Secret Garden

For those of you who know me well, you know that I love the earth, the dirt, watching tiny seedling pop up from the soil...I even love to see the worms that help churn my soil.

Spring is my favorite season, because I am excited to see each new fern frond pop their head up to the sun for the first time, each bulb with their greenery reaching for the sun, and I get to plant, weed, prune get scratched by my roses and feel the sun and the earth!

I am so grateful I have a husband who loves the garden as much as I do. He has built me some great boxes for my vegetables, and loves to come home and putter in the garden with me, pulling a few stray weeds, harvesting and watering.

We have grown some regular vegies, but also some crazy ones this year that have all turned out to be a hit. We have a Salsa garden box, with Cilantro,various peppers, and TOMATOES....lots and lots of them! We then had radishes and snap peas, purple beans, eggplant, parsnips, kohlrabi, yellow and red and orange carrots. We have zuchinni, cucumbers, leeks, yellow and red beets, swiss chard, spinach. Then we have our herb garden up in the rock garden jeff and I made while I was going thru chemo. That garden was made rock by rock when I was SO sick, but wanted to create beauty in my yard still. Jeff would take me up to the canyon and we would hunt for rocks. Sometimes I was too weak to pick them up, sometimes, I would have to run throw up, but now when I look at that rock garden, the memories are strong and dear to me. We have our peppermint, lemon thyme, lemon basil, basil, oregano, tarragon and marjoram.

A few fun things we have made this summer with our produce:

Fresh Salsa ( which is a must in our garden)

Roma tomatoes ( I grill roast 3 of them for a smokey flavor)
1 roasted jalapeno
1/2 roasted red pepper
1 white onion
cilantro
juice of one lime
3 garlic cloves
sometimes 1/2 cucumber chopped fine
1 scallion
salt and pepper to taste
cumin

Another hit was

Kohlrabi Slaw

1/2 head cabbage, chopped fine
1/2 red apple chopped
1 kohlrabi bulb peeled and chopped fine
1 scallion, chopped to the top
1/2 large celery stalk, chopped fine
1/2 red pepper chopped fine
6 to 7 red grapes chopped
3 Tb. fresh parsley chopped
one shredded carrot
1 t poppy seeds
a touch of horseradish
2 T vidalia onion dressing
1/2 c mayo
1/4 cup white vinegar
salt and pepper

We have also enjoyed our fresh pears with chopped fresh mint leaves, cool summer dessert/ side dish

An easy, wonderful salad is fresh, sliced tomatoes, basil leaves and mozzarella chunks drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

fresh green beans sauteed with marjoram and garlic is a great dish

ratatouille with eggplant, fresh tomatoes, basil, zucchini, mushrooms and garlic

Parsnips roasted with a dab of butter, tarragon and brown sugar

We love our garden!!