(S)He Taught Me to Eat Artichokes

Last night, Sean and I went to the Logan Square Public Library to hear Mike and Clare give a talk on local, organic farming and CSA programs. It was a 2 hour panel discussion on how CSA's work and why they are good for the person, community and earth. It was really interesting and it made me really excited for next summer's program to begin.
I have already signed up for next season's CSA, which begins in May and goes thru mid-October. I participated in Mike's CSA last summer and received so much good produce, and a few chickens as well! It was delicious and fun!
Sean also got inspired and has decided to join Mike's produce CSA!!
I have added a link to Mike and Clare's farm onto the sidebar of this blog. Please take a minute to open their website and learn more about their program.

We also got to listen to a farmer named Jody who discussed his meat CSA program, thru Cedar Valley Farms (see link on the sidebar). I am not much of a meat eater but for a reasonable price ($240 for all 3 months) you get an incredible amount of food! Each month your box contains the following: 3-4 Lb roast, 3 lbs hamburger, 1 package of hamburger patties, 1 1/2 lbs whole Italian sausage, 1 package of 4 pork chops, 1 pasture raised whole chicken, 1 pasture raised cut-up chicken and 1 dozen farm fresh eggs. Every month you get all of that!
Now that is way too much meat for just me so Sean and I have decided to go in on the program together. We will each pay $120 and then split the monthly meat. Even that will be a lot of meat but doesn't that seem like a steal for fresh, locally grown meat?!?!

Afterwards, Sean and I realized we hadn't had a chance to eat dinner and all this talk of fresh produce and meat made us even more hungry, so we headed over to Dunlay's for some dinner and a couple of pints. Sean suggested we order the grilled artichokes as an appetizer. I told him that one of my favorite books is titled "She Taught Me to Eat Artichokes" and yet I, personally, have never eaten them before. So last night, Sean taught me how to eat artichokes. How to peel it apart petal by petal, how to dip it in garlic butter and how to scrap the meat off with my teeth. It was delicious...