attached to their stems.

for the locals: i would recommend both places! the hydroponics farm is really neat to see and will be especially great when summer rolls around and they are in full swing (although, i would definitely say to go there now for the strawberries, they are so yummy!). also, the people there were so nice. they even let gabe pick and eat a strawberry even though we weren't getting any at the time. "county line" has the most incredible local vegetables (think cabbage, carrots, brussel sprouts, cauliflower) and also has just about all of the other produce you could need (bought from other places). both places are comparably priced to the grocery store, which made me really happy!

one last thing: i have decided that every month this year i will try a vegetable that i have never cooked. i really want to be trying more things, and i thought that this would be a fun way to do it. for february (had to skip january; things around here were just too crazy) i tried a recipe for kale chips that i have seen floating around for a while. and while i think that the idea of it was a good one, and i liked the texture, the flavor of the kale itself was not my favorite. i was glad to have finally tried the recipe though. any thoughts on what i should try this month?