From Garden to Table

I planted a garden this year.  I haven’t had a vegetable garden since Harv’s mom passed away  15 years ago.

That spring and summer we spent so much time with her in the hospital that the garden never got planted and somehow we just didn’t plant one after that.

I’ve been talking about planting a garden again for the past several years.  I love the taste of fresh leaf lettuce first thing in spring and home grown carrots have a flavour that can’t compare with the ones from the store.

But, I wasn’t willing to go back to the vast garden of years past – the garden with 2 feet between the rows (so you could till it with a roto-tiller of course. which I couldn’t handle and Harv never got around to)

So there would be acres (it seemed) of weeds to pull.

No, if I had a garden again it would have to be a small garden in a raised bed.  I’d been eyeing a number of friends’s gardens and I knew just what I wanted.

Of course, Harv is always scheming and he devised a different sort of raised bed for me.  It has 2 steps of soil on one side and one step on the other with a 4 foot expanse of soil at the top.

So, I planted a garden this year.  Beans on one side, carrots and herbs on the other along with onions.  Across the top were beets, more onions and herbs, lettuce, spinach, arugula and of course some flowers to brighten the vegetable patch.

On one end I had a planter with tomatoes – not the most successful but I did get a lovely bowlful of cherry tomatoes.

 

We’ve been eating the beans and greens and it’s been wonderful having all the fresh herbs for cooking.

Tonight much of our meal went directly from the garden to the table.

Beets and carrots, basil, dill, parsley and chives and cherry tomatoes all made for a delicious supper.

Aren’t the beets pretty?  I’m not sure why some are white when the package promised white and red concentric circles but no matter.  When peeled, tossed with oil and kosher salt and roasted at 350º they were sweet and wonderful!

The carrots were dressed with butter, a smidge of honey and fresh basil and the cherry tomatoes were delicious on greens with buttermilk dressing made with fresh herbs.

 

A special meal for my husband who’s been away on business for a week.  Home grown at it’s best.