CSA will be more expensive than big box stores.

Probably, yeah, and I don’t want to minimize that. However, chances are also that the food is either more unique (heirloom varieties that taste better but either don’t travel well or “looked ugly”), or it’s fresher and will last longer (because they’re not being sent to a sort-and-pack facility, put in a warehouse, sent to a regional warehouse, a local warehouse, and then the back of a store).

I also like that it forces me to eat more vegetables than I would in my ‘normal’ diet.

I realy have to look into that.

Try googling CSA and your county (if in the States), or CSA near your town. There’s also local harvest.org, but they don’t list everyone, and some of the ‘too far to consider’ farms will have local drop-offs.

My most recent discoveries are scalloped diakon and butternut squash bread [not entirely sure that’s the recipe I used, but I’m at work, lol].

I found butternut squash bread because last year’s harvest brought me no less than ten butternut squashes and I didn’t want to eat all of them broiled or in soup. The bread is great - it’s like zucchini bread or banana bread - light, mild, good with a bit of butter or cream cheese on top. I cooked down the squashes and froze the cooked innards, then made the bread over the winter, when I had more time (and partially because I couldn’t have fitted all the fully cooked loaves into the freezer, lol). It’s good and simple.

The second one’s a little more complicated to cook but I’m actually delighted with the scalloped diakon because I’ve been trying to find a decent daikon recipe for years and everything either makes it too noticable (I don’t actually like diakon, but I refuse to waste food) or it makes the dish bland and unappetizing. That scalloped daikon recipe makes them mild and tasty and just right for me. Daikon saves well, so my plan for diakon season this year is to just save them all up and make one large batch of scalloped daikon all at once.

I also made a really nice ground cherry tart once, but I’ve been struggling to re-find the recipe :( There are also fairly easy recipes for using display pumpkins to make pumpkin pie, which I often do: I’ll process the pumpkin and make pie filling, freeze the filling flat in a Ziploc, them unfreeze it and stick it in a pie shell for Thanksgiving or Christmas. If I’m eating with someone, I can legitimately claim it’s a pie made literally from scratch.

If anyone has questions, I’m happy to answer!

On Sunday night, I sit in front of the tv, once again watching guilty-pleasure shows, and I use whatever veggies are left over to make salads. Each week I try for a mix of styles so I don’t get bored: for a couple salads I may toss in some nuts and berries or apple pieces to make it a bit sweet, while others I’ll put in extra peppers or onions to give it some zing. Any lettuce goes on top so it doesn’t get soggy over the week; crunchy stuff like croutons goes in a snack Ziploc on the side so it stays crunchy (ziplocs get rinsed and reused every week, and some recycled year to year). Dressing goes in an old pill bottle along the side. I make ten salads: one for each lunch and dinner for the week.

In front of Sunday night’s tv, I’ll also make little veggie snack-packs: veggies in a Ziploc (add a little water to keep them fresh), some of them with an old pill bottle of dressing or dip on the side After I’ve finished, any veggies that haven’t been used cooking, salads or snack-packs, they get frozen to be used in future meals.

Herbs tend to come in small bunches during the season and it can be annoying to process small amounts each time. I’ve settled on cleaning and chopping them up each week (in front of Friday nights tv), then freezing them. At the end of the season, I’ll take them out of the freezer and dry them and add them to my spice cabinet.

Once or twice a year, I’ll spend a couple hours making freezer jam, which is insanely simple: mash the berries, add sugar and pectin, stir, put in containers, leave them on the counter for a day, then move to the freezer. I can use the jam for sandwiches, cake filling, topping for pancakes and waffles, or give them out as stocking stuffers over the holidays.

And once a year during high tomato season, I’ll spend a Saturday afternoon processing tomato: I’ll make and can some salsa, make and freeze some marinara, boil down a bunch of tomatoes into tomato paste (freeze them in ice cube trays, then move them to ziplocs; you can use them as-is or dilute them into soup, sauce or puree).

How much time is all this? I find it helps to reframe things and count them toward other goals or desires. The hour I spend doing PYO on alternate weeks isn’t “farm-share time”, it’s counted toward my weekly exercise goals. Time in front of the tv isn’t counted either, as I’m catching up on guilty-pleasure tv (without the guilt, since I’m actually working, lol). The couple hours batch-cooking on alternate Saturdays, I would likely to have been batch-cooking anyway. That really leaves like 1.5 to 2 Saturdays each year, where I’m making jam, making and canning salsa, etc.

Price-wise, I’m paying $400 a year for a ten-week share, but again I re-frame it: I eat the fresh meals over the summer and fall and the frozen meals over the winter and spring, plus there’s also whatever I’ve pickled, canned, jammed or frozen. For me, it’s really a year-round benefit that works out to about $7.70 per week for farm-fresh (often organic) ingredients and homemade meals spiced to my personal tastes. It provides over half the food I eat each year, which means the rest of my food budget stretches further. And I’m eating healthy foods, not highly-processed stuff.

