Garden Season

You may have guessed by now that I love to garden.  If I had a platform large enough and broad enough, I would encourage every young person who owns even the smallest amount of land to plant a garden.  To me... taking a tiny seed and placing it in the ground and then watching it become something so complex and perfect is nothing short of a miracle.

In the garden, I get to watch miracles every single day.  Gardening fills me with hope at the very least.  Right now, the greenhouse is burgeoning with all sorts of vegetables and flowers.  With frost still looming, it will be several weeks before all of this is transferred to its permanent home in the soil.

The icing on the gardening cake is the harvest that can be had from just a little bit of effort.  And truly, most of the work is done by nature - most of it is out of our hands.  There is nothing difficult in the growing of food.  We simply facilitate the process by assuring our plants receive enough water, sunlight, and protection from invaders such as pests and weeds.  

All of these garden-tending processes bring me peace, and that in itself is enough.  I don't look at these tasks as work, but rather, a way of loving the earth and helping to ease its burden.  Growing our own food relieves some of the demands placed upon our industrial food complex.  Sustainably feeding ourselves rather than relying upon the mass transportation of our food sources helps to reduce our carbon footprint.  Home gardens not only enhance the planet's health, but our own as well.

 Homegrown food - harvested and eaten right away gives us more nutrition, with more vitamins and minerals to fuel our bodies.   These nutrients are often lost in the processing and shipping of foods from across the world, or worse, across the sea! 

a box of assorted mint, from which I steep a pot of tea, daily.

I also think that there is a sensuality about cooking with food that you have grown by hand.   It becomes an art form and a science that is ensconced in history and culture and custom - so much more than simply feeding ourselves.  It is an act of love.

Each morning, after morning chores, I take a stroll through the garden to check its progress.  These days, a lot of growth happens in a day's time, with ample sunshine and ground still moist from earlier rains.  Each morning, I look for anything that I can pick and use to make our brunch.  

Yesterday I picked a handful of herbs, as herbs are plentiful right now.  There was a handful of asparagus that had emerged... which would make a good omelet, but I needed more than just that.  So, I picked a handful of chives, some lovage, a tiny bit of sage, and Italian parsley.

All of this, chopped up in an omelet with Havarti cheese, and the taste was sublimely that of spring.  To me, it exemplified the taste of the explosive emergence of green that we are currently experiencing.  If only I had found a few morel mushrooms, their earthy taste would have elevated it to perfection!  Thanks to our hens, we have eaten nothing but pasture raised, homegrown eggs for the past 15+ years.

With our omelets... the choice of three different homemade sourdough breads...

chocolate, multigrain, and orange/cranberry.

Preparing a meal from scratch is very satisfying to me.  Food is the most basic of our needs.  I love making it as pleasurable as possible!

Freshly baked peach galette from last summer's homegrown peaches.