What we are eating...

i've been working on putting together an 'Around the garden' post to participate in the 'around the farm' blog hop over at the the inspiring Farmama blog. However, we've been stuck waiting for rain...so at this point my 'garden isn't looking all that exciting. So instead of posting pretty garden photos, i thought i'd pictures of our recent harvests.

i'm honestly amazed that my garden is doing as well as it is, and still producing during the recent heat wave. By garden, i mean mainly my cold crops planted on the front hill. My main garden is still rather empty. i have lots of seeds in the ground, but without any real rain they are just sitting there. The weather has not really been idea for cold weather crops, and yet mine are still thriving.


Although my spinach all went to seed about a month ago, my leaf lettuce is doing fine. It still looks great, and isn't bitter at all. My first planting is producing well, and i have a second planting that is almost big enough to start picking. i had a few specialty lettuces that didn't last the heat. i'm still getting a few leaves here and there, but most of it either didn't germinate at all, or bolted as soon as it came up. Regardless, we have been enjoying lots of salads. This one pictured is mainly green leaf lettuce, with a few random leaves from the mesclun mix. A few nasturtium leaves, snowpeas, broccoli and onion.

We just started getting blueberries. Although between the kids stripping the bushes first thing in the morning, the fat little robin that is sitting on the fence post..and the chickens, i will surprised if i get any frozen this year. The bushes are loaded, but the kids have them eaten before i've even finished my first cup of coffee.

It is looking like we will have a nice crop of raspberries. Although again, i'm competing with the kids who are out there every morning stuffing their faces. :) So i'm hoping to pick enough for jam, but not sure it will happen.


A little peek at what we are harvesting this week. i am getting Swiss Chard, sugar snap peas and lots of fresh eggs. i had a few potatoes look blighty, so instead of risking it spreading to the rest of the plants i dug the potatoes early and burned the plants. i have potatoes planted in a couple different beds this year, so i'm hoping to get a decent crop.

My broccoli was absolutely perfect this year. It really makes no sense with the weird weather pattern we had this spring, but i'm not going to complain. i harvested a dozen heads this week and i had NO worms. i haven't even seen any cabbage moths hovering around. So i really can not explain how i managed to grow perfect, worm-free organic broccoli in 90 degree weather...but i did. :) One of the problems i always face with broccoli (besides the worms) it that the heads are always ready to harvest at the same time. This year i froze several heads, we've had broccoli for dinner every night and i still have 3 heads in the fridges. i have another dozen plants that were planted later, and i'm not sure they are going to do much.


i'm still getting a good amount of asparagus. We enjoyed the garlic scapes so much that i made them again last night. We saute'd the scapes in olive oil, added asparagus and snow peas. When everything was tender crisp i added a pat of butter and splash of lemon juice. It was so good!!! i'm a bit bummed that the garlic scape season is so brief, and will be making a point of planting more next year.


Lastly, we have cherries! These are from our neighbors tree, ours are not producing yet. They have 3 huge trees just loaded with cherries, and they don't spray them or use them. So every year they tell us to come and pick as much as we want before the birds get them all. So we went over a couple days ago and picked a 5 gallon bucket full. i've been working on freezing and canning, and we have been eating them by the handful.

i love this time of year where the kids can wander around the yard grazing on fresh organic foods. They munch of fresh pea pods and eat berries until their bellies hurt. Our meals now always include fresh organic garden produce and tasty fruits. So nice to get away from the canned and frozen veggies we ate much of the winter. It always feel so good to grow and provide so much for our family.

As you can tell by my lack of craft posting, i have had to temporarily put my crafting on hold while i adjusted to having both kids at home, and worked on getting the garden planted. My garden still isn't completely in. i haven't even turned up the 3 sisters bed...still waiting for a good rain. We are slowly beginning to find our rhythm again, and i am hoping to get these projects finished soon, and new ones started.