No Wonder Raspberries are So Expensive at the Store!

The garden is blooming! In another couple of weeks, the hundreds of pounds of tomatoes out there will be ready and I'll be pulling out my (grey) hair trying to get it all canned, frozen or eaten (the Captain has now been conveniently scheduled to go on an exercise for a couple of weeks right in the middle of harvesting season.). I'll also be battling a surge of potatoes, onions and peppers. And don't even get me started on the summer squash. This year, my goal is to not end up composting squash that got hastily thrown in the freezer to be dealt with another day. Unless I'm doing something very wrong, that stuff is never any good after having been frozen. This summer, we will be eating a lot of it fried, in soup and in muffins. And if anyone out there has any other ideas, let me know. I need them!

Here are a couple of shots of what's come out of there so far:

We planted raspberries and strawberries two years ago, and I cannot recommend these plants enough! I think if we let them, they'd take over the entire garden. This year, the raspberries have really taken off. I currently have two of those bulk margarine containers filled and in the freezer and I've given raspberries to my neighbours too.

On the topic of raspberries, I was out picking the other day and I heard a sound, which I'm now convinced was just a moth batting its wings. But at the time, it sounded like something was growling at me. Not wanting to get eaten alive by a bear hiding in the raspberry bushes (because that would make for a really embarrassing obituary), but also not wanting to get laughed right back out of the house by the Captain when I ran in screaming, I backed away slowly and picked some peas instead, occasionally looking over my shoulder in case the bear was creeping up on me. When I plucked up my courage and went back the next day, I had a good look at how those plants grow, and I'm pretty sure even a little fox couldn't fit under there, let alone a bear. Even if they could squeeze in, the stems are really prickly too--I'm covered from ankle to shoulder in scratches from raspberry-picking. Surely no animal with an ounce of sense would hide under there in the hopes of having me for dinner. Besides, I'm all fat and gristle anyway.

Okay...everything in this picture (please ignore my burnt cooktop), with the exception of the carrots, came out of our garden. I tell you, there's nothing quite like making a stir-fry out of stuff that just came in from outside. It tastes better, and you have the satisfaction of knowing that your produce didn't have to make the epic journey to your dinner plate all the way from Mexico! From the left, we have Swiss chard, carrots (from Mexico?), tiny potatoes the Captain accidentally dug up, and various summer squash. Take that, bowel cancer!

If I disappear for a while, you'll know the garden has completely taken over. If I return with a post that looks more like an animal with large paws just came in and started smashing the keyboard, you'll know that something has gone terribly, terribly wrong...