we're up to our ears in lettuce! we joined a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm this year. this means we bought shares inthe farm and paid a few hundred dollars for a seasons load of fresh veggies every week, and right now it's pretty much all lettuce and field greens.. and some strawberries, but mostly lettuce. we still have lettuce left over from last week and after getting this weeks share of "take all you want we have plenty" we made a couple pit stops to jay's family to unload the lettuce, some ginormous scallions and radishes to grandpa. they said b/c of the rain the lettuce won't stop growing... lol.. great. but it's great b/c it means we don't really have to buy any veggies for the rest of the season (until october!) unless we want something that's out of season. we bought a "full share" this year, which they say is enough to feed 2-3 adults or 2 vegetarians for the week. they also have a 1/2 share options, and a farmstand 
option where you can get discounts at the stand. it's well worth it. and we're hippies i guess... it's an organic farm too. in all honesty we were indifferent about organicness, but the closer CSA farm to us, never got back to us, so whatever, we lucked out.it's been super muggy out here the past week with the sole exception of wednesday. weds was beautiful. what a great way to start the summer! i've determined that western mass is full of poo-poo heads.. but only for this reason: there's no where where you can swim for free in a body of water around here. so for that all the people that decided that you have to pay to park at all the places to go swimming.. you are all poo-poo heads! so there. there is one exception (pictured, beach not shown) that i know of, and that's puffer's pond in n. amherst by our old apt, only there is pretty much no parking for the pnd except along one side of a narrow road. when we lived in the apartments by there i used to walk
to the north beach all the time. that was the nicer beach to me b/c it was never crowded, but there's no sand to play in up there so if i wanted to bring evan i'd have to go to the main super crowed beach so he could play in the sand. the greenfield swimming pool... which is actually the green river, costs money, and so does laurel lake and lake wyola.. atleast the latter ones belong to the state park system so once you buy a season pass you can go to any of the state parks with the pass. hopefully we'll be able to buy one soon, but we get paid bi-weekly and this is not a pay week, so we have to wait... again... but there's always hope.
and b/c of this, i miss the beach. (pictured is my old stomping grounds) i miss being able to cross the street and taking a dip when i felt like it b/c it was hot and/or sticky. i miss swimming across the drop b/c i could or to see friends b/c it was quicker to do that than to walk around over the stone bridge. i miss the best beach in town only available to residents.. however i do not miss the horsefylies we always had to flee from b/c mom's allergic.. nothing like a trip to the ER on fourth of july b/c of a fly bite just to be told to take some benadryl.. oh and i definatly not miss those mutant spider crabs.. yuck..
Your picture of the beach made me want to pack up my bags and take off on an vacation... oh how I miss the sounds and smells of the ocean. I never went to your stomping grounds but always heard it was much better than the stomping grounds we had at Swifts Beach. And boy do I ever remember the horseflies...they had the meanest sting around.
ReplyDeleteHow cool about the co-op. My parents belonged to one years ago, and it included all kinds of groceries as well (meat, canned goods, etc). All they had to do was pay a fee, and put in a couple of hours packing up some orders here and there. We ate very well!
Enjoy your summer sweetie!
Wow, I'm jealous, I need more greens! I want my own farm, too!
ReplyDeleteThat's funny, I don't think ya look like hippies...!
Ya beat me to puttin up a summertime shot.
I've never bought shares from a farm like that. Interesting idea. I don't think we eat enough vegetables--mainly just corn and salad.
ReplyDeleteI think most of the rates for the swimming places are reasonable. Laurel Lake is just $5 for the day. I don't know what the Greenfield Pool's fee is but it's nasty anyways. You know that big lake you can see from the highway in Whately? That place is expensive. I called there last week to see if out of towners could swim there because it's closer than Laurel Lake since it's right off exit 24. It's $30 for a daypass for non-whately residents.