garden update!

we have been able to make so many meals now that our garden is starting to explode!  and it really does look like a beautiful, green delicious explosion has taken over our backyard.  can you believe that just a little over a month ago our garden looked like this:

before

and now it looks like this!!

after!

the only sacrifice is that every time we go out to harvest, we get annihilated by mosquitoes, which is a small price to pay for the bounty of the garden gods.

just a few of the things we have made so far with our backyard harvests:

-pesto (obviously...we can't get enough of the stuff!)

it looks like someone else has been
enjoying the basil as much as we have!
who is this mystery nibbler?

-three bean salad with green beans from the garden, garbanzos and cannellini beans, garnished with slivers of basil leaves
-red new potato salad with parboiled green beans from the garden, red potatoes that have been boiled and cooled, thinly sliced red onion, rosemary from the garden, lemon juice, olive oil, and s + p.

things we are looking forward to by the end of july:
-ceviche with loads of cilantro from the backyard (i am also excited about growing our own parsley and cilantro so it won't go to waste when we have to buy a slimy bunch from the grocery store that goes bad in, like, three hours)

-grilled veggie kebabs (on our new grill..thanks, bruce and helene!  xo) with yellow squash and eggplant (on jordan's side)
-fried green tomatoes before the tomatoes start to all turn red

-swimming in a sea of tomatoes...caprese salad with heirloom tomatoes and backyard basil...roasted tomatoes with rosemary...maybe even taking a stab at making our own pasta sauce and canning it!

is your mouth watering yet?  because mine definitely is!!

farm surprise!

yesterday we picked up our first box from our local CSA farm, Calvert Farms.  last year we had volunteered there on Saturday mornings, exchanging a few hours of labor for a beautiful box filled with delicious organic fruits and vegetables (and sometimes even flowers!)

this fall our schedules are too packed to be able to make the drive into maryland to get our farm on.  but luckily we were able to join the cooperative another way.  by making a donation to the farm, we get to take home one giant box of farm-fresh goodies every thursday from now until thanksgiving!

yesterday's box was stuffed with fresh, crisp apples; a HUGE butternut squash; 2 eggplant; a bundle of swiss chard; baby red and yellow peppers; fresh salad greens; and string beans.  it was hard to decide what we should make with this bounty of autumnal treasures.

we sauteed a ton of garlic in some olive oil, threw in the swiss chard and cooked it down in the cast-iron skillet.  then i added some garbanzo beans, a little white wine, and cooked quinoa.  at the end i sliced some beets and mixed everything together.  DE.LICIOUS.

jordan, the bread-meister, had made a beautiful loaf of french bread a couple of days ago.  re-heated in the oven, it was perfectly crispy, and a great complement to the roasted garlic and green beans and salad he made to go with our quinoa.

the most memorable part of this first farm meal was when we had an unexpected dinner guest drop in!
as we were savoring the remaining morsels of our meal, jordan picked up his fork, ready to enjoy the last few leaves of fresh lettuce.  all of a sudden, he emitted a loud (yet manly) yelp and jumped back quite dramatically from the table.  it appears he wasn't the only one enjoying the delicious salad.  this little guy was noshing away at the lettuce, not even seeming to mind the lemon juice and olive oil he was almost drowning in at the bottom of the dish.

meet lonny, the inchworm.

we scooted lonny (as we dubbed the worm) onto the leaf, picked it out of the dish, and took him outside to relish his natural habitat.  obviously, we didn't continue to eat the salad, but i would much rather find a  bug in my food once in a while than eat something that i know has been drowned in pesticides!  we'll just have to be a little more vigilant in our vegetable inspection and washing.  i'm glad i didn't eat lonny, or else i would have felt i had betrayed my vegetarian sensibilities.



can't wait to pick up next week's box!!