More Deliberate Every Day

This Is The First Real Harvest. . .

. . . and they're the most peppery, fresh radishes in the world.  These little guys came out of our raised beds and, while we've pinched herbs for weeks to spruce up our otherwise un-self-reliant meals, this is the first time we've been able to actually eat from our own toil and land.  So you can imagine how nice it was to sit down last night to dinner where one of the side-dishes was a slaw made with cabbage from the farmers market and spiced with these beauties. 

And that's not all.  The garden is taking the backyard by force.  This last week has seen an explosion of growth from the squash plants (beautiful gigantic blossoms), the "jack-o-lanterns" my youngest planted (otherwise known as the pumpkin vine that ate Memphis), and tomatoes that are now standing almost waist tall.  Mrs. Deliberately built a contraption above the tomato plants after our most recent photos were taken that will allow them to climb up to a full height of about five feet.  I was surprised at her ingenuity!

Summer's here and the bounty is at hand.  There are many updated photos of our garden at the photo gallery on the left.  So that just leaves me with one question:  How does your garden grow?

Update:  By the way, Slow Food Memphis is now officially online at www.slowfoodmemphis.com.  Check it out and visit often!

Grow More Food!

Sharon over at Casaubon's Book began a post recently by suggesting that we should grow some food.  Which made all of us at the More Deliberate household feel good about ourselves, since we're already doing so.  Then, she took it up a notch and suggested that everyone, even us, could be going further.

If you've already got a garden, what about expanding it? Consider adding fruit trees and bushes, or if you mostly grow food for fresh eating, how about dry corn for cornbread and dry beans? Perhaps you simply need to grow more potatoes or apples or cabbage or onions to last you through the winter? Or maybe if you built a simple coldframe, you could have fresh greens for salad through the whole winter. Perhaps you are one of those people who puts your garden in on Memorial Day and harvests everything before the first frost - you could have fresh food for months more on either side in many cases, with simple season extension techniques like cold frames and row covers.

In our case we're actually waiting to harvest something and put it in our grubby littles mouths before we strike out into bigger plots.  How about you?  Are you growing something this summer?  How much of your food supply can you cultivate in your own back/front/side/neighbor's yard?

Photo courtesy of pixieclipx.

The Impending Harvest

Early last week we were carefully paying attention to the single fat, red strawberry that glistened red on the vine.  We had both, independent of each other, decided that once the fruit was fully ripen we would harvest it, clean it, cut it in four pieces, and devour it as a family desert in celebration of the first harvest.  Little did we then know that there are other critters with access to our backyard hatching similar plans. . .

So, bereft of this first strawberry, we still lay in wait.  But the time is coming soon, and I promise I'll get some updated photos of the garden on the web this weekend.  Radishes and greens are close to harvest.  Carrot-tops are starting to look like carrot-tops.  It would appear that zucchini will thrive in our soil.  Even the haphazard pumpkin seeds planted by our youngest, in his passion to grow a jack-o-lantern, appear to have taken deep root.  In the meantime, we are still enjoying meals with a very local flair. 

Over at the posthastetaste blog, they're one step ahead of us .

This weekend for breakfast we enjoyed local free-range egg omlettes with fresh farmers market onion and goat cheese served with home-baked toast lathered with butter.  Not completely local, but far closer than we would have been several months ago.  How about you?  Are you making local a more important part of your table as well?

And does anyone know where we can put our hands on local flour or butter?  That would help. . .

Late April Garden Photos

Photos of our homestead (translate:  suburban) garden are here.