First fruit from the garden...

...and it's fruit! The only fruit we planted (well, besides rhubarb) is strawberries. We got two bright, beautiful babes this morning!!

We may get one or two more this year. We weren't expecting a lot, since this is the first year and we started the four plants late. Next year, however, we should see much more.





Speaking of progress, some pictures of what's greening up in our back yard:

Beans, with a tomato on each end.
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Tomatoes!! These are the plants started from seed this Spring. We almost gave up on them, but I'm glad we didn't. Here, Michael is stringing up the center ones to reach for the top slat.
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More tomatoes (from plant), peppers, herbs and eggplant. (isn't that grapevine in the background gorgeous?!)
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Closeup of basil. Yay, basil!! I have a pot on the deck I've been pinching off of for regular use. This, if it yields enough, will be used to make and freeze pesto for the winter. Two of the squares are cucumber from another box that was thinned. We're hoping we can get the cuc vines to just drape over the edge of the box.
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Back three are Summer squash (though, we may be harvesting closer to Fall), and the other squares are onions.
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Cuc's in the back, middle two rows are onions and leeks, and the front is dill. A little overkill on the dill. It's okay, we'll give some away (let us know if you want any).
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Potatoes in back, carrots up front. Lots of carrots!
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Greens, greens and more greens! Swiss Chard, arugula and salad greens. We should be able to start harvesting some very soon. There's also a bunch of radishes in there.
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Winter squash. Two kinds, both good Winter keepers.
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Window boxes of herbs. These are plants from the farmers market, since our seeds never did take:( We've got Thai basil, parsley, tarragon, oregano, rosemary and sage in here. Hopefully I can transfer them indoors and find a good spot to keep them going in the Winter. This is a South facing window, in the dining room, but it's fairly shaded. The Winter sun may be different, though. We'll see.
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The raspberries. Of course, we didn't plant these, but I had to show how close we are to harvesting. I'm really looking forward to having enough to freeze, can and eat fresh. There are so many plants in this bush, it shouldn't be a problem.
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And, finally, I had to show some of our compost. You can see the difference in the color of the soil surrounding the peppers here. The darker is our compost from the turning composter we picked up 4-6 weeks ago. Beautiful stuff!

My husband is a natural at this stuff. We wouldn't have the amount of crops and the progress thus far if not for him. He is a farmer in the making, I'm convinced of it. He is always outside, checking, weeding, thinning, watering..doing whatever needs to be done. Check out his blog on how all of this was put together here.

This is how we do salad

Lately I've been layering salads. Not just layering ingredients, but layering textures and temperatures. I know, that sounds weird, but it's actually quite the pleasant experience.

First take a cold salad of greens and "stuff" (onion, peppers, tomatoes, etc.) and pile atop some crispy chips. Next layer, something sauteed and/or roasted (serve while still warm). Top it off with some cheese, and maybe even a drizzle of dressing.

Yum. Taste, temp and texture explosion!

Take tonight's dinner for example. Not the best salad of this type I've come up with thus far, but pretty good.First, I bake up little cutup triangles of corn tortillas, with some olive oil and salt brushed on before hand (Michael discovered how great these are a couple years ago; it's a cheap alternative to bags of chips. AND, you can cut 'em all up, throw them back in the bag, and just make a cookie sheet at a time, as needed).

Next, quite simply (this time), some greens (Romaine, I believe). Nothing fancy for the cold, crunchy portion of this salad.

The warm layer...this time two different animals. First, I've discovered something that my husband could eat every night (at least while the stuff is in season), and it's so, so simple! I throw some kale and cut up beets in the oven (400 degrees) along with some garlic and olive oil, until the kale is crispy and the beets tender. Crispy, charred kale is AWESOME - I highly recommend trying it! Second, I sauteed up some broccoli, cauliflower and local chicken sausage until the broccoli was bright green (these were all items in my refrigerator that were in dire need of use, today). Oh, and I threw in some fresh basil, of course, from the pot out on the deck (if you didn't know, I absolutely LOVE basil, and attempt to sneak it in wherever I can). All of the warm items went on top of the greens. (the kale and beets second to the other, because I wanted that combination of color on top).

Lastly, I chopped up some lovely local Gruyere. This is one of my all time favorite cheeses..if not my absolute fav. Michael just happens to love it too. It's not often we both drool over the same cheese. All crumbled on top (it's a crumbly cheese), this was a nice finish to the salad, because it's sharp and flavorful, and just gets better with a little warmth from the warm ingredients in the salad.

That's it! The chips on the bottom, if the salad was made with a dressing, get a little pliable, yet still crispy, so you can use them to scoop up the salad. This time, they stayed pretty crispy, and were nice to bite into about halfway through a bite of salad.

I wish there were leftovers...


(p.s.: all veggies used were local and seasonal, partly from our farm share and partly from our trip to the farmers market this morning; the chicken and cheese, as mentioned, were from local farms; and, hey, the corn tortillas were from a local vendor too!)

Hope I've inspired!