The Final Summer Porch Refresh!

If you have been following along you might be aware that sweet corn season officially started this week here in Iowa, and I might be just a teeny bit excited about that! In fact, I had to incorporate the first delivery of corn into my final Summer porch refresh of the year. That’s correct, the next time I redo this space it will be with pumpkins!

But for now, I had to take down the 4th of July decor and I wanted to incorporate a few farming pieces to set up for the future harvest season. As a collector of all things random and old, I happened to have everything I needed stored in the garage (which has kind of unintentionally become my decor locker, just don’t tell Adam). This John Deere seed planter from an old tractor is a great example…

The fresh ears of corn in this photo are from our local CSA/farm share program that is delivered weekly throughout the spring and summer. For more information about farm shares, you can see my full post here.

Here are a couple more photos of this newly refreshed space!

For the other side of the door I snagged some of the decorative grass from my front landscaping that is currently out of control, and stuffed it into an old rusty milk can that i picked up at a garage sale a couple years back. The black metal ‘hello’ sign will stay for now, but I might take it down for the winter months, as it gets pretty cold here and I don’t want it damaged or warped in any way.

Here’s a front shot of the whole front porch, which is one of my more favorite area’s to decorate at my home. Now, if only I can light a fire under Adam and have him replace the construction door that’s been there for 4 years next month! It’s the little things….

That’s all I have for you today, thank you for stopping by the blog and I hope I have been able to inspire you on your own decorating adventure! As always, feel free to share your projects and questions either here or over on Instagram.

Happy Summer!

Rachael

Farm Share Friday & THE SWEET CORN IS HERE!!!

It’s #FarmShareFriday!

If you couldn’t tell by the title, I am just mildly excited, as it’s not officially Summer in the great state of Iowa until the sweet corn is ready. This spring was cold and soggy which delayed the corn a bit, but it’s finally here and we are ready!

This annual vegetable milestone might not be exciting to any non-Iowans reading this, but you will just have to trust me there is nothing quite like a fresh ear of sweet corn roasted on the grill! Stay tuned for that demo! For now, here’s a picture of the corn fresh from the farm!

And if that wasn’t exciting enough, I have this super easy zucchini & corn pie recipe that I made TWICE last week! It’s great for using up those extra zucchini and I kept leftovers in the fridge for days and heated them up in the oven each day. I love a recipe that tastes just as good the second and third time I eat it! Here’s a photo from the recipe, mine wasn’t as photogenic!

This week’s farm share box was heavy, and colorful! Aside from the 12 ears of corn, we also received tomatoes, onions, peppers, herbs, cucumbers, cabbage, and jalapenos. I already have a couple recipes in mind but I will be searching Pinterest and sharing those that I loved.

For now, here’s another corn picture, because who can’t resist beautiful corn!

That’s all I have for you today, stay tuned for my last summer front porch refresh coming up real soon! As always, thanks for stopping by the blog today!

-Rachael

Farm Share Friday & Roasted Kohlrabi Recipe

Hi friends! We are in the midst of an intense heat wave here in Iowa, which gives me time to catch up on all the things indoors!

With no share box the week of July 4th, and a busier than normal last week, I am finally able to update you on produce we received and recipes we love! Part of the fun of participating in a farm share or CSA program is experiencing produce that you might otherwise not purchase, example: Kohlrabi.

Prior to this past week, I had never bought, cooked with, or eaten kohlrabi, but I was determined to find a use for it. With some simple searching online, I found an easy roasted kohlrabi recipe that turned out amazing (and approved by the 1 year old!).

It turns out that kohlrabi tastes like a cross between a potato and an artichoke. This simple recipe calls for roasting with some salt/pepper/olive oil and topping with Parmesan cheese, ta-da! Instant side dish or snack! Here is what mine looked like.

Click here to see the recipe I used

Now for next week, I have quite the variety to work with and I couldn’t help but snap a few pictures of all the color! Here are a few pictures of what arrived fresh this week.

Fresh sage drying in the kitchen!

I am glad the larger vegetables are starting to be in season, but I do need to get creative with all of these zucchini! I pinned a few different dishes/casseroles that call for zucchini and corn, so I might have to track down some sweet corn and see what I can come up with to share with you next week.

That’s all I have for today, and if you are local to Iowa make sure to stay safe during this intense heat wave! I will see you all soon!

Farm Share Friday - Week 5

Hello friends!

It’s Friday and that means we have not only made it to the end of the week, but it’s also time for #farmsharefriday! Today’s post is going to be super quick since I don’t have any new recipes to share with you from last week’s box and I am on a time crunch this afternoon while writing this (can we say last minute?). Again, these posts are not sponsored and just my personal experiences and opinions with a local farm share program.

Alright, let’s get to it!

This week’s box contents:

1 doz eggs

2 heads of lettuce

1 bag of spinach

1 very large bunch of basil

Radishes

Beets

Now I consider myself a very non-picky eater and will try almost anything several times before determining I do or do not like it, however I can confidently say I am not a fan of beets. We did receive a few of them this week and luckily I have some coworkers that can take them off my hands.

Well speaking of work, I have to get ready and head there this evening. If you follow us on Instagram you occasionally see some story posts from my real job as a 911 dispatcher. I always thought that job title was mysterious so I try and share as much as I can about it to those curious.

See you soon friends!

Farm Share Friday - Week 4

It’s time to see what we received in our weekly share box from our local farm!

These posts are not sponsored! Just a little insight from me on how these programs work.

Yay for Friday! We made it!

This week for #farmsharefriday I have a really great recipe for greens, one that the entire family enjoyed! I also have so much produce from the box this week that I couldn’t squeeze it all into one photo. As the weather continues to improve, I have a feeling our share boxes will continue to reflect that!

First up, this super easy collard greens recipe…1.5 year old approved! I love fast recipes with minimal prep time and this recipe was perfect!

https://cookieandkate.com/quick-collard-greens-recipe/

Next up, I have a photo of some of the contents from our share box this week! I left out of the photo the rest of the turnips, and opted to show you just one of each so the picture wasn’t too cluttered, you get the idea!

2 large heads of lettuce

1 bunch asparagus

1 dozen eggs

1 bunch collard greens

1 bunch each red and white turnips

1 bunch parsley

1 bunch green onions

I am excited to have more collard greens for dinner tonight! I will be back next week to share what we loved and the contents of our next box. Follow along on Instagram for all of our decor/renovation/building projects, there’s always something happening!

Thank you for stopping by the blog today!

Farm Share Friday - Week 3

It’s already that time of the week again, my favorite day (for many reasons)! We finally have the hot and humid Iowa weather that we are used to, and that means all sorts of goodies are popping up out of the ground, especially the herbs! We had a lot of leafy greens in our delivery last week, and I want to share a juicing recipe for anyone looking to add a little greenery to their diet. And don’t worry, my 1.5 yr old enjoyed it with me, so it can’t be that bad!

Green Juice

-2 green apples

-handful of each: kale, spinach, lettuce

-4 stalks celery

-1 Lemon (peel removed)

If you have never juiced anything before, read the directions for the machine you are using as they are all a bit different. I really like to juice vegetables because it’s easier than eating them and still provides all the health benefits! This recipe was perfect for all of the leafy greens we had in our share box last week.

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Ok, on to this week’s box contents!

-Fresh flowers for planting

-Blueberries

-Green Tomatoes

-Eggs

-Radishes

-Sage

-Two heads of lettuce

-Greens

I have never tried fried green tomatoes, and it looks like this week I might have to! I better run and finish my outdoor work before it storms again, you can definitely tell it’s spring time in the Midwest lately! As always, thank you for stopping by the blog today!