On Thursday, I went out and picked our first official harvest from our garden (not including the basil I’ve been using for weeks). A cucumber and some lovely baby squash. My excitement level may have been disproportionate to the actual event, but I still get happy fuzzies whenever I eat something I grew. We marinated the cucumber in vinegar with tomatoes and sprinkled dill weed over the top. The squash were grilled with onions and steak, and were definitely my favorite part of the meal. I’m already eyeing several more to be harvested in the next day or two.
Tonight before heading down to the music festival, we’ll be enjoying Tom’s fresh salsa with our dinner, made with our first jalepenos. In a week or so, I should have tomatoes ready as well. I want to show Ella how to spot the ripe ones, and have her try the tiny yellow pear variety, straight from the garden. I”ll never forget the lessons I learned from my mother about how rewarding gardening can be – I hope I can do the same with her.
We had the first tomato from mom’s garden last night and squash tonight. The flavors are so amazingly different!
I’m so excited! The only tomato that I have that’s producing ripe tomatoes is one in a pot(and it only has had two turn red so far). I do have some in the garden that are starting to turn, but I’ll have to check my little tomatoes and see if any of the ones at the bottom are close to ripe. I did make some cherry juice and dried a bunch of cherries, which I’ll have to hide and dole out to Will and Lucia or they won’t last more than a couple weeks. It is so fun to eat food you grow yourself and to share that excitment with daughters, sons-in-law and grandkids. Love it!