My Garden!

I know I'm a complete dork to get so worked up about a garden, but this is the first year I've ever planted a full vegetable garden. Ta-Da!

I'm like a little kid. When I was planting all these itty bitty seeds in the Spring I just kept thinking "there's no way these will actually grow into plants!" There's nothing like planting a garden to help you appreciate the miracles of nature. I had forgotten how good home grown veggies taste!

We have: tomatoes (LOTS of tomatoes) early girl, big boy, and cherry; lettuce, green onions, carrots, zucchini, summer squash and beans. I'm already anticipating what I'm going to plant next year....I want to try potatoes, peas, buttnernut squash, spinach, sweet onions, maybe brussel sprouts.

It's been great for my kids too......they will eat "rabbit carrots" (carrots with the green tops on) all day long in lieu of other treats. I've been also trying my hand at canning this year. My sister-in-law taught me how to do fruit a couple of years ago. So far I've bottled: peaches, apricots, apricot-pinapple jam, peaches, peach jam, pears, and this year I've done plum jam, plum syrup, salsa, and tomatoes. I'm so glad that I've learned how to do it because I enjoy doing it and we love having homegrown fruits and veggies year round. I also like being able to serve up organic, preservative free foods.