I tried to talk E into going down to SubFest – the big carnival thing on base – on Saturday night but then he reminded me that actually, we HATE things like that. No parking, crowds, the kind of trashy people who don’t say “excuse me” when they knock your funnel cake out of your hands and force me to yell “Were you raised in a barn?!” at them. In other news, I am approximately 85 years old. Get off my lawn.

So instead, we skipped dinner in exchange for a trip to Cows & Cones, an adorable little farm with delicious ice cream and lots of animals – the perfect toddler date night.

Baby Caroline says "Girl, what is wrong with your hair?!"

I swear her face made out of molding clay.

He liked looking at the cows from far away the best.

Animal picture credit goes to E, who is taking a photography class as an elective

Evan calls them "sheep-baa", with the word and the sound as one thing. I don't discourage it.

The cow says moo, the sheep says baaa! Three singing pigs say LA LA LA!

I may have taken 45 pictures of the different colored chickens. I'm a little obsessed.

I told her if she walked, she could have ice cream. She tried reeeeeally hard.

I don't even care what those horizontal stripes are doing to my hips - it's like wearing a well-ventelated nightgown in public. SO COMFY.

On Caroline:
America’s Sweetheart Onesie – Gymboree
Birdy print skirt – Uff Da Designs

On Little Evan:
Shirt – Hand me down
Shorts – Osh Kosh
Shoes – Converse
Toddlers are extremely hard to photograph when they don’t want to be photographed

On Mama:
Nursing Tank – Target
Dress – Old Navy
Fake Wayfarers – Target
Necklace – Allora Handmade
Flippy floppies – Ancient and ratty but I love them

And for the record, I had delicious watermelon sherbet (which I shared with the toddler) and E had a sundae with white chocolate raspberry ice cream, caramel sauce & whipped cream. He wins.

On Tuesdays, after Stroller Strides, we go to the Town Farm to pick up our CSA half share with our friends.

Don't they look like FRIENDS? My heart melted a little when T helped Little Evan over a tree root.

Animal cracker face

Where are the peas? To the left to the left!

Picked and eaten right off the vine.

The magic of our CSA: my kid is eating a whole carrot he just pulled from the ground

1. Lettuce
2. Carrots
3. Sprouted Mung Beans & Lentils
4. Snap Peas
5. Summer Savory
6. Sage
7. Garlic Scapes
8. Chickpeas

Have you ever heard of garlic scapes? I had not, but we got some with last week’s share and they’re already gone because they’re delicious. The scapes are the tops of the garlic, the above ground part, and farmers cut them to encourage the bulbs to grow.  They’re milder than actual garlic and can be used like green onions and I pink puffy heart love them. I’m going to use the ones I haven’t eaten already to make pesto.

Not pictured is the dill from last week’s share, which I used to make a batch of refrigerator pickles last night. I’m supposed to wait 10 days before I can eat them and I am COUNTING THE MINUTES.

I also have plans for some garlic hummus and a mung bean & lentil salad as healthy summer lunch options. My friend Cheri suggested drying the sage (since my other friend Sarah pointed out it can decrease milk supply while breastfeeding) so it’s hanging in my pantry to be used come fall. I’m going to steam a couple of those carrots and see if Baby Caroline likes them as much as she likes animal crackers (UPDATE: Caroline nommed the steamed carrot sticks but without teeth she’s not eating much of them). The peas are going STRAIGHT INTO MY FACE, since they are incredibly delicious. I really can’t say “I LOVE MY CSA” enough times.

Yesterday I did my duty as a good half-hearted urban hippie and joined a CSA.

Actually, I’m just too lazy to grow any vegetables myself. Besides, the only things I’m good at are tomatoes and cilantro and man cannot live on salsa alone.

That’s garlic. I think it will definitely improve my salsa.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. You pay a one time fee to buy a share or a half share of the crop and then you get to pick up an assortment of vegetables, fruit, herbs, flowers, eggs, meat, and other goodies either every week or every other week. The idea is you get to know where you food comes from and who is growing it. It’s part of the locavore movement and something I am really excited to participate in.

