Kale Chips

Last summer I tried a few times to get good kale chips, but kept failing. I actually landed on something that worked today! Finally!!

I think the trick is getting them DRY! No water on them before you put them on the pan. These were from our CSA, so organic but that means hitch hikers, like a nice spider web I found. So they needed to be cleaned real well. I spun in my salad spinner but that isn't good enough. I then dried with a kitchen towel. 

Once dry I laid out on two baking sheets with pieces torn into bite size pieces. 

Next you want to toss in some oil. I used my sprayer with coconut oil then sprinkled each batch with some pink Himalayan salt. 

Next I popped into a preheated oven. Here's the other important part. LOW heat! I did 275 on convection oven setting. I set the timer for 10 minutes expecting to rotate pans and put in for another 5-10 minutes. BUT at only 10 minutes they were perfect!!! 

Serve plain or in soup, healthy way to get that kale in. 

Last Weekend Fun

We've been having lots of rainy days lately. Seems like the weekends I work it's beautiful weather and the weekends I don't, well are cold and gloomy or rainy. Last Saturday was a rainy day. TBall was cancelled, Isaac's new school picnic was cancelled, and Kyle's softball was cancelled.

We did some chores around the house Saturday morning which felt great to knock off our list. Then we headed to the science museum. With tons of other people. Lately when we've been going it's been just before closing so we have the whole place to ourselves but not this day.

The kids got to do some hands on activities: Isaac made a balloon rocket.

Mary & Emma made buttons:

Then we went to watch an ocean Omni movie.

Sunday was pretty dreary as well. The CSA we signed up for (Treasured Haven Farms) was having their spring bonus farm day so we made the hour and fifteen minute drive up north to visit the farm.

The kids got to run around the greenhouse while we picked out some herbs and veggie plants. We didn't take much cuz we don't have much room. I was planning on a pot garden this year, but this trip sparked us to go ahead with our eventual plan of a raised garden bed. So once we got home we measured and ordered the size I wanted off amazon.

We ended up getting:
Chives
Cilantro
Jalapeño pepper
Sweet banana pepper
Egg plant
Broccoli

The farm was pretty muddy but the kids did get to see and ride the tractors

And see the turkey and chickens.

Our garden bed arrived Wednesday evening so we picked up some soil and put it together on Thursday morning.

We are in process of' backyard woodchip removal' project. Luckily the thick layer of weed barrier makes this a project that can be spaced out over time because it's not a muddy mess when it rains. We will leave the barrier til we're ready to lay sod.

Upon removing a spot to place the garden I discovered under this weed barrier is another layer of woodchips and ANOTHER layer of plastic weed cloth! Oh joy. With numerous steaks in the ground. This backyard project is going to be fun once we actually get to it. ::eye roll::

Finally got to ready ground/dirt and got the box in place. Kyle filled it with the bags of dirt as I got our veggies planted.

I already had two tomato plants, a strawberry planter and mint plant. I moved the cherry tomato plant to the garden and left the other in the pot.

Here are my herbs:

We have basil inside in the click and grow planter I got for Mother's Day.

La Finca Open House - June 15, 2013

Now that we have power back, I am sitting down at the computer to get my SD cards all cleaned off and ran across photos from last weekend. After the events of this past weekend I forgot all about the weekend before that.



We are participating in our third CSA this summer. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It is a program where you purchase a 'share' for the summer. And you get a box of locally grown veggie's and goodies for a set amount of time 15 weeks or so. We are splitting it with a friend this year so we will get a box every other week. I have posted in the past about the other CSA boxes we've recieved. The first year we did a half share, the second year we bought a whole share and had a LOT of food for just the two of us. Last year we didn't sign up for one, so I am looking forward to getting it again. And trying a new farm

We made the 2 hour drive up north to their farm for the open house. It was a rather muggy day and we hit some pretty bad rain on the way home. But we enjoyed it and got to taste some yummy food! Isaac had fun as well. La Finca is 'the farm' in Spanish; which we learned that the wife on the farm is from south Florida. Her sister was there and they spoke Spanish with each other. If I remember right the husband of the farm is from Minnesota. This is their fourth year at this location, they had a farm at another spot for some years before this.

Here are some photos from our visit.














He loved watching the chickens and really wanted to get in there with them.


They also had some sheep but they were hiding out in their little shelter area so we didn't get a good look at them. We did get to see a rooster over by the house and it made some calls for us to hear. Isaac enjoyed that, too!