Food

I am looking forward to a summer of fresh vegetables.  I've never had a garden this big of my own.  We always had a garden in the suburbs but the biggest one we had gave us tomatoes, squash, pumpkins and zucchini - easy plants to grow.  My current garden has asparagus, strawberries and raspberry perennials and I need to plan the rest of that garden - plus the kitchen garden next to the house.  I will probably grow potatoes, onions, beets, carrots, cabbage, squash, zucchini and cantaloupe in the main garden and the peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, kale, cucumbers in the kitchen garden.  It sounds very ambitious, I know.  And I've never grown most of these vegetables before.  I'll take any tips and pointers.  I mostly worry about the dog getting into them or ruining my garden completely.

I am learning how essential food is in any country home.  Things I've made in the past just for fun have become staples in our home every week - bagel's, pizza, pancakes and cookies.  I'm constantly looking at ways to stretch our dollar and the grocery list.  The other night we had taco's but I also made some brown rice.  I sauteed some kale, zucchini, onions and carrots and added half the brown rice to that mixture and added the leftover taco meat to the rest and voila - lunches and sides for a week.  I'm thinking about making home made dog treats and granola bars - please share if you have a favourite recipe.  After this garden is done in the fall I'm going to try my hand at home made soap and candles and preserving - tomato sauce, pizza sauce, salsa, pickles, jam to start.  I have to admit I've been out of my head thinking about spring and summer lately.  I daydream about my plans all the time.  What I really need to do is get that seed order in!