Kale and Raspberry smoothie

When I'm feeling lazy and not in the mood to cook, my garden provides the easiest path to dinner.  

Step one: Walk out to garden.  Snip kale leaves.

Step Two: Blend kale leaves.

Step Three: Add frozen raspberries from this past summer's garden.

Step Four:  add some bananas, flax seed, chia seed.

And done.

Yum.

Basil? Pesto!

Got a lot of basil from your garden? 

Make some pesto!  

Canning Tomatoes

Tonight I spent some time canning tomatoes.  Why?  This is why:

My dining room table

I got a total of six quart-sized jars and only used up about 40% of them.  It will be nice to make some homemade sauce in the winter when garden-fresh tomatoes are scarce!

I used the pressure canner that my in-laws gave me a few years ago.  It was used during the years my husband was growing up.  He has many fond memories of going to his grandfather's garden and picking green beans so they could process them and store them for the winter.   The canner has obviously seen a lot of use and it comes to me outfitted with a new seal.

Hopefully I will have a chance to do another round in the next few days to use up the remainder of tomatoes.

Pickles

Garlic Dill Pickles

Bread and Butter Pickles

Dinner Tonight!

Couscous salad with organic cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers and basil

And of course some corn from the garden!

It Doesn't Take Much...

It doesn't take much...

Only this amount of corn plants...

Yields this amount in one day's harvest...

To feed some hungry boys...

Yummy organic goodness!

Garden to table in 30 minutes!

Deer Like Tomatoes Too

If you come into my house this summer you are bound to see a collection of tomatoes in various stages of ripening.  The deer have been munching on them in the garden so I have resorted to picking the fruit off the plant just when I start to see a little bit of pink.  They ripen just fine inside and I don't have to worry about coming out in the morning to a  pulpy mess.

Salsa anyone?

Tomatoes ripening on my dining room table

Pickles

I've got cucumbers!
I'm going to make the standard fast and easy pickle recipe.  I'd like to try something else, too.  Does anyone have a favorite pickle recipe they'd like to share?

Quiz: What's better than a restaurant-quality, ciabatta panini sandwich with organic tomato, zucchini and basil from your own garden?

Answer:
When your husband cooks it for you :)

MMMmmmmm.....

This time of year I'm always feeing overwhelmed with trying to come up with different ideas to use up the zucchini and tomatoes that we pick daily.  My husband always does such a good job of stepping in with different and yummy ideas.  I am good at growing the stuff but he is so much better at getting it on the table in creative ways!  Tonight's meal was no exception - it was wicked good!

Breakfast!

There's nothing better than walking out into your own backyard to pick your breakfast!  Fresh, organic and so yummy.

Picking breakfast

Yum

Before I wiped the humidity off of my lens cap

Harvest After Vacation

Whenever we go away from home for a while, I am always amazed at how much the garden has grown when we return.  In addition to the pictures of things below, there were many blueberries, peas, green beans and raspberries that didn't make it to the kitchen!

Cucumbers

Squash and zucchini

Green beans and peas

Tomatoes and green peppers

Raspberries rinsed and ready for freezing

Blueberries

 This boy loves blueberries!  He loves going out every morning to see if there are some ready to pick.

This morning's harvest

Buzzin'

When I was taking pictures of my primrose plant, a bee swooped into the frame.

All Hands On Deck

At my house, gardening is a family affair.

My 'tiller'

Even 'doggie' gets in on the action

Searching for worms

Jackpot!

Late Frost

Last week we had a few nights that dipped down into the low 30's.  I covered my tomato plants so that they would make it through the low temperatures without any damage.

Signs of Spring

The first signs of spring are popping up in my garden.  

Blueberry

Blueberry

Blueberry

Asparagus 

Pea plant

Grapevine sprouting its first leaves