Zucchini Time

We harvested our first zucchini of the season this weekend. Mark spotted it. He grilled it on the BBQ and it was quite tasty. I harvested a few more on Sunday and traded them for some peas with my sister over the back fence. On Sunday I went down to the 40/8 Flea Market at the Vets Building. I found this really cool book on Preserving for $1. There is a recipe for Zucchini and Ginger Jam which sounds absolutely delicious. I’m going to give it a try next weekend.
We still don't have any ripe tomatoes but the plants are loaded down with green ones so I am hopeful we will get a few more hot days and I'll be seeing them turn colors soon.

Garden Update

This photo is of the eastern most side of our garden looking thru the tomato fence. We've got beans, squash, okra, melons, tomatillos, basil, cilantro, lettuce, radishes and corn growing in these three beds.

This photo is of one of three tomato rows. We have 27 different heirloom tomato plants growing this year. not counting the volunteer mystery tomatoes that are popping up everywhere.

This is the middle garden, in front of our green house. There are probably around 40-50 eggplants (all different varieties) and 60-70 peppers plants in this section. There is also more beans, swiss chard & beets, basil and green onion planted here (not pictured). The peppers seem to be growing quite slowly. The eggplants made a miraculous recovery from the damage done by beetles early on. Once I get the straw mulch spread out I will take some more photos to share.

So Funny

I was headed home from work today on a rural back road that I don't usually take ( ironically named Scenic Avenue). I passed this sign in the front yard of a little ranch style home. I started laughing so hard I had to pull over and get a picture.

The Open Road

I went on a bicycle ride with Mark last weekend. It is the first time that I have ridden a bicycle in over 10 years. It was awesome! I’ve completely forgotten how good it feels to cruise around. My bike is less than ideal. It is a little rusty and not very comfortable but it will work fine until I can save enough to get a more reliable one. I don’t like that my bike has a ton of different speeds and I have to keep shifting on the handles. We rode 5 miles and I could have easily gone much much further if my behind didn’t hurt from my seat. I really want to get a simple cruiser bike with 3 speeds and a really wide seat. Mark has a mountain bike that he is happy with but his behind was a little sore too. He hasn’t been riding for awhile either. It’s funny how we each have very different ideas of what the bicycles should be used for. My suggestion was that we ride our bikes to the grocery store or over to the coffee shop. The closest one being a few miles away. He refused because he “does not want to go grocery shopping when he is all sweaty”. He wants to just go ride around with no particular destination in mind while I want to get from point A to point B. I have a feeling I am going to be riding on my own a lot. While out riding on the trail near our house we discovered some walnut trees and blackberry bushes loaded down with almost ripe fruit. I can’t wait to go back in a couple of weeks to harvest some berries for jam. I clocked how far it would be if I was to ride all the way to work each way. It is exactly 11.6 miles from my driveway to my office. There are 39 stop lights between here and there. I’d like to think that my fat ass could actually make it. I am going to have to test my theory by getting on a bike at the gym and trying to pedal 11.6 miles. I’ll let you know how it goes.

The Hammock is Up

Mark set the posts and hung up his hammock this past weekend. It's really comfortable and has a great view.

Flower Beds in Bloom

The Herb Garden

Salad Bar

We're growing a salad bar in the garden this year. This patch is just starting to sprout. It's got a huge variety of lettuce, spinach, basil, radishes, and bunching onions all mixed together. It's experimental, but so far it is coming along pretty good. The bugs do seem to be eating their fair share

One Local Summer Week #2

Salad from our garden

Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic (From Barefoot in Paris, Ina Garten Cookbook)

Local Chicken (raised in my backyard)
Local Spring Hill Farms Butter
Local Kendall Jackson Olive Oil
Local Kendall Jackson Wine
Local Clover Stornetta Cream

Local Farmers Market Garlic

Herbs from my garden

Honeymoon

After almost 1 year of wedded bliss Mark and I finally managed to go on our dream honeymoon. We've spent the last week soaking up the sunshine on the beaches of Cancun. It was a wonderful experience. The hotel we stayed at was relatively small and quiet. I finally had a chance to do nothing but relax and read. I read three great books. the Omnivores Dilemma, The Botany of Desire and In Defense of Food, all by Michaeal Pollan. I have to say that these books have got me thinking really hard about putting anything I have not grown myself into my mouth. Mark and I also did some snorkeling and enjoyed a trip to Xcaret. There were sea turtles coming up on to the beach to lay their eggs at night. The hotel has a section of the beach sectioned off to keep the eggs safe from the tourist traffic. The eggs get carefully moved to the safe area each night. One of the best parts of the trip was the amazing fresh food. It was awesome to eat whole food (nothing packaged) each day.