First Harvest

Our garden was a bit late starting this year.  We had a light freeze in March...almost unheard of here in southeast Texas, but everything survived.  Here's what David planted this year. 

He planted 4 different kinds of tomatoes, 2 of which are bearing fruit...

 

There's a good bit of green leaf lettuce, which I've already picked several times for salad. 

There are two pepper plants.  I haven't picked this beauty yet...I need to ask David if it's a yellow bell pepper plant...and if so, I need to wait until the pepper turns a golden yellow. 

We picked 2 zucchini this week, and I cannot wait to make the Pioneer Woman's Zucchini Cakes (which are actually from her friend, Pastor Ryan).  If you don't make 'em, you're missing out...I'm telling you!  Even my picky 5-year-old who won't eat vegetables likes them. 

David always plants green beans...there were just enough for dinner last night. 

 For the most part, I season fresh green beans with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil, and roast 'em up in the oven. 

I am nearly ready to give away the vegetable steamer I've had for years...all our kids prefer the flavor of roasted veggies vs steamed. Roasting brings out the natural sweetness of just about any vegetable. In addition to green beans, I roast sweet potatoes, broccoli, asparagus, zucchini, yellow squash, and tomatoes. Sometimes I will toss the veggies with some dried basil, or a mixture of orange marmalade, ginger, and butter. Minimal fuss, but plenty of flavor!

There's other things growing too, but I didn't take pictures of it all...cucumbers, swiss chard, and lots of herbs..cilantro, parsley, sage, thyme, basil, mint, tarragon, and oregano. 

I am most looking forward to the blackberries coming on...this year, we should finally have enough for a cobbler or two, and maybe even some freezer jam. Yee haw!

 The kids aren't much into harvesting...but they do love going out and looking at the garden with Dad. David has a habit of surveying the garden every day when he comes home from work. More often than not, he'll find a tomato, pepper, or zucchini I missed. Last year, when we were invaded by a million baby yellow tomatoes, the girls did get out and help, thank goodness. We had more than the tomatoes to pick...the whole garden was out of control ;-).

So for all of you gardeners out there...hats off to you.  I cannot claim to be a gardener...I really can't.  David does ALL of the tilling, planting, watering, and weeding.  I harvest...that's it.  Well, okay, I do the cookin' too, but I don't think that counts.  I am hoping to post more often about the garden this summer.  Already, it's starting to look like this year's garden will be exceptional (as long as any hurricanes in the gulf stay away). 

God bless your table tonight!