Me Be VeG

Archive for the ‘vegetables’ Category

The weather has warmed, the ground thawed, the last of the snow fallen (we hope!) and my mind has been steadily focused on my garden this year. It started with garlic and winter onions and strawberries (that went in last fall and started popping out of the ground as soon as the snow melted) and has progressed into, well, the usual.

I buy plants/seeds/dirt/pots and just have a go of it. I don’t really plan much beyond I want to keep in the garden and will do anything to make that happen. This year a maaaay have gone a bit overboard with the plants, but seriously, it was for a good cause: my happiness.

My papa isn’t much help to stop me as he is feeding my gardening addiction with more raspberry plants, strawberry plants, asparagus, blackberries, grapes, gooseberries, black raspberries, and a bunch of unidentified seeds that were tossed in the mix. He’s also building me a grape trellis this year, so I’ll be making my own wine in no time! In all honesty, though, I love my papa and can’t wait to share the fruits of our shared labor with him. Lots of yummy jams, soups and maybe some fruit leather is in his future!

I haven’t taken any photos yet. I know, I know. It’s just that most of the last 2 weeks, my hands have been covered with black dirt. Even after multiple showers, I can’t get the dirt out from under my nails. I think I’ve just resigned myself to dirty fingernails until fall, which is fine by me since then I have a good reason to stop biting my nails… EWW! Ok, so back to these photos. I will take some when the rain lets up. I planted all day today, and was soaked straight through to my skivvies. (Yeah, don’t think about that one too long… trust me.)

The best part? This year I’ve taken a MUCH greater liking to flowers. Ok, let’s be honest, I went a little flower-crazy! They were all just so pretty, and there’s nothing like waking up early to water the flowers and plants and watch them perk up, ready for a day in the sun. My bungalow has become a planting extravaganza, and I couldn’t be happier.

Now, off to take another shower and hope clean skin is under there somewhere. I guess there is just something about really digging in the dirt and mud that makes this girl giddy with anticipation… for sprouts, for plants, for life, for hope.

I’ve never had chili (that I can remember) in my life. Ever. It always just seemed gross to me, chunks of meat and tomatoes and oily sauce, never seemed very appetizing to me. Plus, I was a super picky eater growing up, so even if it was amazing, I’d never try it. Truth is, my mom was a pretty good cook and usually found a way to make something I would eat.

Today, I have to do my own cooking, so whatever possessed me to want to make a dish I’ve never actually eaten, I don’t know. Maybe because it was cold for a few days and felt like Fall, a time to make warm soups and bread and comfort foods all snuggled up on the couch.

So I happened upon a recipe that looked promising and thought “why not?” and got the ingredients. Everything in the chili I liked (or at least LIKE when mixed together), and it turned out quite well. I mean, I have nothing to compare it to, but the fact that I ate it says something.

I used this recipe as a starter, and also added some peppers, cherry tomatoes and quinoa to make it my own. The quinoa made it thicker, which I really liked (rice would probably also work), and the pepper and cherry tomatoes were used because I have a plethora in my garden I wanted to use them fresh.

I took it to work last week and ate with crackers. It was really good! For my first attempt at chili, I’d say it wasn’t too shabby.

Yes, I’m a gardener now. The woman who always HATED the outdoors and bugs and gardens and the sun. I now have a tan, tolerate the bugs, and have a full-fledged flourishing garden I can call my own. And… I love it. LOVE IT! I love to go out in the garden and just walk through it, looking at how the plants are growing, little peppers turn into huge peppers. Teeny tiny tomatoes become huge red tomatoes (if I can get to them before the birds or whatever it is that likes to take bites out of my tomatoes!).

For all those people who say this has been a terrible growing season, I have to disagree. Here’s two separate pickings from last week alone!

I’ve been busy chopping and blanching and freezing and cooking and eating all the wonderful bounty I’ve gotten from my first garden. I think I’m hooked.