8.21.2008

Reason #1....


My garden
One of my most favorite things about living in the country is that I have room to grow the foods we love the most! I love all of the fresh veggies that we have in the summer months. This year we planted red bell peppers (the girls like them better than green and I can't blame them!). Inadvertantly, I think I've finally figured out how to grow big, thick, firm green bell peppers like the kind you buy in the store, not those wimpy, small home-grown looking kind. You plant red bell pepper plants and because the peppers never actually turn red, no matter how long you leave them on the vine, you pick them green! Genius! Sorry girls. :-) We also thought we would out-smart our eggplant by planting only one. How many eggplants could one measly plant produce? Around 5 per day, that's how many! The question has become, how much eggplant can two measly people (the only veggie I have found that the girls won't touch!) possibly eat? We have eggplant sandwiches (a real fave!), crusty eggplant (more commonly called eggplant parm.), pasta with grilled eggplant, skewered eggplant with chicken and veggies....I need ideas people!! Finally, we have tomatoes. Oh man, do we have tomatoes! We planted a little later than we should have and we're just getting into the thick of tomato production. We have cherry tomatoes (Lauren's favorite thing to pick....and eat), Romas, and Beefsteak. When it comes to the tomatoes, I say we plant maybe one or two plants....however, the farmer in my husband breaks out the rototiller, pulls rows, sets up a trellis to hold up the plants as they grow. Thus, we have 6 tomato plants and about 150 tomatoes to pick every day. OK, that may be a bit of an exaggeration.

Yesterday's bounty!
We had eggplant sandwiches for dinner last night....again! :-)

6 comments:

~ Kati said...

ok sister, too bad your girls love school so much (haha) cuz your farm life is a homeschoolers dream come true! Oh how organic you could be! We do go to "school" on Wed, would that suffice for Emma? she'd be bored though, cuz most of their enrichment classes revolve around the school's farm-- been there done that I guess ;)

Sunny said...

How did I not know you had this bounteous garden?! I am so mad at myself for not having taken any of the tomatoes you brought to playgroup but I guess I had other things on my mind. :/ Let me know if you need someone to take some of your produce. :)

Talia said...

ooh, this makes me SO excited to plant and harvest vegetable someday! I know nothing about it really, so I ma ybe pestering you for lots of advice when that times comes. :) I can't believe how many fresh veggies you have! That's amazing. By the way, those tomatoes were YUM. I haven't had a home-grown tomato in forever, so thank you!!

Kourtni said...

The tomatoes are great!! I'm the only one around here who will touch a tomato... but I was really excited to get some! Your harvest looks amazing.

Oh... and I laughed so hard your comment about biological warfare. LOL!!!!!

Fairytale Mom said...

i am enjoying your blog cheri and am envious of your green thumb! we have been contemplating a garden for some time but the only veggies clint eats are green beans and corn (does that even count?) I'll have to hit you up for some ideas soon.

Sunny said...

Those tomatoes you left me were super yummy! I used half of them on Sunday and the other half last night to make pico de gallo. I could totally tell which tomato chunks were from the ones you gave me and which ones were the grocery store ones I added since I needed more. The store ones were mushy, watery, pale pink in color while yours were a vibrant red! I need more! LOL.

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