My Small Garden

The garden is finally in and growing. Actually most of it has been growing for about two weeks now. In the foreground there are tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, green bell peppers, a cayenne pepper plant and a Tabasco pepper plant. In the background are some legumes that in the south are called peas. These are actually pink eyed purple hulled peas which are similar to black eyed peas (black eyed beans as I have seen them sold in stores in Indiana). They have a different taste than black eyed peas and as some of the more astute have picked up the eyes are pink instead of black. Later in the year I'll do a post on peas for the education of those living in the more northern parts of the country.

If you remember the post Spring in Indiana - Prepping the Garden from a little over 4 weeks ago the garden was hardly a garden then. It looked like this.

We eat off the garden as things ripen during the summer and then either freeze or can items for the winter. The garden is roughly 10 feet wide and maybe 20 feet long. Last year we were able to can 20 quarts of tomatoes plus a few pints, 16 pints of peas, freeze bell pepper for the winter, and throw some hot peppers in the freezer. That's after eating what we wanted during the summer, not to mention sharing with the rabbits, squirrels, and birds. I didn't think that was too bad.

During the winter we use the tomatoes for soups. With the addition of the bell peppers we have a good start on either chili, spaghetti sauce, or lasagna sauce. Canned tomatoes that make it to the spring usually get transformed into salsa with those hot peppers for sharing with friends when we assemble for a few adult beverages.

I normally start getting ripe tomatoes out of the garden a little after July 4th. The tomatoes are already starting to bloom so hopefully I am right on schedule. Something I really didn't expect with the crappy way our spring started out. The peas will start to ripen not long after that and we will get three to 4 pints a week from them for four to six weeks. The cabbage will probably end up being all eaten by rabbits, I started with six cabbage plants and am already down to four. Forget what you believe about rabbits liking lettuce and carrots, it's cabbage they crave. Cabbage and anything similar including brussel sprouts. I tried growing some kohlrabi once with the same result, for a short period I grew rabbit food. If I lived in the country, in the spring I would be dining on hasenpfeffer, regardless of when rabbit hunting season was.

Hopefully the next garden update will be food oriented, maybe fried green tomatoes.