The 2014 Garden Report

Three things happened this year to make it one of the best gardening years ever: cool weather, plenty of rain at periodic intervals, and help from our grandson Eli. Only the tomatoes are a little slow to ripen in this delightfully cool weather.

Four-year-old grandson Eli came to visit last week with his mother and baby brother.  We were quick to note that what we regarded as chores—weeding, watering, and picking from the garden—were great fun and enjoyable to Eli.  Hallelujah!  Neil was very patient in having Eli water with the hose.  Eli would talk and water in whatever direction that he was looking, causing me to yell, “Not the porch!” a few times.  I lifted Eli into the garden to look for any red tomatoes or zucchini and peppers ready to pick each day.  I showed Eli the weeds, and he became very good at identifying them and pulling them out.

So, with renewed enthusiasm sparked by a 4 year old, I am cooking up zucchini tomato quiche and beef and veggie kabobs along with beet salad.  I am also blanching and freezing or giving away the excess.

While Eli was visiting, Catherine’s friend Melissa invited us to pick corn with her from a neighbor’s corn field.  She knew that Eli was quite keen to learn about corn and which was sweet corn and which was field corn for animals.  Along the way to the corn field, we saw her parents’ one-acre vegetable garden, which to me was both impressive and overwhelming.  Yes, her mother actually cans and freezes all of that. Melissa and her husband are here to help with the harvest.  OK, I can stop whining about our little plot now.

I also made a couple of changes this year by acquiring a new cook book, Simply in Season, which was commissioned by the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).   It is worth it for the zucchini brownie recipe alone, but I also plan to try many of their soups and side dishes and other delicious-sounding desserts.

My other change was simply eating vegetables for lunch.  Sure I’d rather have a tuna sandwich, but instead I have a little tuna salad with green beans or beets or whatever veggie is taking over the fridge. “To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.”  I have lived in Lancaster for 30 years now, and I think it shows.