Today's Harvest!

The warm sunny afternoons and the rainy evenings have been a garden delight. The replanted beds of lettuce are coming up. The new spinach and arugula squares are starting to sprout. And the tomatoes, cucumbers and squash are happy!

Summer is in Full Swing at the Square Foot Garden

Summer is in full swing right now and so is my garden. The spring lettuce has had it's run and now the fall planting is starting to make its appearance. 

Our cabbage is ready to harvest, but it looks so nice, that I hate to take it so soon...

The bell peppers that were just tiny little buds last week are almost full size.

 My summer squash is coming showing a lot of growth. There are also many blossoms on the vines, so I am expecting many more!

And here is the beginnings of a little tiny cucumber. Cucumbers have been one of my favorites, ever since I was a little girl, and nothing can compare to the freshness of a garden cucumber. 

I replanted several of my squares this week with the beginnings of what will be my fall crops. I have new carrots, a batch of spinach and two new lettuces that took over the squares where the onions, broccoli and the old lettuce had been. More on them to come! 

Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers

These little beauties will soon be covered in olive oil and garlic salt and hitting the frying pan.

And my mint is ready for a nice herbal tea... or some hemp oil and tea tree soap. 

And last but not least, this little bud is what will soon be an eggplant. I love eggplant. 

You are never too old to learn something new!

Since this is my first year as a serious gardener, I have had to supplement my produce with a few other items that I didn't start early enough to grow or that I didn't have enough boxes to be able to plant this summer or that just weren't practical. I have been going to a local farmer's market to get sweet corn, strawberries, cherries and fingerling potatoes.

Last week when we were getting the last of the season's strawberries, I saw the little cute cucumbers that are used to make pickles. I have three children that ADORE pickles. They would eat them everyday if I let them. Maddie was with me and said.... Can we PLEASE make pickles?

So I decided that, yes, we would make pickles.

It was much easier than I anticipated. All we had to do was slice up the pickles, put them in the jars and then pour the vinegar and spice mixture over them. 

They got put into a simmering bath for 20 minutes.

And voile, we had three pints of pickles. 

Of course it was so easy that Maddie wants to go get a whole case of jars and a giant basket of cucumbers and make a LOT more. I was thinking that I could make tomato sauce, salsa and apple sauce. I might even do some peaches in August just like my mom used to do when I was growing up. 

A Beautiful Quiche

Many years ago, more years than I care to remember at this time, when I had just Leo and he was small, I belonged to an organic vegetable co-op. For an investment of a few hundred dollars prior to the beginning of the growing season, you could buy a share of the upcoming season's crop. It introduced us to all kinds of locally grown organic produce that I would have never seen normally.

One of the nicest things that they would do would be to include a few recipes in the share boxes to teach you how to use all the new and wonderful items that you were receiving. One of my all time favorite recipes from this experience was for a zucchini pie. It is actually a quiche that has zucchini, onions, a bunch of herbs, cheese and of course, eggs.

In keeping with this summer's theme of "it has to come from the garden or the chickens" I made two of these creations over the weekend.

Of course the boys are much bigger now and have a developed a much greater appreciation for vegetables. There were no leftovers this time. Both were devoured in one sitting. 

Things Are Really Growing Now!

The most amazing thing about my garden is that I am a complete novice gardener. And here I am, half way thought the summer growing season and I have all these terrific veggies... and herbs and some things are on their second planting of the season. 

Here is my second harvest of broccoli.

I am still getting lettuce from the first planting, even though it is showing a little bit of "bolt." I have already planted a second batch of Butter Crunch lettuce. That is Leo's favorite. 

My basil that I started from seed is doing pretty well. I just need to fine that culprit that is putting little holes in it so I can send them somewhere else. 

The Italian parsley is looking great. I have gotten a few harvests from it so far.

And the dream of every Italian gardener... the coveted Roma tomato. These will be roasted in garlic and olive oil and then made into sauce as well as other things. 

You Really Can Just Eat Eggs and Veggies!

I have been teasing the kids, ever since I planted my garden, that if I got good enough at growing veggies, I could stop going to the grocery store. I jokingly told them that we could just gather eggs from the chickens and harvest things from the garden when ever they got hungry.

Then I saw this thing of beauty, an egg with greens, roasted tomatoes and avocado slices on some nice grilled bread that looks almost too heavenly to eat.

How perfect would this be for breakfast, lunch or dinner?

I make egg sandwiches all the time, but I never thought to make one with veggies.

Tomorrow, I will collect the eggs from the chickens, snip off a leaf or two from some of the broccoli plants and see what I can come up with.

I can't wait!