Wife, writer, tinkerer, grower of food. I'm happiest outside our rambling farmhouse with a basket looped on my arm, picking dinner from the garden. That's joy right there. Please follow along; I'm so glad you're here!
Raspberry progress! Some of 'em even have flowers.
Well, it's been two weeks since the last one, so I guess it's time for another veggie garden update!
The scene two weeks ago:
Pretty amazing, isn't it? Like, two weeks ago you could see dirt--lots of dirt-- and now you can't. At all. It's gone. The deer who came for two consecutive nights and "topped off" my green beans and peas have been kept at bay, so far, by a combination of aluminum pie plates (pictured) and some 100% organic deer repellent spray, which smells pleasantly like rosemary. The green beans have completely recovered; you can't even tell they got eaten they grow so fast.
I've been picking peas and eating peas. I made our old standard sesame baked tofu with snap peas over the weekend, and a pretty slammin' pea-and-radish salad with feta and mint the other night. I don't know why I love pea season so much-- certainly, there are other veggies I like more. Maybe it's because they're the first veggie each year to go from seed to sprout to bud to flower to fruit? Whatever the reason, each year my reverence is renewed.
We've also been eating salad, salad, salad; garlic braised greens; spinach frittata; and the occasional mint leaf straight off the plant. All the while, watching the broccoli crowning, the zucchini buds swelling, the little green tomato-marbles appearing amongst the leaves. It's thrilling, and unlike last year, this year I can dream of making everything a little bit bigger next year. Oooh baby. I dream of potatoes and sweet corn rows, and enough beans to dry some for winter. We're only just beginning...
I love it! I'm still expanding my garden a little every year, and I've been in the same space for 3 years now.
Oh, and if you decide by mid-august that your freezer is so full of green beans that you can't stand it any more - just leave them on the plant. Any green bean can be allowed to dry, shelled, and eaten like a dry bean. I do it every year when I get overwhelmed. Then I don't feel bad about leaving the pods to get big and fat.
Thank you, so much, for taking the time to chime in here. Your comments make my day. Let's do our best to keep the snarkiness at bay and be a happy, friendly place in the interwebs.
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3 comments:
I love it! I'm still expanding my garden a little every year, and I've been in the same space for 3 years now.
Oh, and if you decide by mid-august that your freezer is so full of green beans that you can't stand it any more - just leave them on the plant. Any green bean can be allowed to dry, shelled, and eaten like a dry bean. I do it every year when I get overwhelmed. Then I don't feel bad about leaving the pods to get big and fat.
I love your garden's progress! Mine is straining with the 100 degree days - ugh. Good to know the green bean trick. Never heard that before.
Yeah, it's been hot here, too. And dry. Not a good combination!
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Thank you, so much, for taking the time to chime in here. Your comments make my day. Let's do our best to keep the snarkiness at bay and be a happy, friendly place in the interwebs.