Gas Pains

Tom grew up in Milwaukee, bartended in Wauwatosa in the '70s and moved here in 1984.

Commentary, observations and musings about the outdoors, life in general and maybe Tosa politics and personalities will be the order of the day. He savors a lively debate as much as terrific cooking.

Vive le Jardin Magnifique!

Backyard Homesteading, Growing Your Own Vegetables, Life is Good, Labrador Retrievers

My girls sure like fresh vegetables.  If I'm in the kitchen chopping veggies for any reason they're there too.  Patiently waiting for an errant carrot, green bean or potato to hit the floor.  As wolf-like as my Labs have a tendency to be what-with their dining on mice, rabbits, frogs and carrrion - they sure like fresh vegetables to balance out their dietary requirements.

It has been another good gardening year.  So far anyways.  Disaster always lurks just around the corner however so something could go terribly awry just about any time.

But so far - so good.

Ordinarily I wouldn't venture into a blog post that already sounds like an annual report but I'm feeling quite confident.  Not over-confident.  Just quite confident.

The 2014 harvest was kicked-off by asparagus picked daily from the kitchen garden.  This has been followed by spinach and these lovely French breakfast radishes. 

Sure, you're probably thinking - what's with radishes for breakfast?  I say you need to try them sometime.  In France you might even have a glass of wine with your breakfast.  But do not schedule any face-to-face meetings immediately afterwards.

And there is the earliest harvest of broccoli on record! 

With the cooler weather this year the broc has to be picked every couple of days.  And just a couple of days ago I fashioned a slaw of shredded cabbage, broccoli florets and English peas from the garden.  Fried-up some northwoods-caught pan fish and we dined on fish tacos.

Just like kings.  Yum!

The English peas I planted on April 15th slumbered under inches of snow and braved the elements to sprout. 

They are yielding the fruits of their efforts.  I should mention that I picked peas only a few days ago and found one-inch long pod ends on the vines.  Remnants exposing one or two desiccated peas in the exposed jagged, remaining end.   An examination of the forensic evidence points to unsupervised Labrador retrievers raiding the pea patch.  The dogs are now on leads and Jill is picking raspberries daily - just to be on the safe side.  Grrrr...

Peppers, tomatoes, cabbages, potatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, onions, lettuce and carrots.  Swiss chard, Russian kale and Brussels sprouts - in a manner of speaking - make the entire production international.

Vive le Jardin Magnifique!

 

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