Here at our place in Minnesota, we've taken a subscription for the season with a local farmer, and have received the first  weekly  'shipment' of fresh stuff from his farm on the outskirts of town.  I divide up the weekly "garden plunder" with my daughter, and we have already had fun finding ways to use the stuff that Farmer L. delivers to us.   A big bunch of lovely fresh mint was included, and I suggested to my daughter we make Kentucky Mint Juleps and sit on the terrace behind her house, wearing BIG hats, and sip them while we talk about how quaint men are . . . . (I happened to have full instructions for juleps in my cooking notebook).

But she doesn't like bourbon (sigh......), so I lost out on that one.  But she told me of some Moroccan mint tea she had had somewhere which she found delicious, so I am looking forward to being invited to have tea with her soon.

If our own cookbook collections don't suffice for any recipes we need to find, there is a very nice public library in this town, for which we are thankful.

We have done this for a couple years (except we live in south Florida, so the growing season is November-April) and it's been terrific.

The biggest thing for me was reversing my usual meal planning, Used to be, I'd find a recipe, then go get what I needed. Now we get the food, and I look for recipes. My collection of veggie cookbooks has exploded! But there's still usually more than we can handle, and our neighbors are not as adventurous as we are in trying the new and different things the box includes.

Betty P., Yes, I'm finding it's just as you said----I get the week's delivery, and THEN I figure out menus!    Another thing that has happened is that I am getting some things I was unfamiliar with----varieties of lettuce, WHITE carrots, PURPLE potatos (plus the familiar redskins or white ones), and white and golden beets.   I know only two things to do with beets, though.......sigh.    I wonder if I should hunt up a recipe for borscht?

Fresh basil smells so wonderful, it makes me sad that my family just doesn't like pesto . . . .

One of my daughters made a small backyard garden this year.  When she told me her intention of doing so, I said "Great, but don't plant Swiss chard."  So of course you can guess what she did . . . . . I may be going to find out what it tastes like, pretty soon.  Kids . . . . . .

On the other side of the food ledger (so to speak) since we are eating so local, and fresh, and healthy, I recently made a DECADENT mocha chocolate cake.  It took (besides a little cake flour and some sugar) NINE eggs, and 18 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate morsels, and a cup and a fourth of espresso.  After baking  and cooling, it is frosted with whipped and sweetened  heavy cream.   I suppose one has to eat a lot of wholesome stuff to counterbalance something as scandalous as a cake such as that?