Monday, May 12, 2008

Can't get more locally grown than this

We planted vegetables this weekend. If the secret to getting sweet peas to try vegetables is having them help in the kitchen, than the key to getting them *excited* about trying those vegetables starts in the garden. R and G, boys that they are, love to dig. When mom and dad let them dig in the mud and get really, really messy, well, we're talking kiddie nirvana.

This year we took advantage of every square foot of sunny soil and planted a whole slew of veggies: cauliflower, mesclun mix greens, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, chilis, herbs and the pumpkin plants we started by seed in April (which aren't looking that hot, but I am hoping they make it!). Even if we don't produce a huge bounty of food, we had fun planting and I know the boys will have fun tracking the progress.

SPH, R and G finishing up some planting:

R showing off his work on the peppers and tomatoes bed:


G after a good dig (his hand obscures his mouth full of mud):


R and G, messy as can be, and yet somehow this picture doesn't do their messiness justice:


SPH and G, walking to go inside after a some watering:


Last year the garden did pretty well and we ended up making our garden pasta salad a lot. So if I can do this, with my olive-y, not-quite-green thumb, dig up some earth and get planting!

Now about our meals...

I usually do our meal planning on Sunday, but since yesterday was Mother's Day I didn't do any of my usual Sunday stuff. We will see what I can conjure up this week from the pantry and maybe a mid-week grocery trip.

Any ideas?

Sweet Eats,
SPC

4 comments:

Slacker Mama said...

Such great pictures. Looks like a great Mother's Day were had by the SP family!

We're in a similar menu predicament...except John took the girls shopping with him and came back with 4 lbs of ground beef and 3 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast. Clearly some will be frozen, but dear lord, it's a lot of meat in my fridge!

BTW...your BBQ butt was fantastic! John declared it better than the carnitas and asked when I was going to make it again!

Sweet Pea Chef said...

Glad you and John liked my butt! :)

Steel Magnolia said...

I think we are trying 'your butt' this weekend...the pictures are GREAT!!

Anonymous said...

Adorable pictures. My kids, 13 and 9, like to help in the garden, but they like to eat the harvest even more. Sounds like a wonderful garden this year.