Moving out….

From “food, glorious food” to “fumes, toxic fumes”……
After am amazing start to our CSA season, we have had to give away a good portion of our food the last few weeks. We finally found a painter who was able to fit us in and the new kitchen is pretty much done. It is amazing what a difference a coat of paint on the walls and 5 coats on the cabinets will do. It is also amazing how toxic the paint fumes from high gloss, oil-based paints can be. This week’s produce is safely inside our refrigerator which is inside our kitchen which is currently blocked off with plastic and tape around every possible opening trying to keep the fumes out of the rest of the house. (Thank you to Stuart for that idea!) Even after a week, it is still bad. I may try tomorrow to hold my breath long enough to get our veggies cleaned and ready to eat. It has been a little depressing to be away from my kitchen for so long. It DOES look good though! Soon, we’ll post some before and after pictures and I’m sure by the end of the summer, we will have forgotten the pain of the process. Lesson learned: We will never again use paint like this – low VOC, low-emission paints exist and that will be what we use on the rest of the trim in the house when it comes time to do that.

In the meantime, what can you do with large bunches of turnips that requires minimal time in the kitchen?