We’re going local with our fruit and vegetable consumption. For the rest of the summer, Emily and I are trying not to buy any fruit or vegetables from the grocery store. We have an abundance of vegetables in our garden and we get a weekly CSA share. We’re also buying local fruit and vegetables from the farmers market, to add a bit more variety. The only downside is that we’ll be without pineapple, avocado, and bananas for a few months. On the bright side, we get to take eat amazing local produce grown in BC, and really take advantage of the short fruit seasons (strawberries are done, cherries are in season, blueberries are just starting, and peaches are coming up).

Our garden is exploding right now. Our biggest challenge is eating the vegetables fast enough. We’re harvesting arugula, kale, basil, green onions, carrots, beets, and peas. Our tomato plants are starting to flower, and we should have tomatoes in a few weeks. The kale is our most prolific grower, and I’ve resorted to giving away bags of it at work.

It’s a good problem to have. I love kale and I’m getting more creative with my recipes. Today I had a kale smoothie, a kale-blueberry salad, and soba noodles with a peanut-kale sauce. In the past few days, we’ve also made beet and sunflower raw pizza, raw zucchini pasta, beet and kale coleslaw, broccoli casserole, and pesto pasta.

Our increased vegetable consumption has meant more compost – more than our worms can handle. Luckily there’s a Food Scraps Drop Spot Tuesday nights in the Olympic Village where we can bring our extra food scraps.