Shorts

The across-the-street neighbors have a cherry tree on the side street that never gets harvested (other than by birds). Perhaps this year I will have the guts to ask them if I can pick some cherries.

Thursdays this summer at 5:30, Copley Square: free concerts. ( schedule )

More generally, there's a downloadable PDF schedule of park events in Boston this summer. (Next lantern festival is on Bastille Day.)

Free ice cream at Starbucks today.

I went fridge shopping, and found that most of the 'nicer' fridges seem to (a) have ice dispensers, and (b) be side-by-side. I'd never want (a) (another thing to go wrong, and ice cube trays work just fine, thanks), but it's (b) that's bothers me more. Side-by-sides don't have as much room in the fridge (certainly not for large items like turkeys and such), giving more freezer space. Which seems indicative of how many Americans live, popping frozen things into the microwave or oven to heat, rather than actual cooking.

I finally know what those little bumps I get on my hands most summers are: dyshidrotic eczema. Of course, yet another "we don't know why it happens" sorts of things, but I think one of my triggers is stress, as well as heat/humidity. I'll also note that so far this summer, no bumps. Yay. (OK, and as a total aside: it's slightly freaky that the doctor diagnosed this without seeing it, since many others haven't figured it out even with the symptoms presented.)

Last night there was a concert by Four Guys in Tuxes at the Vinal Street Growing Center. I tend to forget how nice a space it is there. Oh, and technically, it was Five Guys and One Woman, and due to the humidity they eschewed the jackets of their tuxes. It was still lots of fun as they took requests from the audience, ranging from show tunes to Brazilian music to classic rock. Added bonus: watching little kids dance.

Farm share, week 3

It started raining just as I got to the distribution point; I hadn't realized that there's a slab of corrugated metal (if corrugated metal can be called a slab) above that exit from Harvest, so the veggies stayed dry.

This week's bounty:

• a bunch of cute beets with greens
  
• two (hothouse) tomatoes
  
• a bunch of scallions (very thin ones, with all the greens)
  
• two heads of lettuce; I got green leaf (absolutely enormous) and red leaf (merely big), and there was romaine as an option, too
  
• up to three pounds of greens, choosing from chard, spinach (I got half of the last of it), and purple flat-leaf kale; I got about a pound and a half of spinach and chard, which may end up feeding my freezer for now
  
• up to six pounds of: one stalk of broccoli, one (corn-shaped) head of cabbage, a bunch of radishes, garlic scapes, something else that was already gone, and however many zucchinis and summer squashes you could face; I ended up with a broccoli (it's almost purple), a couple of garlic scapes, and about five and a half pounds of zukes and squish, so any and all recipes or ideas for them are extremely welcome (I'm wishing I had meunster cheese, so I could make my mom's summer dinner of sauteed zukes, squish, and onions topped with cheese.)

Oh, and I might drive out to the farm Sunday, to pick strawberries and sugar snap peas, too.

Note to self: consider leaving the car closer to Central on Wednesdays as the share gets heavier.