For me, the key has been coming up with a set of recipes for the ingredients I’ll get, for dishes that I’ll enjoy, and that preserve well - usually frozen. I only have the normal freezer-on-top-of-fridge, but by the end of the season, it’s crammed with lasagna, French onion soup, eggplant Parmesan, scalloped daikon, strawberry pancakes, blueberry muffins, stuffed tomatoes and peppers, zucchini boats, butternut squash bread, seven-layer casserole, chili, etc.

I’ll admit this isn’t for everyone: you need to adjust your habits to what’s in season instead of what you buy from the store, you need to find recipes that work for you, you need to spend time cleaning, processing and cooking the veggies. But for the people who do adjust, it can save money.

I have a farm share (CSA). At the start of the year, you pay up front for a share; in return, you get boxes of veggies during the season. Since the farmer is paid up front, they don’t need to borrow money from the bank and hope for a decent harvest to repay the loan, so there’s less pressure on them: they know their farm will still be around next year. And you get boxes of veggies that were picked within the past 24 hours, so they’re all incredibly fresh. You’ll get some stuff you can find in the grocery store (ex: roma tomatoes, bell peppers) but since all the middlemen have been cut out, they last a long time (I’ve had heads of lettuce last like a month); and you’ll get some that’s either heirloom varieties (too fragile for handling by the supply chain feeding grocery stores) or unusual (ex: pawpaws, ground cherries).

I’m going to say up front that a farm share isn’t for everyone; it takes some adjustment and a bit of work to make it work well, but for me it’s worth it. I’ll note that I’m single (so it all falls on me) and vegetarian (so I can sometimes eat a lot of veggies).

Each farm chooses how to operate, so I can only speak in generalities. To accommodate different family sizes, some farms offer boxes of different sizes/prices; others offer a half-share, so instead of getting a box every week for 20-26 weeks, you get a box for 10-13 weeks (you choose which weeks you want a box). You can also find a friend to split the cost and content of a share, either splitting each box, or alternating pickup weeks.

Some farms will pre-pack the boxes for you; others will put the veggies on a table and let you choose among them; for example, this week’s share might be something like “choose 3 zucchinis/eggplants; choose 2 lbs of a bunch of different types of tomatoes; choose 4 varieties of hot peppers”, etc. Some farms you have to pick up at the farm itself; other farms have distribution points in outlying areas, will let you pick up at local farmers markets, or have home delivery for an additional fee. Some farms have work shares: instead of paying for a share, you can choose to work like 4 hours a week during the season and get a box of veggies each week in return. Most farms have pick-your-own availability for veggies that may not be to everyone’s taste (okra, herbs), where some people may want extras (tomatoes, peppers, beans), or where personal taste is important (flowers).

I’ve been with a bunch of different farms over the years (I’ve moved several times; and sometimes I’ve joined a farm that isn’t a great fit for me). For the past couple years, I’ve been getting my own box instead of splitting a share, and I’ve opted to get a 10-week share (I choose the weeks). One thing I like with the 10-week share is that I’m not facing fresh veggies to work with every week; sometimes a weekly share can seem overwhelming!

Most people make some adaptations to make a CSA work for them. It’s taken me a while, but I’ve finally come up with a set a recipes for stuff that I like, that uses the veggies I tend to get, much of which stores well; and I have a pattern of processing that works for me:

Each week, the farm sends out an email ahead of time, letting you know what’s in season and sometimes with a rough idea of how much to expect (“this’ll be the last week for blackberries, but we have lots of tomatoes!”); that helps me plan what to do ahead of time.

On weeks that I have a share, I go to the farm, do the PYO (it’s included in my share, and my starving Irish ancestors would be upset if I didn’t get them!), and choose the veggies for my box. When I get home, I wash everything, then sit in front of the tv, watching my guilty-pleasure shows and processing the veggies - as applicable, I trim, peel, slice, dice, mince, etc. As I finish each veggie, it goes into a sealed bowl or a Ziploc and goes into the fridge. I also have a spare bowl for scraps - ends and peels of onions and carrots, trimmings from peppers and leeks, etc. Those join other scraps in a big Ziploc in the freezer; when I have enough scraps, I use it to make veggie stock. And there’s another bowl for stuff I can’t use, that either goes in the garbage or a compost pile (I’ve stopped composting in recent years).

On Saturday, I spend a couple hours cooking, usually 2-3 big dishes or 4-5 smaller ones - it depends on my mood and what’s in season. Then half the food gets portion-sized and frozen; the other half gets eaten over the week or so following. While cooking, I may pickle some veggies. Pickling is easy: you put your chosen veggies and spices in a jar, heat up your pickling brine, pour the brine over the veggies, and seal the jar. During a season, I may pickle dilly beans, beets, giardinieri, garlic, onions, cucumbers, etc; I may eat them out of the jar or use them as ingredients in future dishes.

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two high-capacity water connections were not being properly monitored. One had been installed without the utility’s knowledge, and another was not tied to a billing account.

Yeah, you don’t just “accidentally” install an “extra” water pipeline like that.

People should be responsible for their own comfort. Bring your own sleep mask, ear plugs, neck pillow, blanket, or whatever else you need to be comfortable.

