we love our farmer. you should too.

When I went to our veggie pickup today, I passed on basil and peppers, since we've already had so many all summer. So Jill asked me if I wanted broccoli instead. I said yes, she left for a second, walked back to the garden, and cut some for me. It's not even my favorite vegetable, but I'm excited to cook up the freshest broccoli I've ever eaten.

Our CSA is another casualty of summer's end. We only have one more pickup. I'm excited enough for it to start again that we've already ordered our farm share for next year.

If you do the same before October 15th, you can get next year's veggies for 20% off. I highly recommend it: getting all those veggies cut our food budget in half this summer (which is weird, right? I didn't think we ate that many vegetables), we tried things we never would have bought on our own, and when we weren't sure how to prepare something, we just checked the Bells' blog for a recipe using that week's pickings.

Click here for an explanation of the discount. Click here to place an order. And click here to see a picture of one of the Bells' adorable kids who entertained my baby while I waited for my broccoli.

Greener grass

I no longer have a job that allows me to blog. I've missed you guys.

But graduation has its perks. I'm glad I went to BYU, and I miss everyone that I met there, but I'm so happy with our new situation.

I learned my name in Arabic today. It's گرستوفر (Christopher) وييست (West). Is that not the coolest thing you've ever seen? It looks a lot like my actual signature (next time someone makes fun of your sloppy handwriting, tell them it's Arabic).

An Iraqi refugee named Refat is teaching me Arabic. Anyone is invited to come. We meet on Saturdays at 10am. I pay him a little for his time, because he has a wife and daughter to take care of, and because he's a refugee from freaking Iraq. Give me a call if you're interested.

I've also helped an organic farmer start his seeds this week, and I'll be helping brother Rasmussen with his corn crop when the weather gets a little warmer. So I'm on my way to becoming a farmer.

Dirt brownies
-

Along those lines, my landlord and neighbor Gregg says I'm a real cowboy now. I had just finished filing my taxes (arrgh) when I looked out the window and saw a cow in the neighbor's yard. This is not very unusual in Draper. Our other neighbor has horses. But this neighbor owns dogs, not cows. I recognized the cow as that of my landlord, and I ran outside and called my landlord up on the phone.

"It looks like the grass is greener on the otherside," I said to his voicemail, "because your cow has escaped."

The fugitives
-

Gregg had not answered, so I was on my own. I chased the cow around for a while, and opened up the gate to steer him inside. But after I opened the gate, the other cow also escaped.

I chased them around our yard for about ten minutes. They did not want to go back to their already-chewed and trampled grass, they wanted the fresh green mouthfuls our yard had to offer.

They ran away from me like naughty little kids. They really are full of personality. I finally shooed them inside, and that's how I became a real cowboy.

We still have no idea how the first one got out.

If you're not sure what you're going to do when you graduate, or with your life in general, I welcome you to Draper, where you can chase cows, learn Arabic, and play in the dirt.