Kitchen Garden

Our little kitchen garden seems to be enjoying the weather...nice and warm with lots of rain...and, I must admit the current conditions have made the gardener's life (mine) much easier, too.  Aside from some weeding and general tidying, I haven't had to do much with the vegetables.

This view shows our four large raised veggie beds and smaller rhubarb bed.  My asparagus and strawberries bit the dust during last summer's drought.  I'm planning to amend the soil and replant them in the Spring...and so those beds are nothin' but weeds right now!

The bed in the foreground has lettuce, spinach, turnips and kholrabi.  I planted beets and parsnips, as well...but they didn't come up.  I'd never grown turnips before...and decided to try them because they're highly touted as a low-carb alternative to potatoes.  All I can say is this...a turnip ain't a potato...in other words, YUCK!  Don't think I'll be planting any more of those!

This bed has eggplant, sweet bell pepper, tomatoes...and two rows of snow peas at the very back (which are just about done for the season).  I LOVE homegrown tomatoes...and I planted "Early Girl," "Soldacki" (a Polish heirloom variety) and "Mr. Stripey" (my favorite)...along with a cherry tomato.  My Dad taught me how to stake and tie tomato plants...and every year I think of him and miss him at tomato time. 

I found two ripe cherry tomatoes this morning...but my hand shot out and popped them into my mouth before I could take a picture.  You'll have to trust me...they were delicious!

You may remember my Broccoli bed...I blogged about it here.  These are the same plants...all grown up.  I've been disappointed in the Broccoli this year...beautiful, huge and healthy plants...but no Broccoli.  Just a couple of very small heads and a few random shoots here and there.  Phooey!  So...imagine my surprise when I checked on it this morning...

...and found this!  And several more! 

I guess I can quit complaining about the Broccoli!  Now...where did I put that Shrimp Alfredo recipe?