Picnic dinner at the beach tonight:

(Polenta with fire-roasted tomato sauce, parmesan cheese, and parsley; peas; corn; beach-y trail mix with dried apple, apricot, goji berries, raw pumpkin seeds and slivered almonds.)

*     *     *     *

Dear babies,

You kids eat.  A lot.  The good stuff, too.  You eat just about anything that grows.  (This may sometimes be dangerous; you saw mushrooms in the garden last week and thought they were shiitakes.)  You expect diversity in your diet, and lots of flavor.

And when you are eating something delicious you offer us just about the only time in the day that you are quiet enough to let your parents talk.

So, we’ve started packing for picnics, lots of picnics.  For everywhere.  We eat picnics at the playground, at the beach, at the George Ranch, and at UST.  After we eat, we play, and let the grackles and mockingbirds sweet up the crumbs.

These picnics give us sweet memories.  We hope they do the same for you.

Now it’s time to get ready to go to the beach . . .

*     *     *     *

Lunch yesterday at the co-op:

(Fresh mango; trail mix with Heritage O’s, goji berries*, and pineapple; peas, frozen to stay fresh; ants on a log; shredded coconut.)

*  Goji berries:  I’m not sure what to think of goji berries.  I recently introduced you to them and you love, love, love goji berries (I like them, too), but . . . I can’t be sure that I feel good about the source, since they come from so far away.  Don’t resent me forever when I stop buying them for you, okay?

**  You like our Laptop Lunch bento boxes?  Send me a comment and I’ll tell you how to get one.