Friday through Sunday of last week were gardening days. We're finally getting the side yard squared away, with the four grape vines set up in their trellises, the blackberry and raspberry, and the two fruit trees. We are almost done mulching everything with city compost, but then it started to rain. I'll post pictures when we're through.
Out of the vegetable garden, I got 4 oz of greens (mostly bright lights chard), 5.5 oz of radish pods, and 3 oz of peas. Of the three varieties I'm growing, Avalanche snow pea is by far the best. The pods and peas are flavorful and the pods stay fiberless even when the peas are large (at that point, though, it does develop a string, but the pod itself is still tender). I will be growing these again for sure.
The veggies above were chopped and sauteed with a little soy sauce and balsamic vinegar and eaten over noodles. Very good. The remainder of the peas and pods were taken to work as snacks for my breaks.
I also made a stencil and decorated my garden/recipe book. I would like to put the ninja onto a shirt some day as well.
To date, my totals are:
39 oz greens
60 lb oranges (picked from my sister's tree)
13.5 oz kumquats (from my mother's tree, preserved according to this recipe)
12.5 oz radish pods
8 oz peas
Not bad for a beginning gardener.
One of the two container-grown potato plants got too hot/dry and died. I did salvage about half a pound of tiny new potatoes from it, though. I also picked 3 lb, 14 oz of squash and 2 and a half pounds of tomatoes. You can see those, at least, below, along with farmers market peaches, destined to become a sweet and spicy barbecue sauce.
That brings my totals to
