Post #29

If you've been keeping up, you know I set a goal to do 30 blog posts in 30 days. If you've been counting, you know I fell short of that goal by a couple posts.

No matter. It was a goal, not a mission. There was a time it would have irked me to not reach the goal, but not today. In all things, I'm doing the best I can do.

It was harvest time in my little bucket garden this morning.

This photo was taken before we got started. I'm not gonna tell you what you're looking at; you gotta look closely.

Did you see it?

On to harvesting and presented with limited commentary... (ok, the truth is I'm very sleepy and have to get up early for a post-op appointment in Atlanta)

Let's hear it for the peppers! Several varieties I've grown this summer.

Big Bertha. Really, that's the name of this variety.

And the pepper plants are STILL blooming. Jalapeño!

Someone wants to help...

Someone stole a pepper, and I found this later in the living room. (Hint: it wasn't Jack. No, Jack tore down a whole corn stalk later. Roscoe brought it in the house, and they worked together to chew it up. No photos of that though)

I've got a few blackeye pea stragglers.

Proof someone (or something) else has been visiting the garden...

Oooh...eggplant. I'm hoping to make eggplant parmigiana with eggplant and tomatoes from my garden. And just fyi: I've never made eggplant parmigiana in my life, with or without veggies from my garden, but I'm excited to try. Grow little eggplant, grow.

Onions! And they're getting close to being ready! This confuses me some...I put an onion in the ground, and a few months later, I dig up that same onion--only bigger--out of the ground. I dunno. It's my first onion harvest, so maybe there's a surprise in the ground waiting for me.

Hello Mr. Grasshopper. You really shouldn't be here.

My stevia! I am super super excited about harvesting this. Sweeter than sugar, without the ugly side effects. All natural. I'm going to dry the leaves and then crush and powder them. This year is a test run. I grew three buckets of plants, and I want to see how long this will last us. Next year, I hope to plant and harvest enough to last us a year. Side note: we don't use a lot of sugar anymore; very little as a matter of fact. My biggest regular use is in my hummingbird feeders in the summer, and I won't replace that with stevia. ( that's basil in bottom left of photo)

My stevia harvest...

Nice little mixture. I'll freeze most of the peppers because I already have some on the counter.

Got a few tomatoes too. I've struggled with the tomato plants, and I think next year I will try raised beds instead of buckets. The combination of heat and plastic bucket isn't a good one.

The stevia plants are hanging upside down in the backyard building, drying. I plan to move some of the leaves to the dehydrator Tuesday. First for the dehydrator though, this evening I started some basil leaves.

And I had help from the pup who used to live alone on a chain. I don't know why I thought about that tonight while we were in the kitchen. It still tickles me to know how far he's come and how content he is with this life-this dog that could never ever live in the house.

The perfect ending to harvest day.