The Little Garden that Could Give and Give and Give

Wow, our garden is superbly productive this year.  It was very satisfying this evening to eat a meal that mostly from our very own back yard. Dave cooked some burgers on the grill, they were made with beef from our steer we raised over the past year, and garnished with tomato and onion from our garden, topped off with bread and butter pickles I made last weekend with a lot of our cucumbers, we also enjoyed some corn on cob from the garden. Everything was delicious, so fresh, and so tasty.

Noodle, brother of Beef who was butchered earlier this year.

Bread and butter pickles in the canner.

Today I made up another batch of bread and butter pickles, they are in the canner right now, when they are done processing I am going to bed. Along with pickles I got two batches of bread done, five loaves of white, and 4 loaves of oatmeal, this will keep us in bread for a few weeks. I baked two birthday cakes, one for Dave, and one for Ben, as they share a birthday, we are celebrating tomorrow, a few days early.

55 and 22, both like the same cake, and have done so every single year!!!

Dave will slow cook baby back ribs on the grill tomorrow for everyone to enjoy, I plan to fix up a pan of baked beans and a big batch of coleslaw.  We are going to have some fresh veggies and dip, all of the veggies are from our garden, carrots, peppers, cherry tomatoes, kohlrabi, and cucumber, I just love it.

Henry was very excited about picking corn from the patch of garden that belongs to him and Patrick, all the plants are taller or as tall as they are and they like to play in their "jungle". Today was high excitement, one of the very tall sunflowers finally had a flower. The boys were in their jungle garden for a while and then came running out because they found "jungle bugs"! Charlie was worn out, he had walked all over the place and was ready to go in the house for lunch and a nap.

I took a good look through the tomato patch, once they start ripening I will have to get busy canning, nothing like opening a jar of home grown tomatoes in January and smelling their lovely smell and with a quick closing of the eyes you are right back in your summer garden.

I just cannot believe how productive the garden has been this year, it truly, truly, truly is the best garden we have ever had. I have given away arm loads of kale to my sister, along with swiss chard and brocolli, my parents have enjoyed fresh green beans and broccoli, and we eat something from the garden most days. Our fruit trees are just loaded and for the first time ever, we planted most of the apple trees ten years ago and have never even enjoyed an apple from them but we are cautiously optimistic that we might actually have enough fruit to make a pie and hopefully some applesauce.

How is your garden doing this year?

I just love this picture.  Little Charlie is just 14 months old, but he is bound and determined to do all that his big brothers do and some!