If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you know that every year at around this time we wind up talking about back to school routines. Are we a broken farm disk? Maybe. But this is important stuff. We can’t help it - we operate in seasons, and if it's not the literal changing of weather and temperature, it's the metaphorical change of tides. Seasons are us farmers process the world! We know there are a lot of you reading this that are in the throws of a seasonal shift. We're here for you.

The days are still long and temperatures scorching, but the carefree days of summer are gone... school is in session. And that means the reinstitution of things like reasonable bedtimes and after school activities. And even if you don’t have kids or aren't bound by traditional school schedules, you may still be feeling a desire to introduce a little more structure to your routine. The slow pace of summertime grazing no longer feels like an option, and so often our food choices suffer. This week we’re here to just give you a little pep talk. With a little forethought, you can easily eat healthily amid the seasonal chaos! You can do it! Give your body (as well as your family’s) the proper fuel it needs to make this transition!

Back to school. Photo by Casey Degman.

There is a profuse amount of research floating around that touts the benefits of eating shared meals with your family, but it all seems to boil down to this: families that more regularly share meals together (at home) are more connected, have more of an opportunity for communication, are generally less stressed, and make healthier food choices. If it wasn't clear, JBG officially endorses the idea of family supper, and while it may not be something that can feasibly happen all nights, wouldn't it be nice if it happened most nights? If you live with roommates, instituting a weekly “family” meal is a wonderful way to reap these same benefits.

Some thoughts for making home cooked meals more feasible:

Meal Plan. Sit down with a cup of coffee (or glass of wine, depending on the hour) and make a grocery list. Try to think about dishes that can stretch over the course of a couple days, or ones that can double as lunch for the next day. Batch cook! Roast carrots and beets to use in a salad, pasta dish, soup, and quiche. Need help getting into the meal prep groove? Go to a couple fall classes with our friends at Club Home Made and let them show you the path to (meal) prep.

JBG customer Martha Pincoffs uses sticky notes to display the week's menu. Best part? The menu items are movable in case things change. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

One dinner's leftovers yield 3 meal-prepped lunches. Photo by Club Home Made.

Have realistic expectations. Don’t go crazy trying to make a from-scratch lasagna on a Wednesday night; save that kind of cooking for the weekend or maybe for your Italian grandmother. Master some quick recipes, and dismiss the pressure to get gourmet, every night of the week. Beautifully curated food pictures on social media should inspire us, make our mouths water, but not create unrealistic expectations of what our everyday meals should look like.

Share the responsibility. Make sure everyone in the household is involved in the process, from table setting to veggie chopping to dish duty. Ask kids to suggest some types of recipes. Eating with friends? One word: Potluck. Feeling tired of your go-to recipes? The internet is here for you. Checkout the JBG recipe archive, or simply Google the ingredients that need to be used. Wish you cooked more Thai food at home? Search “quick Thai recipes” and you’ve got a reference point. When reading recipes, always consider them as a guide but not a strict formula. Unlike most published cookbooks which have gone through a long edited processed and had recipes tested and retested, recipes that we find on blogs can sometimes be less sure-fire. If something doesn't seem right in a recipe, find another and combine the two! If you’re a CSA member, think outside (except inside) the confines of your CSA box and don't be afraid to substitute CSA veggies for specific ingredients in a recipe.

And when that fails…

Wholesome, home-cooked food won’t always be feasible because life is busy. But you know what? That’s a-okay. It’s all about balance, right? Luckily there are plenty of options in this town for healthy pre-packed lunches and on-the-go food. And this brings us to Beeline Market. We can’t help but highlight this long-time partner of ours. Beeline is the absolute authority on kid-friendly, healthy, and seasonal lunch boxes for kiddos… which they endearingly call Buzz Boxes. We love the fact that they have several Buzz Box options - some for little kids, some for big. There are boxes for the play-it-safe kids, as well as for the kiddos with a bit more adventurous of palates. Best part? Top notch, high quality, local and often organic ingredients make up the majority of these boxes, including, of course, ample JBG vegetables. Like the best farm to table restaurants in town, the Buzz Box menus are always changing based on seasonality and kiddo-feedback. Be sure to follow Beeline Market on Instagram for mesmerizing photos of perfectly portioned lunches. Here are some of our favorite Buzz Boxes of late that featured JBG Produce:

Wouldn't you eat these? Pizza features a rainbow sauce that is packed with veggies. Photo courtesy of Beeline Market's Instagram.

Best of luck to all the parents, students, teachers, faculty and staff out there who might be reading this. May our fresh vegetables and curated recipes help ease your transition into this new school season. Cheers!

When in doubt, encourage your kids to eat from the cafeteria! JBG veggies make a regular appearance! Photo by Scott David Gordon.