Friday, March 29, 2013

Bountiful baskets & other tidbits...

 Tomorrow is pick-up day for Bountiful Baskets all over the USA.  This will be my second basket and I'm so excited to see what's inside.  OnlyDaughter will be our pick-up girl and on Easter Sunday she will deliver to NextDoorDaughter and me here at the ranch. We are still figuring out how much produce the three of us can smartly use over a week's time until the next basket must be ordered and picked up.  The first basket was very good.  I got this sweet little Living Lettuce in my portion. See it's roots below?  It was delicious and reminded me of my own summer lettuce because I always plant Buttercrunch.  I have never bought a head of lettuce with roots this way, have you? 

Along with the head of lettuce, we received several big, beautiful russet potatoes, lots of onions, a big bunch of asparagus, a head each of broccoli and cauliflower and for fruits we received bananas, tangelos, and grapefruit.  All very delicious.  If you've never tried Bountiful Baskets, you should.  It's a food co-op which buys fruits and vegetables and a few other things and distributes it amongst its contributing members.  A regular basket comes with whatever is in season -- half fruit and half veg.  If you want to, for a little extra money, you can add in breads, granola, extra veggies or select in-season fruits in bulk.  It's really a good buy too.  The standard basket is $15 (add on $1.50 service fee charge and a first-time charge of $3).  We were most pleased with the quality and the amount of produce we found in our baskets and we are excited to carry on this spring and through the year.  I'm thinking it will be nice to have fresh produce when the garden is not producing and when the garden is at full-production, we can opt not to get a basket.  If you'd like to check out Bountiful Baskets for your area, click HERE.  One more thing --BB has a blog so if you get a fruit or veggie that you've never used before, you can go there and find some good recipes and ideas on how to cook it or eat it.
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In other news around home, Hubs and I got our vitamin D3 levels tested.  It was really kind of nifty.  We bought two kits online from The Vitamin D Council, filled out the questionnaires, and did the blood tests ourselves.  We sent the tests back to the lab and received our results in an email notice in just a couple days.  Our D levels were at the edge of the optimal range (50-80 ng/ml).  I was actually a 46 so I am boosting my D3 intake through additional supplements, and I'm working harder at getting some natural D by sitting in the sun on warmish days.  Our sun right now is ok, but still fairly weak in strength so I don't feel like I'm getting a "good dose" of D yet.  The good thing is that it only takes about 15-20 minutes of sitting in the sun with a tank top and shorts for the body to produce 10,000 IUs of D3. 

I have another new bottle baby.  The little fella's mom was a c-section and I guess the experience did her in.  She didn't want anything to do with her calf and after days of trying to get her to take him, we turned her out and started bottle feeding him.  So now I have Bette and Bobby.  I've been noticing that once in a while Bette is sucking one of the mama cows in the pen.  Now I see Bobby has picked up on the idea.  It amazes me that the cows will let them nurse.  Mainly, they rob milk when the cows are at the hay rack eating.  Smart li'l bummies.


God sent a sweet gift to me early this morning.  I was sound asleep in my comfy bed with my window slightly cracked open when all of the sudden I heard -- whether in a dream or real, I wasn't sure -- robin-song.  I stirred and awoke, and sure enough, there was real robin-song coming from the window by my bed.  I just lay there awhile enjoying the long awaited song, smiling and thanking God for His simple gifts.  Later on that morning I saw my First  Robin of Spring.

I've been tidying up the house a little bit each day in expectation of our Easter guests.  All the kids and their families, fiance', cousin, and friends along with grandparents will be joining us on Easter Sunday for dinner.  Everybody brings a little something to add to the traditional ham dinner so it is always a day of faith, food, family and fun.  Too bad it is supposed to snow.  We'll hunt Easter eggs in the house and be grateful for the moisture.  I wish you a joyful day of preparation and a Happy Easter.

15 comments:

  1. Happiest Easter, Jody!
    The veg baskets sound wonderful!

    There is a bird making a nest on my neighbor's patio and she sings up a storm when Bill and I are going to sleep at night. It's cute! We go to bed pretty early. Lol.

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    1. So you go to bed with the birds, eh? I like that.
      Happy Easter to you and yours.

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  2. Sounds like a full Easter heading your way! Enjoy.

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  3. Excellent post, chock full of valuable information!

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  4. We have a BB pick up location close by and I have a couple of friends who do it. It is very popular and you have to get your order in quick (competitive which makes me tired just to think about). I go in with them on big orders so right now I have tangerines and Fuji apples on my counter. The apples are so sweet that the kitchen is filled with their scent and the tangerines are the most beautiful shade of .... tangerine! haha
    Happy Easter to you all!!!! Did it snow last year, too?

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    1. We had the most juicy and delish tangelos. I put them in our lettuce salad and added poppy seed dressing and toasted walnuts to it. Scrumptch!

      It was dry as dust here last Easter. We hope it will be WET this Easter.

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  5. Hi Jody! Your Easter Day sounds lovely! We've hunted Easter eggs in the house before, even here in the South. (Last year we did that in fact). It will just be the two of us this Easter - very different for us! Our married kids are out of state, our college boy is too far away to come home and our high school student is enjoying the Outer Banks of NC with a friend's family. But when they do come home I really, really love it. Blessings to all of yours this Easter - Ruth in NC.

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  6. Have a blessed Easter, Jody!
    One of the distant cousins of your robin has been the voice of God to me at times of my life when I was quite in need -- it makes me feel a special link to you to read about your very similar experience.

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  7. I've never heard of Bountiful Baskets -- after checking, I see that we don't have them here. Your lettuce looks wonderful though. Your little bummies sound so fun. I hope you had a wonderful Easter with your family!

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  8. Happy Easter, Jody! I hope you had a wonderful visit with your family, and that the snowfall didn't get in the way of the Easter egg hunt. We had rain, so the boys searched inside. We may do some outside hunts today.

    The birds descended en masse in our neighborhood last week, and the noise is verging on riotous. I love it!

    xofrances

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  9. Robin song as you wake.. what a God we serve! Thanks for the BB tip. I will definitely look into it. Sounds like something that would really fill the bill here. A belated Happy Easter to you! :)

    Blessings, Debbie

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  10. Our local farmer's market is offer a very similar program. I've been toying with trying it. You've encouraged me to think about it even more.

    Happy belated Easter!

    Blessings!
    Deborah

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