Lent -- Day 1

During Lent this year, I'm going to try to serve meatless meals at least twice a week. Fish counts as meatless. It's more a nod to Ben's aversion to meat than to the Christian tradition. I love much about Christian tradition, but some of it befuddles me if I try too hard to understand (or maybe it's because I don't try hard enough?). Anyh0w, for the 4o days of Lent, which occur during the 46 days before Easter (I think Sundays are exempt because they are supposed to be feast days , but there's still one extra day in there somewhere), we will significantly reduce our meat consumption. Tonight's inaugural meal was a frittata made with eggs, cheese, and one of our mystery greens from this week's CSA share. Apple wedges, biscuits, and for the grown-up in the family, sauvignon blanc (0rganic, from Sterling Vineyards, Mendocino) rounded out the meal.

We won't be participating in the CSA for the summer season because I expect to be out of commission, driving-wise for about half of the season due to knee surgery recuperation time. It makes me very sad, but we will shop at the Ozark farmer's market instead, still getting a lot of fresh local produce. One important reason I choose to participate in the CSA is to get the cost of transportation out of the price of food and into the bank accounts of local farmers. Using the farmer's market even closer to home than our CSA farm will accomplish that. Another reason is to instill in us the discipline of eating more vegetables -- both in variety and quantity. Then there is the whole sustainability issue. So, we are still committed, just altering our practice a bit. We will miss the Millsaps whom I consider to be our friends as well as our farmers. I wish them a successful summer season and we'll see them again in the fall!