Growing Garden (Kind of)

Look at me! I'm blogging! I don't know what is wrong with me that has caused this unnecesary delay in blog posts. Well, actually I do know what is wrong with me, but that is content for another post. Maybe tomorrow. It's nothing bad, I just have moments when I get overwhelmed. You know. The good news is that I've had some productive procrastination and have been working on another Bach minuet that I might be able to perform via YouTube in a week or two.

I thought I'd give a little garden update. We haven't had rain in our subtropical climate in over three weeks! Well, actually there were some puddles in the street this morning, but I don't think the amount of precipitation was enough to jump up and down about. It perhaps deserved maybe a monotone, "yay." I can tell it wasn't a lot of rain because my phone line was still working in the morning. (My land line sometimes goes dead when it rains and I can't figure out where the problem is.)

I let Jason pick some "cherry potatoes" this evening. He picked about 14 oz. of cherry tomatoes from our four plants (he picked 28 of them). We had cucumber as well. My cucumbers are not thriving in this dry weather and I'm too cheap and lazy to water the garden everyday. My dad told me last night that the misshapen cucumbers are called "nubs" and are traditionally used for making relish. I think I might be making a lot of relish this year.

I've been feeling rather domestic lately. While shopping in the poultry section of Walmart on Saturday they had some fresh whole fryer chickens at a reduced price. I bought two. One was $3.74 and the other was $2.69. I roasted one tonight with some olive oil and herbs from the garden. I used rosemary, thyme, and sage. I was so glad to use them because I was afraid the herbs would sit unused in my garden all summer since I am so unadventurous in the spice arena. I don't think I have ever cooked a whole chicken before. I'm not a big fan of handling raw poultry. I can handle throwing some skinless boneless chicken breasts in a pot of boiling water, but handling a whole chicken with the bones, skin, and giblets can be a little scary. I'm getting braver, but not quite ready for cutting the head off and plucking feathers.

Can't have a post without pics:

Jason picking his "cherry potatoes."

This cucumber was actually from last week. But you get the idea.

I like to weigh our home grown produce because I think it's fun to get an idea of how much I save by not having to buy the vegetables in the store. And I just love using my postal scale. I didn't buy the scale just so it could sit in a cabinet on top of an unused phone book all year long. Unfortunately all the water, compost, and garden supplies that we end up purchasing each year probably still puts us in the red with our gardening budget. That's when I say, "It's not about saving money. It's about the education and using the postal scale."  (By the way, the oranges are from the grocery store. I can't be having you getting too impressed by thinking we have a citrus orchard on our 0.15 acres.)

The roasted chicken. 

The chicken was gorgeous and delicious. Of course we had four children (Emily, Sarah, Wendy, and Jason) arguing from the moment I showed them what was for dinner, because drumsticks are a hot item in this household. David taught them how to cast lots (actually drawing marbles out of a bag). Emily and Sarah won, but Emily was kind and gave her drumstick to Wendy. Of course it was probably easier to give up her drumstick tonight knowing I have another chicken to cook tomorrow. 

Normally we don't eat this much chicken in a week, but it was a good deal and the "sell by" date was June 6 (today) and I have no room in my freezer for the other chicken because I also bought five containers of ice cream (all different flavors) because it was Buy Two Get Three Free. I wasn't going to pass up that deal! We had an ice cream party last night and Emily said, "It's like an ice cream shop!"

So we are having chicken and herb week. My basil bushes are looking beautiful despite the drought. I think I might learn how to make pesto tomorrow.

It feels so good to be back blogging again! Don't let me do that again.