WHAT WE'RE GROWING FOR EATS

Some of you may know that my husband is a fanatic vegetable gardener. He not only grows fruits and vegetables in our yard, but has more in an empy lot down the street...10,000 SF worth. Whew!

Someone asked me an innocent question the other day about what we were growing in our gardens.  I began answering without realizing I'd become breathless with the long list. I think he regretted asking too. 

Below are some of the fruits and vegetables my hard-working husband grew this year:

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ANOTHER SET OF VEGETABLES

My last bit of diving into the past...my tagged vegetables (back in 2012).  I love the idea of scrapbooking, but never have the time to do it, so this is my attempt to add those cute little doo-dads on something.

These illustrations are also available on cards in my Etsy Shop. You can take a peek here.

Thanks for reminiscing with me!

FREEZING THE GARDEN

I am thrilled to finally have our gardens popping with lots to eat! Our first harvests include strawberries, spinach, broccoli and lettuce. The first three are perfect for freezing to savor this winter. Each day I tuck a little more away in our big basement freezer.

FREEZING STRAWBERRIES
These are so simple. I just clean them, remove the greens, slice in half (or keep them whole), pop into a freezer bag, then into the freezer for winter. That's it! If you love strawberries and have a small space, I encourage you to grow a few plants. They do like to spread though, so make sure you contain them well.

FREEZING SPINACH
Pick leaves, clean them, and remove the stems. You can blanch spinach or simply place leaves and a little bit of water into a blender, then freeze in ice cube trays. I like to pop one spinach ice cube into a smoothie. You really don't taste it, but it adds lots of vitamins.

FREEZING BROCCOLI
Pick broccoli heads, clean and chop as desired. Soak them in a bowl of salted water for 30 minutes to remove any insects.  Blanch by placing in boiling water for three minutes, then directly place them in cold water.  Now you can pack them into freezer bags and place them into the freezer.

You can learn more about freezing and blanching foods at the National Center for Food Preservation. Enjoy!

Green Peppers!

One of my favorite vegetables...and the easiest to preserve for winter.  Just chop up and freeze.

Cabbages!

My husband grew a lot of these this year.  We always make coleslaw, but someday I will attempt sauerkraut.

Broccoli!

The broccoli in our garden has mesmerized the neighborhood this year...even my picky 13-year-old son began a new love affair {you can read more about that here}.

Beets!

Since the veggies are popping out of our garden in full force...why not highlight each one?  While I'm on a beet kick, let's start there.

Braised Spring Vegetables

Two posts filled with fruit...now a quick stop for vegetables.  This is a lovely dish created by Maggie at Marge's Next Meal.  I'm always looking for new veggie side dishes...and cannot wait until our carrots are ready.  Take a peak at the entire recipe here.

Peas in a Pod

You know, I have nothing profound to say about peas...except that my kids really like them.

Beets

Ah beets.  I still don't know what to do with them.

I love pickled beets, but how else do I eat them?

Any suggestions?

Tomato

Though our tomatoes are not quite ripe yet, I had to include them...because of my mom. She has been asking me daily, "are the tomatoes ready yet?".

I am personally not a huge tomato fan, but my mom lives for them.

You can learn more about her tomato infatuation here...and more here (I seem to write a lot about this tomato craze).

Green Beans

Since we are so immersed in our vegetable garden right now the next few posts will highlight what we are growing, picking, eating...all the goodies taking over our hot summer lives.

Today is the green bean.  You can find out more about my love (heavy sarcasm) of this vegetable here.

Asparagus

I just finished a few more postcard patterns.  Today is my asparagus creation.  You can find this postcard here.

Inflorescence Vegetables

This is a short list of inflorescence vegetables, since I don't know much about the exotic ones.  Pop a few in your salad today.

Tuber Vegetables

This is an example of thinking too much rather than just doing.  I kept worrying about not being able to create an interesting enough image with just tubers, so allowed time to just slip away.  This morning I decided to just draw and realized tubers did indeed have some unique qualities...enough to have a simple, fun image.

And, in case you're wondering I'll be continuing my vegetable craze into May, since I have several more images I'd like to explore. Thanks for allowing me to chug along at a slower pace the last few weeks. You can find the print here.

The Tomato Wagon

Sometimes we have so many tomatoes that we run out of places to store them. Often the wagon serves this purpose. Of course, this location allows visitors to grab a few for themselves too.

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My Obsessive Husband

Yes, my husband enjoys tomatoes too...and let me point out he does nothing small.

He collects RedWing dinnerware and pottery (we have a whole room dedicated to it), he loves hostas (we have over 200+ cultivars in our yard), he is a crafty carpenter (with a whole workshop full of tools), and he enjoys vegetable gardening. One year he planted hundreds of pumpkins and our whole front yard was covered in smiling jack-o-lanterns. The same year he planted over fifty tomato plants (about 15 different kinds).

Remember...I don't like tomatoes and my mom didn't even live close enough to enjoy one of them. I'm not even sure where they all went..neighbors, friends, canning??

Carrots Popping

My husband just pulled a ton of carrots out of the garden. Tomatoes are now dwindling and the carrots are popping.

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Flying Tomatoes

It seems that tomatoes are just flying out of our garden. I think we picked about 50 the other day. It made my mom very happy - being the tomato lover she is.

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