Michele's Birthday Weekend - Part Three: Garden Decor

Now, we did spend most of Michele's weekend relaxing, but we also opened a package we'd received from a delightful stained glass artist in Florida: Glass of Many Colors. I had commissioned this husband and wife team to make a set of four stained glass veggies for our square foot garden. Michele and I spent a fun-filled hour deciding where to put each of the four and then just admiring our handiwork. Aren't they gorgeous! We've decided we'd like six more: a beet, cherry tomatoes, a red pepper, a head of broccoli, an onion, and a yellow squash to join the current corn, green beans, carrot, and beefsteak tomato. When the sun hits these it's like you're in heaven! And, in addition to the beauty they add to the garden, the carrot is a welcome addition to my carrot-themed art collection: glass!

Week One Featured Square: Garden Beans

I am particularly proud of this square in my square foot garden. If you've been following for a while, you'll likely remember the garden beans I feasted on last year, the purple, green, and white ones. Well, this box was planted with seeds I harvested from those beans. I'm thrilled each time I look at it because 1. last year was my first year gardening in my life, 2. these are the first seeds I've ever harvested in my life, and 3. it makes me feels extra successful to have had a grand harvest of garden beans last year and still be reaping the rewards of them this year!

Zucchini and Homecoming

When Gloria came at the beginning of May we planted a billion zucchini and cucumber seeds, but nothing grew until around July and then it was just one lone zucchini. It grew really big and strong and kept flowering and flowering and never bore fruit. Well, when I got home from my sister's, Rita, who was watching my garden, pointed out that I had zucchini! I swear it waited to grow until Michele was about to come home!! And, as proof, here's a pic of Michele on the couch I made holding a slightly misshapen, but hopefully delicious, zucchini from our garden! Her diktat is that I make zucchini bread for her to take when she goes back out on the road.

Speaking of Michele: she's home (see proof above)!! I went to a truck stop close to my work and picked her up. I got to meet Tom, her driving partner. He's so very nice and proper and Southern. He ma'amed me every other word. "Yes, ma'am, it has sure been a treat haulin' with Michele, yes ma'am, it has." Since I was picking Michele up right after work and we were both hungry we had a very simple dinner, though it was all based on veggies from the garden. I made her roasted green, purple, and white garden beans and Italian quesadillas (tomatoes and basil from the garden with mozarella cheese between two tortillas and then into the quesadilla maker). It's so wonderful to have both zucchinis and Michele home!

Roasted Green (Purple) Beans

I made yummy roasted green (purple) beans for dinner tonight. I found the recipe here: http://www.recipezaar.com/Roasted-Green-Beans-133821 They were so very good! I am searching the web for green bean recipes and having a lot of fun eating out of the garden. I can't wait for the tomatoes, peppers, squash, and cucumbers to come join the party!

These royal burgundy garden beans are so cool. They start out such a deep, dark purple/burgundy, but are really bright green inside. Then, when you cook them, they turn green, like regular green beans. It's so wild. I wish I knew what made them change color.

Busy Eating Beans

I'm sorry that I haven't taken the time to blog this past week. I've been busy eating all those beans! Actually, I have had a hard time adjusting to being back at work after nearly two weeks off - made worse by my need to work today - Friday - when I've gotten so used to being off every Friday. So, while I've been getting back in the swing of things, I've also been busily creating items for my Etsy store. I promised Michele that I wouldn't just keep making items and perfecting the store design and never open the actual store, so I have decided that I will have my grand opening when I have 10 items ready to sell. I have 8 done now, so the grand opening is looming in the near distance! I'll keep you posted.

I also harvested another batch of beans. The purple ones are again the most prolific of the three. From the first batch, I snacked on the green and white beans raw and stir fried up the purple ones - they do turn green when cooked! I think for dinner tonight, I might french cut and saute some purple beans and serve them up with cous cous and some bbq tofu or a veggie chick'n cutlet - yum yum gourmet!!

Ripe for the Picking!

While Ann was over, I showed her our veggie garden and she mentioned that the garden beans were ready for harvesting - and that some were so ripe they were about to go to seed! That was Friday, but I was so busy that I didn't get to harvest them. Well, I had dreams about the beans all night and woke up at 6am Saturday morning very afraid they had all gone to seed over night, so I went out in my jammies and harvested some beans! They are really beautiful and there are so many of them - and more to come throughout the summer! I have burgundy, white, and green beans - though mostly white and burgundy. The white and green ones are really tasty raw, but the burgundy ones need some cooking and seasoning - I read that they turn green when cooked, so we'll see. I snacked on beans all day yesterday and will throw the rest in a stir fry for dinner for the week. From the rate of growth on the bean stalks, I think garden beans will be a regular staple in my diet for the rest of the summer - probably for the rest of the year, too, because I'll be freezing some. It's a good thing I like beans!