(Sunday Paper, Year VI, Issue 35)

It had been a while since we did a food share of any kind.

We tried a farm share some years back - I’d say it was post-having kids, but they were definitely very little - and we did it for a couple of years.

But our enthusiasm for it waned.

I seem to remember there was too much dill.

So we went back to years and years of veggies from the grocery store.

Then this year we got back to it…

…and in fact, we’re doing a fish share too.

The farm share has been fine.

I hate to give it a lukewarm review, but it just hasn’t been anything too exciting.

And it pales in comparison to my enthusiasm for the fish share.

Let me tell you a little bit about the vegetables first.

We’re splitting a Drumlin Farm full share of veggies with my sister-in-law.

And there’s nothing wrong with it - the veggies have been good, and it always tastes better when you know you’re eating farm-fresh vegetables.

But there’s just something nagging at me about it that I don’t LOVE. It might be that the full share is too big for if we were doing it by ourselves…but the half-share feels like just a notch too little for us. (Not that we have a ton going to waste…and not like the girls are eating every vegetable that comes their way.)

I really liked the corn. The lettuce and tomatoes are great.

Maybe it’s just that I don’t generally get excited about all the other vegetables we get. (Dill, again. I don’t like dill.) Maybe I want a kale-only share from somewhere.

Still, we’re continuing it through the fall. I’m sure I’ll like the squash. Fall squash is always a good time. Maybe something else will tickle my taste buds.

The fish, on the other hand. Oh, how I love our fish share.

We do a weekly pickup from Cape Ann Fresh Catch. (The fact that the pickup happens to be at Exhibit ‘A’ and sometimes Kathy and I sit and have a drink in the beer garden at pickup has nothing to do with my enthusiasm for the fish share.)

But with the strict diet I’ve been keeping as I get ready for the marathon, I’ve found that fish is a particularly great meal. I can’t explain the science behind its impact on exercising and all that but I don’t put on weight when I eat fish yet I am fairly well sated. And because the girls don’t eat a ton of it, there’s always leftover for lunch the next day or sometimes two. (Usually we freeze the fish when we get it and then eat it later in the week…before the next pickup. Last week was skate, and this week I had some good leftover skate sandwiches.)

So, considering I’ve needed to eat a lot of fish this summer, the timing of the fish share was ideal.

But the recipes Cape Ann has sent along with the fish - and Kathy’s fish preparation - have been great.

It’s healthy, which is one of the reasons we did it, and - bonus - it tastes better than expected.

So we just signed up for another eight weeks of that.

Notes

*I should add that both of these are pretty economical options too - I think of it in terms of “what would we otherwise be spending on vegetables [or fish]?” As for the veggies, it hasn’t made much of a dent in the grocery bill…and occasionally I still have to buy broccoli or other vegetables. (That’s it! That’s why I’m less than 100% satisfied with the veggie share. Should I go back and edit the post? No. I will leave this revelation here. It’s the fact that I still need to buy peppers for sausage and peppers, broccoli almost every week, and that sort of thing. It doesn’t fully meet our vegetable needs!) But as for the fish - if we bought fish every week we’d be spending at least $20 a week on it. Probably slightly more…and with the fish share we’re easily getting more fish for a similar price. So that one’s a no-brainer. Also, I wouldn’t be buying fish every week if it wasn't for the fish share. Certainly not skate.

*I mentioned my eating habits…I’ve been doing really well sticking to my healthier eating while marathon training. I’ve dropped a bunch of pounds and probably have a little more room to drop before race day. Sometimes we have chips laying around, like this week, and I eat too many….and I have been tempted by ice cream more lately than I have all summer….but I’ve made it this far that I think I’m going to be OK. I might even continue this after October 11th…maybe after a week or so of eating unhealthfully.

*Speaking of October 11th - this week is six weeks until the big day. Monday I begin my last six weeks of training. (Peloton’s program is divided up into 3 6-week programs…and I started with about 21 weeks until the race. So this past week was the last week I had to fill with a customized exercise schedule. I do better when it’s scheduled for me, so I’m excited about this week.)

*All of that and I still haven’t given the official Running Update: this week was another long run gray area. I told myself to do somewhere between 16 and 18 miles. That never goes well for me…and true to form, I stopped at 16 miles. Which is a fine run…and I think works well between last week and next week’s runs.

Last week, you may remember, was a 17.2 mile run (that turned into 17.7), and next week is another Team Framingham run slated for 18 miles. So the 16 on Saturday - I ran at a slower pace and did 3 hours - ended up feeling like a good in-betweener.

*Matt Tour Update: Hmm…nothing really big to report this week. He posted some scenic stuff on social media from Wyoming and Montana as he heads west (but you know that because you’re following all of his social media channels, right?)…and it was nice to see he was able to cross paths with some family traveling through St. Louis and in Denver.

*You can keep tabs on me by following me on Twitter here, or by giving the ol’ Facebook page a Like. This week’s Wednesday Facebook post was a follow-up to last week’s Sunday Paper. That’s always fun. It’s like a TV spin-off. I think the next couple of Wednesdays I have lined up might be some of my best work since the “John As A Tree” days. What’s that, you ask? Well, if you genuinely don’t know, let me know and maybe I’ll re-post some of those. Or create some new ones.

*I know 93.7% of you don’t care, but the Mets have fallen apart. Not the dream season I was hoping for six months ago.