After coming back from vacation we had a few surprises in the garden. One of them was a crazy amount of weeds that had taken over after the warm week. The other was a decent harvest of peas, some berries, a pepper, carrots and beets.
For dinner we had a colorful meal of pea soup and beet and carrot salad. The picture doesn’t do it justice, but this pea soup was a wonderful lime green.
Don’t forget the dessert.
We were able to harvest a few peas and a couple beets this morning.
We went ahead and blanched the peas and froze them to make a pea soup once we have enough. Apparently you can even use the pods to make a broth so we froze those too.
With the beets I plan to make a salad using the greens and the boiled beets.
The newest addition to our family is the Big Green Egg that Drew got for his birthday from his wonderful family. This will give him his next project of learning how to use the thing.
Here is the current state of the garden. We are hoping to pull up some beets soon.
Front: Carrots and beet Back: Lettuce, peas, and cauliflower
Peppers and cucumbers
Corn, beans, and squash
Tomatoes
We just had our first meal of the season with food from the garden. Taco salad with freshly picked lettuce and some of the salsa we canned in the previous year.
A quick look at the garden.
We are starting to get excited about the garden as each bed is filled. Our tomatoes and peppers that we planted too early are not doing well. We decided to buy a few seedlings from the Plant Kingdom to supplement. Here is a look at the fruit and veggies.
Peppers
Tomato
Corn and Squash
Cauliflower
Carrots
Beets
Peas
Strawberry
Blueberry
Currants
We have a new addition to our family. The lemon tree! See the little lemon already forming?
The beets are coming up. Yes, I need to weed.
Peas are grabbing onto the trellis.
And Drew transplanted the corn.
It is great to see some green in the garden these days. Our peas have been transplanted. Drew set up a handy trellis for them to grab onto.
The first sighting of the corn occurred this morning.
We have tomatoes, pepper and cauliflower also growing in our loft. The carrots and beets have been sown.
In other news, some of you already heard about the near drowning of the chickens, but here is the proof. They were under water in this pond in our backyard before Drew came to their rescue and used his he-man strength to pull the coop up onto the shore. Glad he was home.
Now for your entertainment, some pics of Willis being a snow bunny.
Look at what my wonderful husband did! Built me another raised bed made especially for tomatoes.
But wait, he actually built me two more raised beds. The possibilities are endless. Carrots, beets, lettuce, peas….
He later blew my mind by getting them buried and filled with dirt while I was slaving away at work one Saturday. He is a keeper!
Take some venison, provided by my dad, and our dehydrator and out comes jerky! I have never been a jerky fan but I must say this actually turned out really well. Drew used the venison roast and a marinade of soy sauce, our habanero hot sauce, and various spices. Yum!
It is very comforting to see signs of new life in our loft even while I feel as if my own energy and life force is slowly withering away. Okay, maybe I’ve exaggerated, but why in the heck do I still have another month of busy season!? The weather is starting to get warm and I am over being cooped up (sorry chickens) in an office six days a week.
Enough of my complaining, Drew has already heard plenty. The good news is that the seeds Drew saved from our cherry tomato plant have been doing the best out of every other seed we’ve planted so far.
Go Drew! The seedlings in the back are the cherry and the seedlings up front are the beefsteak. There are also signs of peppers, who took forever to get going this year, and cauliflower. Last year I planted the cauliflower too late in the fall. This year I’m going to try a spring crop and if it fails, I’ll try getting my fall crop going earlier.
This weekend we will start prepping the soil for our berries and planting the kale. I’m getting excited as the weather warms up!