Our CSA is called Town Farm Organic and is owned by an incredibly nice couple named Amanda and Dylan. It’s only their second season offering shares so they’re still working out the details – which is good, because we get to help make some of the decisions, like bi-weekly vs weekly pick ups or whether or not we’re interested in things like garbanzo beans (answer: yes. hummus. enough said). They don’t have chickens (yet) or any meat (yet) but they are part of the very active community of local farmers in our area and can either recommend or trade for almost anything we could possibly want.

Amanda and Dylan are also VERY tolerant of 2-year-olds exploring their farm.

I wrote them a check on the spot for a half share.*  As part of the membership, I’m encouraged to help out during the planting or the harvest. They even said we could bring the kids and let them participate, since they really believe in teaching kids where food comes from – and they don’t mean the grocery store.

Do I sound like a crazy person and/or some sort of snobbish foodie yet? Because I’m trying to.

The herb garden is planted in the foundation of an old dairy barn. Did I mention the farm was built in the 1700’s and has a super fascinating history? I know that doesn’t make the vegetables any more delicious (OR DOES IT?) but I absolutely love old houses and all the stories that come with them.

1950’s Ford tractor the farmers actually still use. Now THAT’S sustainable agriculture.

Mischievous toddler is mischievous. Also, he totally has an orange slice in his front pocket. He saved it all morning and ate it when we got home.

Dylan and Amanda were so excited about all their plants it was hard for us not to get excited too. We told the kids these were baby peppers and they loved it. Our friend Amelia wanted to kiss them, because that’s what you do with babies (DID YOU JUST DIE OF CUTENESS?) Evan was fascinated and did a great job looking with his eyes and not with his hands (whoa, major dad flashback).

My only real concern is that I am not awesome at cooking and serving veggies. I know that makes joining a CSA seem sort of silly, but my hope is that once I have all these vegetables in my house I will be FORCED to use them or lose them. They’ve got 37 types of veggies planned (plus flowers and herbs and possibly berries) so I’m really going to be stretching to find recipes that my family will eat. And by my family I 1000000% mean E. I can probably bribe the toddler into trying stuff but my husband is cheeseburger and pizza kind of guy. I may end up buying one of those “hide the veggies in the cupcakes!” kind of cookbooks.

That’s Caroline’s excited face. She knows that there is some AWESOME homemade baby food coming her way once we start getting our shares.

*In case you were curious, a half share cost $225. I figure that’s pretty much the deal of the decade, especially because everything will be organic. I spent at least that much on produce in 4 or 5 weeks of grocery shopping and the growing season is much longer than that.

For part 2 of the Great Family Vacation of 2010, we’re visiting my folks in Northern Virgina. It’s sort of like the opposite of Ohio – absolutely no extended family but a zillion options for entertaining ourselves. We are (probably (very)(very) foolishly) going to attempt the zoo and maybe a few museums on Saturday but this morning we went in a much more rural direction. Literally. It’s sort of surprising how quickly you can reach farmland from the ‘burbs around here – just drive west for a few minutes.

We visited Frying Pan Farm Park, clearly a popular destination for school trips, possibly due to the fact that it was free. Dear Residents of Fairfax Country, Thanks for paying for all that hay and chicken feed with your taxes. My kid had fun. xoxo Suzanne.

I put my sister in charge of the camera, which is why this is such a nice shot. My pics were all of chicken butts.

Baby Evan was surprisingly unafraid of even the large animals. I hope he never encounters a bear or a lion or something more threatening. He'd be all "KITTY!" and try to pet it.

I think he liked petting the sheep because it reminded him of the yarn I never let him play with.

I think this is the most hilarious picture ever. I shall call it "Envy and Shame".

Oh mama, I totally feel your pain. And I've only got ONE.

When we got home we found our own wildlife to play with out in the yard. Baby Evan isn’t really old enough to really be into reptiles yet, but I think that phase is quickly approaching. He would have licked this poor turtle if we let him.

Poke poke poke poke POKE POKE POKE POKE

Make him come out Mama. Why is he hiding Mama. WHY MAMA WHYYYYYYYY?

After the baby got bored, I put Mister Turtle out in the woods. I hope he forgives me - he doesn't look like a guy you want on your bad side.