Do not draw on the window with permanent markers.

If it’s a sharpie, you can get rid of the mark with hand sanitizer.

So … Some people’s brains are wired with directions being absolute, and some people’s brains are wired with directions being relative. One of the easiest ways to tell which way your brain is wired is to switch your mouse to the other hand. If your brain is absolute-wired, then the main button is always on the left; if your brain is relative-wired, then the main button is always the one closest to your body.

I doubt whether animals really understand this.

Not in the way you’re thinking of (“my human loves me!”), but they almost certainly understand it as a form of scent-marking (“we are tribe-family”), which is a pretty similar concept.

it seems to be on a level of intimacy to me that I find weird sharing with a pet.

Have you had (m)any pets?

Mom’s so busy with my brother’s marriage plans, haven’t have much time to talk to me. Idk what to even say on the phone… I just wanna hear her voice… I kinda have a panic attach if i don’t hear her voice or if she takes too long to respond…

The people I love, I’ve started saving their voicemails offline, so I can remember their voices. Maybe you can do the same?

There should be an oversized vehicle parking area in the most inconvenient section of the garage, and if your vehicle is too big, you have to go park there.

My beloved cat.

Waymo spokesperson Julia Ilina wrote: “We deeply value our partnership with first responders and our shared commitment to safety. Their ongoing feedback has been instrumental in driving impactful improvements to the Waymo service.” […] The company says it has conducted in-person training for more than 35,000 emergency responders across the country.

Instead of adapting Waymo to the needs of humans and emergency services, let’s just tell them how they need to change to fit us instead!

reflect long-simmering and sometimes vocal frustrations expressed by city leaders since at least late last year. Since autonomous vehicle operations are regulated in California and Texas by state rather than city officials, local first-responder departments and those who represent them can generally only request that developers like Waymo make specific changes to their operations.

Sounds like they don’t really value those relationships like they claim to.

to connect […] with Waymo operators to move the vehicle, […] it had taken up to three minutes to connect with a remote agent in the past. They reiterated that Waymos don’t always respond well to hand signals, especially ones from police mounted on motorcycles. Waymo declined to attend the meeting […] the Waymo spokesperson, said the company has "already had the substantive conversations this moment calls for,” and said the company has answered questions from city officials.

Translation: we’re tired of listening to you, get out of our way and let our cars run free!

“We will keep working with Austin’s leadership and first-responder community, because ongoing collaboration is how we build the trust this city deserves and make Austin’s streets safer,” she wrote.

Lol, that’s not at all what you’re doing. Are you taking Republican lessons in lying, double-speak, and aggressive non-listening?

Ridiculous Fishing

“As of December 10, 2025, the Android version is no longer downloadable from the Google Play store.”

:(

I used to play the web version of Bee Sort. Unfortunately, I got stuck on level 371 and the web version doesn’t have the option to skip a level. Does the app version have that option?

Good choice - I was going to suggest Simon Tatham’s Puzzle Collection.

I think the elevator one is the same as escalators: to minimize traffic disruption. If you’re facing away from the elevator doors, you can’t tell if you’re at the right floor (causing a delay), you can’t see if there are people interested in entering (another delay), people interested in entering will likely assume this isn’t your floor (yet another delay), it takes time to turn around when it is your floor (delay), and you disrupt anyone behind you in the elevator who also wants to exit there.

So, the mandate is the BBC is (was?) to inform, educate, and entertain, which was the mandate they created Doctor Who under. The entertainment is obvious, but where’s the informing and educating? Go back to the first Doctor: the stories alternated between going back into the past and going forward into the future. To inform and educate the viewer, we had history teacher Ian and science teacher Barbara, who would briefly include some information within the episode.

Also, if you watch the opening credits of (I think, it’s been a long time for some of them!) the Doctors’ color episodes, not only do you have the Doctor/TARDIS going forward and back (movement in time), you also have the colors red and blue in the background colors, denoting red shift/blue shift (movement in space).

Anyway, I would argue that Old Who had a more factual/educational underlayer through most of it’s run, making it the more “science-y” of the two versions; while NuWho, while much flashier and with generally stronger storylines, is much more space opera/space fantasy, without the underlying educational layer.

I don’t understand the clock one.

Part of the western Florida panhandle (WFP) is on Central time. Part of southeastern Oregon (SEO) is on Mountain time. That puts them one hour apart.

In the fall, when we go back into Standard Time, when the clock hits 2am, you flip the clock back to 1am.

So, during a normal night, WFP would be at 2am and SEO would be 1am. But on the night the time changes, WFP hits 2am and immediately flips their clocks back to 1am - which means that, for one hour a year (until SEO hits 2am and flips their clocks back), part of Florida and part of Oregon’s clocks are showing the exact same time.

I kinda struggled over how to word this - they’re not in the same time zone, but for this one hour they might as well be.

For one hour each year, part of Florida and part of Oregon have the exact same time on their clocks.

Sharks have existed long enough as a species to have orbited the entire Milky Way Galaxy - twice.