Into the ground and onto the plate

This past week saw the introduction of tomatoes as well as a couple varieties of squash added to the garden. I planted several heirloom tomatoes, including a purple variety which I look forward to enjoying. As is my custom, and is one of those well known tricks of kitchen gardeners, I planted the tomatoes deeper than they had been planted in the pots, allowing the plant to create new roots right off of the stem. Tomatoes are one of the very rare plants that can do this. Planting most plants deeper than they were planted in the pots, will result in suffocating the plant, or bringing on rot to the stem.

I put in eight squash plants of tw varieties into the new area prepared just for this purpose. I still have two mounds to go, which I will put to use as soon as I am able. Some back pain from on old injury has slowed me down a bit this weekend, but nonetheless I hope to get some more plants into the ground.

We have all heard the expression that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs when it comes to food, but I am quickly discovering that my eyes are bigger than my garden. I have used up half of the newly prepared area and I have not used half of the plants that I wish to put in there. The time is soon coming when I will have to have a much larger area than my current home allows.

The harvest from last weekend was put to good use. I ate fresh peas for a couple of days, sent some home with a friend who had never tried peas directly from the garden, and I froze the remainder. The harvest was larger than I suspected, but a welcome abundance. I also harvested much of the cilantro as it was trying to bolt. This too was sent home with a dear friend, but much of it was blended into a paste which was then frozen in ice cube trays for later use.

Finally I picked up some fresh tomatoes from a local farmer's market and made a batch of tabouleh using the fresh parsely from the garden. I used spelt instead of bulgar which creates a different texture and a slightly different flavor. With this I added black olives, cucumber, the tomatoes, some green onion, and severl handfuls of fresh parsley. I large bowl of this barely lasted two days as I am not able to set it down.

I hope that all of my gardening friends are able to at lesat begin the preparation for the season. All the best,

Brian