Food for Thought

Lunch today was a yummy tomato (only the second tomato this season!), mozzarella, and fresh basil. And I had to show off the first cucumber from my vine!



Last night I was looking over my hand written journal of thoughts and drawings on the community garden (I got the awesome journal from the SLCC Writing Center). On one of the first pages of the journal I wrote about why I like gardening (which is different than the post on why I want to be in a community garden).

I like to garden because....

• I like the smell of wet dirt
• I like the feel of dirt in my hands
• I like observing the shapes, colors, and textures of the plants and flowers and vegetables
• I like the smell of basil and lavender and sage
• I feel connected to the earth
• the garden is calm
• the garden lets me know that it is ok to fail and try again
• in the spring the garden makes me feel awake and alive after winter hibernation

Why do you like to garden?

Squash Haiku (with pictures)

The flower waited

The bee came by to say hi

(photo by Clint Gardner)

What a big surprise!

(photo by Clint Gardner)

A cucumber has appeared!

As stated in an earlier post, I have learned a lot of patience with vegetable gardening. I wrote a cucumber haiku about 2 1/2 weeks ago. The little flower was patiently waiting for the bee. The bee finally came to my plot! There is one little cucumber starting to grow. It took a little over 8 weeks for the little cucumber to sprout from the flower. Two months of watering and weeding and talking to the plant. I wonder how many cucumbers will be harvested from this one plant in my plot?

Eating

The garden is now producing! And now we must eat! I created a cold beet and cucumber soup from my Polish cook book. Yummy! Beets and beet greens from my garden, cucumber from my neighbor's garden, green onion from the local farmer...and I got some radishes and sour cream from the store.....add a little dill and lemon juice...chill in the refrigerator over night....and we had a refreshing treat this morning during the weekly garden gathering. I am serving below. (Thank you, Clint, for taking the picture!)


After eating we harvested some more. Tomorrow is a stir fry at lunch by Ann! Here is what will be part of the stir fry:



Wonder what will be ready in the garden tomorrow??

Leaves

We always focus on the vegetables... and watering....and weeding. But what about the leaves? Some are big, some are single, some are in threes. Enjoy the leaves of the garden!

Lunch from the garden

I had to share a picture of my yummy salad. All the parts came from the community garden--lettuce, beet greens, zucchini, green pepper, and beets. The lettuce and pepper came from a fellow gardener (thank you Adam!) and the rest came from my department's 3' X 6' raised garden.

So why are more people participating in community gardens? I think it's more than for the vegetables. It's getting to know people while watering and weeding. It is learning about plants, about when to thin the plants, and about when to pick the vegetables. (Thank you for sharing your knowledge, Clint!) It is about sharing the harvest with others. And it is about eating!!

I am glad that I decided to participate in the SLCC community garden. I like watching my garden grow!

We have beets!

We picked a few beets yesterday. It has been a little over 9 weeks since the seeds were planted. We will harvest more next week. I plan to make a cold beet and cucumber soup. (If the group thinks it's good I will post the recipe.) I am excited about cooking and eating fresh beets that I watched grow!

It's the little things...

.....and the joy they bring. (India Arie) Here is a little pepper that my friend found in the garden. (That is my finger holding the pepper.)


Participating in the community garden has let me watch the growth of food I enjoy eating. When I was a child in Chicago, we did have some tomato plants. But I didn't partake in the planting and watering...I think it was something that my parents enjoyed.

Here is the zucchini plant and it's growth over five weeks.

The best is yet to come! Gardening makes us practice patience.

Cucumber Haiku

The cucumber plant
Waiting for the bees to come
Small yellow flowers

Cucumbers

There are no cucumbers on the vine yet, but this blog has helped me observe the garden as it grows....so today I am sharing pictures of the cucumber plant growing.

It all started on May 25 when it was planted into the community garden. I did not take a picture of just the plant---this is cropped from the picture I took of the entire department plot.

In two weeks it began to add more leaves. It only had two little ones when it started.

Three and a half weeks later (or five and half from planting) it is starting to spread out and it looks like it is sprouting a few flowers (or maybe it is sprouting more leaves to spread).

I wonder how long it takes to get cucumbers on the vine?