The Veggies of Our Labor

 

Back in late May, we built our garden. We planted green beans, lettuce, radishes, carrots, fennel, and onions seeds along with tomato, cucumber, eggplant and pepper plants. I figured plants might be produce as we've had tomato plants over the last couple of years. The seeds were another story. I was so worried that all of our hard work would be fruitless. Boy was I wrong!!

 

I can't believe how bountiful our garden has been. Has it been on an extremely small scale, yes? But that's what I expected. I knew we wouldn't produce Farmer's Market worthy veggies, but I really wanted something to grow! We've been lucky to see lettuce, onions, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. And, the tiniest carrots I have ever seen. They may have been tiny but they were huge on flavor. If only they had grown to their full size. (My dad is pretty sure we planted them too late in the season and entirely too close together. Here's hoping for next year!)

 

With the first round of veggies, I put together a salad! Enough lettuce for two sizeable salads that included the onion.

 

 

 After we pulled up the lettuce, I immediately re-planted the remaining seeds and we currently have lettuce back in the garden! I also re-planted the onions I've pulled but they didn't make it. Either something ate them, which is what's happening to my tomatoes as soon as they start turning red, or we are out of season!

 

We made another salad recenlty and used our first pepper! It was tiny, but I didn't care. We each had half and it was so good! Good things do come in small packages!

 

 

As of last week, I had my first eggplant! I hadn't a clue what it was, when surveying the garden, and was terrified at what I might find when moving the plant leaves! I need to find a recipe, Giada has a few, for our little eggplant testing!

 

 See how little the carrots are? Still tasty!

 

 

Currently waiting out their fate!

 

Additionally, I have fourteen or more tomatoes on one plant by our fence row. I am keeping my eye on them so that nature doesn't take advantage of my free food! I can't wait to have super fresh tomatoes for salads, burgers and sandwiches!

 

I've been doing some research on what I can plant for the remainder of summer and fall. Turns out, lettuce, radishes, green beans and cucumbers are on the list. With the exception of radishes, everything else is currently in the garden, however my cucumbers haven't produced a single piece! I have blooms galore, but not one cucumber. Same for the beans! They have taken off and are sky high, but not a single bean to date. My moms seems to think the beans and cucumber don't like each other, so just like grade schoolers, I might need to seperate them.

 

I hope to keep the produce planted and growing all fall long. Stay tuned!! 

 



40 Before 40 - The Garden

On the list of Forty Before the Big 4-0, number 38 was to build a garden. And build a garden we did! Please stick with me as this is a rather long post. I take you from before to after and everything in between!

 

  

This was the space that I wanted to transform. There was an incredibly ugly ground cover that used to reside here, but it was removed before I could get a photograph. So glad to see it gone!! From there, Joel worked to rid the area of all the rock and stones. All we had left was nothing but fresh dirt!

Here the men are working to get the ground ready. We leveled off the area for a nice flat surface and from there the building began!

 

I did lift the shovel several times in order to help, but apparently I wasn't doing it correctly, as it was taken away from me as soon as I started digging! Joel and my dad dug trenches to bury the stones for terraces.

 

And McKinley was an amazing supervisor during the whole process!

 

The terrace is taking shape!

 

 

We now have completed terraces and raised beds! I put the beds together! I finally felt useful!

 

 

Time to start adding the dirt! I purchased organic top soil. I'm trying to be healthy and I don't want just anything going into our garden.



 

And McKinley continued to help! I love that he wanted to help us rake. This is exactly why I wanted to plant this garden! I want him to know the importance about taking care of our Earth!

 

 

And the planting has begun! I did a mix of plants and seeds. A friend of the family gave us eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. From seeds, I planted carrots, lettuce, radishes, green beans, fennel, scallions and onions. 

 

And the finished product is below! Complete with mulch, a large pot of herbs, flowers and tons of love!!

 

 

 

I have loved the entire process of building this small garden. McKinley helps me water and wants to touch the plants. He calls it the "gargen" and I love watching him walking around and talking to us about the vegetables that are growing. I can't wait to start pulling the fully grown veggies, with McKinley's help, in hopes that he will want to eat what he's picked!

 

I can officially say that  number 38 is complete! Can't wait to blog about our bounty!



Big Steps - Week One Update

It has been one week since I started Weight Watchers and so far things are going pretty well. The hardest part has been figuring out points! Oh, and dieting! They arm you with some terrific tools. However, I have created some helpful cheat sheets, like a spread sheet of foods by catagory and their associated points, so I have something to reference when my computer isn't handy. I'm allowed 26 points a day and I haven't really found it all that hard to stay within them. I've actually been leaving some points on the table. Sometimes two, sometimes more. And, I've been hungrier on some days versus others, but I'm trying to really stick with this and not cheat.

 

Another great tool I've discovered, with the help of my friend Wendy, is their recipe builder. Since you can't literally calculate every single point, the recipe builder breaks down your meal on the points scale, and you can save the recipe if you were to make it again. For instance, Wendy provided me with a 1 Point Weight Watcher muffin years ago and I had lost the recipe for the umptenth time! Based on the new WW points system, we wondered if the muffins were still one point. With the recipe builder, we plugged in all the ingredients, changed our serving size to 24, and it calcutated that our previous one point muffin was now two! Super helpful and I use it all the time now.

 

I love that most, if not almost all, veggies and fruits are zero points! I can fill up on healthy snacks and not feel guilty for eating. Other snacks food are low in points as well. For instance, sugar free Jell-O is zero points! Add a teaspoon of Cool Whip and you have a one point dessert or snack! Add 2 tablespoons of Humus to your carrots or celery and you have a two point snack! A cup of air popped, plain popcorn is one point! All great snack foods that fill you up! That's the key. Fill up! They say you shouldn't be hungry on WW, and for most days, that's true.

 

I've been a lot more active this past week as well. I've taken a couple more walks and started the work on building/planting our garden. I've been lifting 40 pound bags of top soil, 16 pound bags of organic soil, digging, raking and planting for the better part of the weekend.  And I get to log all of those activity points and "cash" them in whenever I want. I'm thinking I might use them for the upcoming weekend! Vacations aren't always the best times to diet. Those extra points are going to come in handy!

 

And, as it turns out, the weight loss it taking place. The goal set by Weight Watchers, that I thought was eight pounds in a week, is actually eight pounds total. I'm down 2.5 pounds after week one! Taht might not sound like a lot, but according to my friend Wendy, the average weight loss in a week is two pounds. I'm off to a great start! Let's hope the momentum continues during the week and I continue to shed even through the holiday weekend!