Dreaming about seeds.

Every morning I wake up and see my land out of my window. No neighbors, no strange cars driving by. Just my fences, my pond, my room to grow. I've started dreaming about gardens and greenhouses. Dreaming about fruit trees that I want to plant and compost. I feel oddly free here. Less stress and worry. Less pain. Less fatigue. I'm ready to be me again.

Squash A Plenty

We got a very late start on our garden this year, because the PNW decided it wasn't going to be spring until mid-June. Which can be especially annoying when you decide to take the proverbial bull by the horns, and get over your gardening fears by planting a HUGE garden. Huge. Like 35x60 feet.

Okay so maybe that's not huge. But it is considering last year my 'garden' was two small planters. Sometimes things are all about prospective.

The issue is, since we didn't really have time to seed in the ground this year, we just went ahead and bought starts. I took my list, Monster in tow, and drove to a smaller organic nursery nearby. Now, I'm not insane about organic food. I think it tastes better, but I'm not going to go pyscho about it. One thing I have found though, is that organic vegetable plants tend to have better tasting fruits, on top of being tougher and more hearty in general.

I also found out that this particular nursery has much better prices then I had planned after looking at several other nurseries. So I went a little crazy. Okay, a lot crazy. Like a lot, a lot.

I bought 8 different kinds of squash, not counting cucumbers (pickling and slicers). And in multiples.

I think I'm going to be buried in it.

Snap Peas!

I stopped by a friend's house yesterday (the Boy was chillin' with Grandpa and having some 'man-time') and interrupted a pea-picking bonanza. The whole family was out (literally, 4 generations) picking both snap peas and snow peas. I'm not sure if it was a combination of the intense heat we had and the lack of moisture, but these bushes are just throwing out peas like it's going out of style.

We picked several grocery bags full of each, and I was lucky enough to be able to sneak some off before Nana (as the Boy call her) noticed. Well, she noticed and she just smacked my knuckles and told me I was naughty but didn't take back my pea contraband. Once I managed to pry the Boy back to our house, I showed him the snap peas, showed him how to pop them open and then watched him promptly inhale them all. I think I got one out of the whole bag.

At least he likes veggies.

Tips from Clara

Here are Clara the depression cooks tip on how to survive hard times...