farming

Gardening isn't completely foreign to me; when I was growing up my Gram and Pop spent their summer days working the garden, and I spent mine driving trucks in the dirt and taste testing string beans and tiny carrots.  As a child, a teenager, a young adult, doing actual work in the garden had no appeal for me (other than tending my own little potato patch that Gram let me plant when I was little).  I never had a house plant I didn't kill.  And yet, with all this land around us, how could we not grow food?

So here we are, family farmers, and now the number 30 isn't the only proof that I'm an old lady; it must be official because finally: I love weeding.  I guess because finally, three kids in, gardening is an escape instead of a chore.  There's no whining or pooped underwear, just weeds to pull, and actual progress to be seen!  The weeds, though they do grow back, don't pop up nearly as quickly as a large bucket of duplos reappears all over the floor after it's been put away.

These photos are old (a month ago or more) but you can get the idea...

Our earliest harvests: green beans, snap peas, and baby kale, swiss chard, and spinach -- a little lunch appetizer platter of foods the pups wouldn't normally be all that excited about if they weren't just plucked from our garden.

Some young purple carrots.  These things are huge now!

So many cucumbers!  I've composted most of them, sad to say, because I didn't get my pickling gear together in time.  But we have enjoyed them in salads, and they boys have eaten a few whole.

An early harvest of beauteousness.

A look at the garden...

The snap pea jungle!

Our fancy stick trellis which all the neighbors admire... It'll need some adjustments next year but it sorta did its job.  And at the bottom, my prize basil crop.

Swiss chard and romaine...

... and kale...

... and brussel sprouts...

... and tomatoes (these are softball-sized golden tomatoes now!)

Pupper's potatoes...

Pea blossoms...

Another look at the garden from the opposite side...

One last look -- the view toward the garden from our front porch.

Oh, and-- along with our new love for dirt, our growing gives us a new appreciation for rain.

It's a beautiful slice of life, this right here.

Oh, and if you're still here... Thought I'd share my growing inspiration: {here} and {here} but really {this book} planted the garden seed in my head.

Happy Friday!