Morning Ritual

Garden Salad Fixings & Flowers

Pumpkin and I have a new morning ritual. While Dumpling is still sleeping we head out to the garden to see what is ready to pick. Yesterday we brought in quite a haul! We'd been out of town for four days and came home to quite a quantity of zucchini. They were giants, each able to make several loaves of zucchini bread. I took a bunch with me to Bunco last night to share.

We also gathered a basketful of pickling cucumbers. They were too little to pick on Thursday, but by Tuesday looked like small zucchinis. I've also got a boatload of beets. I'm hoping to pickle both the beets and the cucumbers today or tomorrow. We've been picking snow peas as well, but Pumpkin has those all eaten before we get inside.

My Italian Rose beans are looking great! I need to look up how to tell when they are ready to pick. I want to eat some fresh, but dry the rest for winter. Also, the edamame exploded. They aren't quite ready, but will be later this week I think. So far we've only had one tomato, but it was delicious and there are A LOT more coming.

It's so exciting to me to see all of these wonderful things growing were there had been nothing before! The melons are growing well, too. I just hope and pray the weather holds long enough to have everything ripen. Even the grapes are doing well though there aren't very many of them. For the first year-I'm thrilled.

This morning we picked more peas and a zucchini. We ate some beans to see how they're doing. I picked lettuce for today's salad and all sorts of herbs--mint, lemon balm, basil, dill, and savory as well as some nasturtiums for color and zip. I also pulled an onion and noticed the corn has tassels. We just might get a few ears yet. All in all, in spite of the late start and crazy weather we're doing really well.

Now it's time to make lunch for a neighbor who is coming over and plan the menu for the rest of the week. Yesterday was spent unpacking and doing laundry and basically getting everything back to normal. I also spent hours working on the body products to have ready for the the ladies at Bunco who wanted to buy them.

Today is a more relaxed day. I was planning on some Curry Chicken Salad for lunch with a regular salad from the garden. My neighbor just called and said she was steaming fish to bring over. This could be an interesting meal. :) I think I'll probably steam some rice and pick some Swiss Chard which I use in place of the Bok Choy I love, but couldn't seem to get to grow this year. Maybe I should use the chicken in a Thai Noodle Soup instead of the Curry Chicken Salad. Decisions, decisions...

I'm hoping later to make up some zucchini bread and see if I can get some of the canning done. I hope you all have a lovely day as well. I'm alos really wanting to do some sewing. Never thought I'd type that in my lifetime, but things change.