by Eric Richard

• 4 (3 lbs.) zucchini (Choice of zucchini, crooked neck squash, or yellow squash)
• 1 lb. of carrots
• 1 oz. (take what you want) of thyme
• 1 oz. (take what you want) of oregano)
• 1 head (.5 lb) of cabbage
• 2 (.5 lb) cucumbers
• 1 (.25 lb) fennel
• 1 bunch (3 oz.) of basil
• 1 lb. of broccoli (choose 2 of broccoli, chard, okra, pickling cucumbers, beets, or scallions)
• 1 bunch (.5 lb) of chard (choose 2 of broccoli, chard, okra, pickling cucumbers, beets, or scallions)
• 3 qt. (2 lbs) of green beans
• 1 (1/8 lbs) tomato
• 1/2 pt. (.5 lb) of cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 cup (20) blueberries
• 1 head (.5 lbs) of romaine lettuce (Choice of romaine, red leaf, and green leaf)

by Eric Richard

• 3 (2 lb.) of zucchini (choice of any combination of 5 zucchini, yellow squash, and crooked neck squash)
• 2 (1 lb.) of crooked neck squash (choice of any combination of 5 zucchini, yellow squash, and crooked neck squash)
• 1 bunch (1 lb.) of beets
• 2 oz. (take what you want) of cilantro
• 1 oz. (take what you want) of thyme
• 1 oz. (take what you want) of oregano
• 5 (1 lb.) cucumbers
• 2 (.5 lb) pickling cucumbers
• 1 bunch (6 oz.) of basil
• 1 bunch (1 lb.) of carrots
• 1 bunch (.5 lb) of green kale (Choose 2 of kale, chinese cabbage, cabbage, scallions or beets)
• 1 head (1 lb) of cabbage (Choose 2 of kale, chinese cabbage, cabbage, scallions or beets. We chose kale and cabbage)
• 1 head (.5 lb) of boston lettuce
• 1/2 cup (25) blueberries
• 1.5 qt. (1 lb) of green beans

by Eric Richard

Catching up again.

Here’s the week 5 distribution:

• 8 lbs of zucchini
• 1 (1/4 lb) of cucumber
• 3 (1/2 lb) of pickling cucumbers
• 1 bunch (6 oz) of basil
• 1 head (1 lb) of escarole
• 1 head (2 lbs) of chinese cabbage (Choice of chinese cabbage, green kale, broccoli, or mustard greens)
• 1 bunch (.5 lbs) of green kale (Choice of chinese cabbage, green kale, broccoli, or mustard greens)
• 2 heads (1 lb) of green leaf lettuce (Choice of green leaf, boston, or red leaf)
• 1 pint (.5 lbs) of sugar snap peas
• 3 oz. (take what you want) of cilantro
• 1 oz. (take what you want) of sage
• 1 oz. (take what you want) of oregano

by Eric Richard

In early April, the Automotive X Prize was announced with the goal of showing the feasibility of a production quality, affordable car that can get 100 mpg. This was covered in a previous blog article.

Last week, the first 30 teams applying for the prize were announced. There were a few familiar names including the folks at Tesla Motors.

According to this article, the organizers of the competition are hoping to get some of the larger auto manufacturers involved and announcement was intended to help create more excitement and publicity around the program.

As of now, the actual prize has not been announced and the actual rules for the competition are still in draft form. Hopefully by the end of the year, they will finalize the rules and announce the actual prize and get things rolling.

The ultimate goal would be to have the actual competition with real cars in 2009.

by Eric Richard

There have been several previous postings on this blog about the GM Volt.

Up until now, the Volt has been described as a “concept car” and no one from GM had ever crossed the line into saying that the Volt would ever go into production.

It looks like that is starting to change. According to an article in the Detroit Free Press GM is continuing to work on the battery technology problem and is hoping to have batteries ready for road testing by next spring on the way to bringing the Volt to market by the end of 2010.

I thought there was one very interesting comment in the article that speaks to some of the “out of the box” thinking that is going on about how to get an electric vehicle to market. Specifically:

GM is exploring the possibility of selling its electrically propelled vehicles but leasing its batteries, the idea being to get people to think of the batteries as a fuel source and pay for them as they go, the way they do for gasoline and diesel.

I wonder whether other vendors will look to do the same thing until the battery technology is all the way there.

Going along the lines as a previous thread, my hope is that this just continues to advance the battery technology forward to the point that hybrid electrics can be made by several vendors.

Of course, the Volt isn’t the only game in town. The high end Tesla Roadster will be rolling off production lines later this year. Of course, they solved the problem the “hard way” by using something like 2,000 laptop batteries in each car. Not exactly a cheap solution, but I guess that’s why they charge $98,000 / car whereas the Volt is intended to “come in at the price of a conventional mid-market car.”