We all (minus Margaret) spent a few hours in the garden yesterday evening. It was a great time since Eli and Edith got caught up playing house in the pepper patch. The pepper plants are as tall as the kids, so they had a blast in them for almost two hours. Eli had to be dragged out.
Meanwhile, Melanie picked an overflowing bushel of Roma paste tomatoes, and a few baskets of others, including small black plums and a bushel of massive and heavy heirloom slicing tomatoes.
The kids usually wander around the garden barefoot for a few minutes before running back to the house asking for a movie or something. But this was the first time they really played in the garden while we worked. It really reminded me of growing up on the farm and having to find things to do. TV was never an option while the sun was up. There was always lots to do once you started, just, doing stuff.
The best part is that the kids are really eating a lot straight from the garden. It's now a tradition to dig up a carrot for Eli, and Edith will help herself to peppers and tomatoes non-stop. Although sometimes I have to do some surgery to remove a scrunched up herb leaf from a nose from time to time.
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Great post man. There's not much better than taking ripe food out of the garden while the kids play nearby. Tonight for dinner, we ate slices of our own big heirloom tomatoes with pesto made from our own basil. Rachel took a zucchini and used a carrot peeler to make thin strips of it and fried them in oil and salt. Shepard ate it like a champ. A little organic chicken breast and rice made for a super dinner.
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul. We've never gotten around to making real pesto before. We have TONS of basil, so we're going to have to.
ReplyDeleteWe call the zucchini strips "alligator tongues" and that gets Eli eating them.
Family friends of mine used to eat carrots straight from their garden. The kids took to swishing them off in the pool to get the dirt off and ten eating them. Until all three of the kids got worms at the same time from it. Be careful!
ReplyDeleteWe'll keep an eye out for any itchiness :) We scrub the carrots pretty good before we give them to the kids, other than that, not sure if we can do much else.
ReplyDeleteI had a great year with my tomatoes and hot peppers this year. We had so many hot days this summer, it was great. I don't know what I did right but my tomatoes and peppers were disease -free and not at all homely like some other home-grown tomatoes I've seen.
ReplyDeleteI grew Alberta-engineered (?) tomato seeds that brought me hundreds and hundreds of medium sized round tomatoes (like the ones you buy in the store). Almost all of them very pretty without any defects. I also grew some steakhouse tomatoes and my wife has raved at their blood-red hue and flavour (not to mention beauty)
I grew chilis, halapenos, cherry peppers, banana peppers, many came out blazing red (left them on the plant forever) and again, without defects and very magazine picture worthy. I can send pictures if you like.
I also grew ground cherries and they have boomed beyond the garden. I'm still waiting to harvest my pole beans which come out late every summer (compared to those grown by my Italian neighbours)
All in all, a great summer. I WANT A HOBBY FARM!!! :)))