Bountiful Baskets

This is my latest "bountiful basket". The bread is 5 loaves for $10. The tortilla pack was 7 dozen tortillas for $10. The rest is my "basket" which is $15 (organic baskets are $25). Check out www.bountifulbaskets.org to get more info. Bountiful Baskets is a Co-Op. I have to order and pay for my basket on Monday or Tuesday for Saturday pick-up. I pick up the basket of produce (everyone gets the same basket of produce) on Saturday morning at a site near my home. In our case, we can walk there. They often have "extras" you can order as well, such as the loaves of bread and tortillas. Sometimes they have honey or 20 lbs of oranges, you just never know what the "extras" might be. I love that we get different produce each time and our family gets to try something new that I wouldn't normally purchase at the grocery store.

Valentine's Idea for Allergic Children

I have already shared that I am allergic to many things. My daughter also has her fair share of allergies. She is unable to eat any of the common food dyes in the US (such as red #40, yellow #5, etc). Holidays, like Valentine's Day, always pose a problem for us. Almost all of the candies available have food dyes or are "made in a factory that processes peanuts/tree nuts"

Last year we gave out Valentine's cards with little baggies of sunflower seeds and directions on how to plant them. After much deliberation, we've decided to do it again.

So simple and many people appreciated the break from candy last year!

Supplies Needed:

• Construction Paper
• Markers
• Several packets of Sunflower seeds (or other easily grown plant).
• Snack size ziploc baggies

• Divide up the Sunflower seeds so each ziploc snack baggie gets an equal amount. Place the seeds into each baggie.
• Cut up pieces of construction paper to fit into your ziploc baggies. Write something cute on the little papers about growing the seeds and tuck it into the bag with your seeds.

Tada..."Candy-Free/Allergen-Free Valentine's"!
PS If you are allergic to sunflowers, try another plant


My little guy's sunflowers...Yes, I do realize there are about 15 in that same little pot but that's how he wanted it :) Such a budding gardener don't you think?

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog. So glad you came over for a bit! I'm totally new at this so let's hope I do okay. Right now, I'm into the whole idea of backyard homesteading. I'd love to live on an actual farm but there's the small detail of: I'm allergic to basically EVERYTHING...most animals, hay, straw, raw fruits and veggies (weird I know right!?! it's called "oral allergy syndrome" and is becoming more common), nuts, and pretty much anything the lives on a farm. Guess that dream's not happening anytime soon. Ha!
For now, the kids and I are learning to garden with containers. I think it's probably not a good sign that my six year old's spinach plants are doing WAY better than mine. But I keep plugging along pretending to know what I'm doing.
We are growing spinach, broccoli, sugar snap peas, and my lil guy is growing sunflowers (he isn't quite adept at caring for a less hardy plant yet, and frankly, neither am I. So we let him grow the super easy sunflowers, which of course, look tons better than any of my little sproutlings). 
So welcome again to my small "well-watered garden" in the "Sun-scorched land" of Arizona.
Enjoy!