garden abundance!!

Sunday the girls and I walked to the garden plot, wondering what the recent rains have wrought...WOW! We had a long day of waiting for Dan's folks to come, and harvesting veggies was a good way to pass the time...

 The girls each have a little section of their own - Anika's boasts two beets, and she picked one of them.  I cooked it for her and she ate it for dinner, lucky girl...

 We picked a large bowlful of salad greens, snap peas, and dark greens for our supper (quiche with our chard! a huge lettuce salad!).  I am giddy with the harvest we are having; last year I stepped into the garden maybe 4 times by the end of  May, due to my labor-intensive market farming job, and now I know why the yield last year was so low - you have to spend time in your garden! One of our garden neighbors has an amazing garden.  His family is from China and he grew up on a farm.  He often comments on our children - how confident, capable and friendly they are (they are!).  He came by as I stood in my garden, glowing, and told me that his mother used to plant potatoes in every available spot on their farm and at the right point in the season he would go scrabbling for all the spuds he could find - it was like an Easter egg hunt.  He said he thought having the girls at the garden was just the best thing we could be doing for our kids, giving them that respect for living things, having them grow their own food.  It was nice to have his vote of confidence...

 It was a good day for food...Ani is inspecting oyster mushrooms from the market, and enjoying a bowl of blueberries...

It was hot (it is still hot. really hot.), so we toted it all out to the backyard picnic table once Gramma and Grampa...so much goodness to enjoy.

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Last week Jessica and I harvested a huge amount of comfrey, as it was threatening to take over the entire plot.  I am still a little concerned, but it is at least manageable now.  

Doesn't it look like it's going to eat me??? Yes, I carried it all the way home. Once there I pulled off many of the leaves for drying (HA! in this weather? We'll see about that...) and chopped some up to use as fertilizer for some flower transplants here at home.  The leaves, even uncomposted, make great fertilizer, I am told.

I'll have to get back to you on the drying leaves...they have yet to get brittle and crunchy enough to put in bags or jars for later use...did I mention that it's hot and humid here???