27 June 2007

To-mah-toes

I stepped outside this rather soggy morning to find that I have tomatoes! Well, kind of. They're not anywhere near eating yet, but they're so cute!


See it peaking out there? It's not quite the size of a dime.



Bug's eye view


Also -- cucumbers! These have been growing for some time now. They're lopsided, but I hear that's because the flowers weren't pollinated. Oh well.



25 June 2007

Beans and Stirfry (and Fish Biscuits)

This was a couple weeks ago, but oh well. Here is my first major bean crop.




I added three more to that, and then Norman made this:



It seems that one of Norman's favorite things to do is make stirfry. He's very particular about it. I'm particular about a lot of things, but cooking is not one of them. Mostly I figure we have to eat, and I want to spend as little time as possible on cooking and still make tasty food. Norman takes his time and makes everything just right. This is a good thing. Otherwise we'd never have anything even approaching gourmet food in the house. So, needless to say, this stirfry was awesome. The vegetables were still crisp, which apparently is the way they're supposed to be (who knew?).

While we were eating the stirfry, I was struck by how magical food really is. I mean, 2 months ago, those green beans were just seeds. And all I did was stick them in some potting soil, water them, and wait. And now they're crazy-delicious, sweet, crispy, nutritious green beans! (Can you tell this is my first gardening experience?)

I was talking with Kelly Mac at church about kombucha and kefir and all sorts of other magical things. We determined that modern nutrition just takes all the magic out of life. It's quite sad, actually.

Oh yeah, and these aren't magical, but they were pretty fun to make:



That's right, those are Lost fish biscuits. Fortunately they taste like citrus sugar cookies, not fish or dog or bear biscuits, or whatever they were supposed to be on the show. I got the idea and the recipe here.

11 June 2007

Flowers and a Bean!

Pumpkin flower (it's a lot oranger than it looks in the picture):
Cucumber flowers (I actually had no idea that vegetable plants would be useful and attractive):

Firstfruits (should I be giving it to the church?):

02 June 2007

Garden Update

I went outside this morning, and my plants just looked so cute, and I'm just so proud of them that I had to take pictures and share them with the world. (Can you imagine how obnoxious I'll be when I have kids?)

Pumpkin (doing that viney shoot thing):

Green bell peppers (chuggin' along):

Cucumbers:

Sunflowers (the white stuff around the bottom is DE -- the ants were going to town!):

Herbs (clockwise from top: cilantro, mint, mint, sage, basil, basil):
Tomatoes (were getting eaten, but I got some neem oil pesticide -- I think we're good now):

Green bean flowers!!!