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JerseySmarts.com

Truly Free Ranging Poultry at the Local CSA Farm

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Earlier today, I wrote about how much produce we picked up at the local CSA farm on September 4th. Well, we were also there on September 11th and though I don’t have a picture of the produce that we picked up, I do have a picture of some truly free-ranging chickens that were walking around the farm. Take a look below (click on the image to get a full-size picture).

Pretty cool, huh? The alternative to having these chickens freely ranging around the farm is to have them all cooped up in ridiculous small cages, pecking at each other for sustenance since they’re not able to find food on their own. It’s gross what the industrialized farms do to their animals – which is why I like seeing these chickens walking around like they own the place each week!

Have I Mentioned That I Hate My Commute?

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Even though I’ve said it on here before, I have to repeat the fact that I absolutely hate my commute to work each morning. Driving from one side of New Jersey to the other is not appealing at all. Granted, the commute itself is relatively easy since I just jump on 195 and go all the way from Tinton Falls into Trenton. However, I hate my daily commute with a passion.

I work in community development and one of the big discussions when considering how to best develop a community always revolves around the idea of smart growth. In other words, how do you arrange a community such that the people who live there also work there or very nearby. As a related side note – everyone who works in Trenton for the state has a similar discussion, yet most state workers live far outside of Trenton. Weird. Anyway, nothing would make me happier than going to work within a 5 – 10 minute commute of where I live.

For starters, I don’t like this part of the state. I’m not sure what it is about Trenton or this part of Mercer County, but I’m not a big fan of the area. I couldn’t see myself ever living over here. I could live in Morris County because I have family up there and I could live in Monmouth County because it’s where I’ve been for ten years and I like it down there. But Mercer County? No thanks. So moving closer to my office isn’t an option to eliminate the commute.

Also, there is a strong possibility that my office is going to move to New Brunswick in the next few months. I couldn’t live in New Brunswick, either. It’s too congested and the places where a guy like me could afford to live aren’t nearly as safe and secure as where I live now. At almost 30 years old and having rented in a variety of arrangements over the past 10 years, I can’t see myself downgrading my living quarters just to be closer to my 9-to-5. That would be completely ridiculous and a sure way to increase the misery level.

I like my job. My only issue with my job is that they unknowingly hold down young talent so I (nor anyone else my age or younger) have not been able to advance professionally at this place. However, the pay is good and the benefits aren’t bad. Plus, the flexibility at this place is phenomenal. It’s just the miserable commute that gets me – and it’s “getting” me in an increasing frequency it seems.

I’ll figure something out. I’m not sure what I’m going to do at this point, but with less than 6 months left to my 30th birthday and having just “celebrated” 4 years working for this company, I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to keep this silly commute up each day…

Yesterday’s (Delicious) CSA Farm-Infused Breakfast Omelet

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Right from the get-go let’s understand that there’s no need for you all to be jealous, folks. 🙂 Below are two pictures of the omelet that I made for breakfast yesterday morning (typically, I make an omelet for breakfast on Sunday mornings). As you’ll see, there are a bunch of vegetables from the CSA farm strewn throughout this mess. A list of ingredients is available below the pictures.

Sunday morning breakfast - side shot

Sunday morning breakfast - top shot

Okay, so right off the bat you should know that the wheat toast and the eggs are from Wegmans, not the farm. The ingredients from the local CSA farm are: fresh garlic, green peppers, yellow squash, and red tomatoes. I added the mushrooms (a lot of mushrooms – also from Wegmans), bacon bits, and some salt and pepper. It was absolutely delicious!

Part of what makes the food that I make with farm food so tasty is the fact that the organic produce seems to have more “punch” in terms of flavor. The garlic is much more potent than the stuff you buy at the store, the green peppers actually have a strong peppery taste, and the yellow squash is great. I’m looking forward to picking up more of this delicious produce this Saturday!

A Look at Yesterday’s Take from the Local CSA Farm – It’s Getting Better

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After a few weeks of relatively scarce takes from the local community supported agriculture (CSA) farm, yesterday was a little bit better. If you’re interested in looking at last week’s take from the farm, you can click here to take a look (for comparison’s sake). Are you back yet? Good! Anyway, below is a picture of this week’s take from the farm:

It's getting better...

While this week’s take was better than last week’s, it’s still not the same type of abundance that we experienced during the first few weeks of this year’s season. I talked to the farmer a little bit and it seems that the fields are very dry and thus affecting the overall output of the farm. New Jersey has had a weird weather system this summer, flipping between scorching hot days, stuffy humid days, and the occasional rainy days.

Oh well. Tomorrow I’m going to post pictures of the omelet that I ate for breakfast this morning. It was a delicious combination of produce from the farm!

Not Such Great “Takes” From the CSA Farm Lately

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It’s the summertime and that means that every Saturday morning I’m heading to the local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm to get some fresh produce. Well, sorta… It turns out that my local CSA farm hasn’t really produced very many good weekly “takes” in the last few weeks. In fact, take a look at my latest take from the local CSA farm:

Eh. Scant at best.

Pretty scant, huh? All that I was able to pick up in addition to what’s in the picture is some berries. I am, of course, heading back to the farm this Saturday morning so I’m hoping that there is a better take this week. In any event, I’ll post the results here.