Harvest Monday - a little variety!

Happy Monday!  Thank you Daphne for hosting Harvest Monday, a wonderful opportunity to see what gardeners are producing all around the world.

We had some variety from what we are able to use from the garden this week. Temps are warming up and the plants are loving it, well, some of them are. The tomatoes are plumping up nicely and we had a LOT this week. I'm trying to figure out canning recipes that highlight their yumminess. Have any?

Harvest for 6/13-6/20:
Cherokee Purple Tomatoes: 3 pounds 11 7/8 oz
Strip German Tomatoes: 13 oz
Broccoli: 7/8 oz
Fairy Tale Eggplant: 2 1/8 oz
Fava Beans: 1 3/4 oz
Strawberries: 1 3/4 oz

I managed to snap a picture of the strawberries before the boys gobbled them up.

The heirloom tomatoes are so delicious and yummy, but they do have a bad tendency to crack if they get too much water. But I think it's worth it for the flavor.

Our broccoli never got very large, and I should have picked it Saturday, but I forgot and it started to flower. Maybe it will be a better fall crop, because so far I am not in love with the space/output ratio.

We had our first home grown favas at dinner last night.  We each had 1 bean pod (I shared with Ryle who amazingly enough decided to try something! He didn't like it, but heck, he tried it!!!!) grilled with olive oil and salt and pepper. Delicious. The hubby said it was far better than the last time he had favas (store bought.... probably old and past their prime).  I can't wait for more to mature, and I will definitely try this out as a fall/winter plant.

If only I had known!

The weather here in sunny SoCal is HOT. Not blistering, but nice walking weather. Last night after a rushed dinner he boys, hubby and I decided to walk to Target to get our plehora of Mother's day cards and upcoming birthday cards.  I've decided to buy stock in Hallmark. Having kids greatly increases the number of cards that are now necessary for any occassion.  I can't believe how many cards we have to buy!!!! Mission accomplished, mostly. One of our goals was to have both kids fall asleep dutring the walk. Gray fell asleep on the way, then woke up on the  way back. We managed to bore Ryle enough that he konked out for the night on the way home. Yay!

Well, I also decided to finally purchase my smartpots. We ordered them and they arrived yesterday.  Our mail carrier has the strangest way of deliverying packages (and the Fedex guy too). We will occassionally find packages on our second story balcony next to the sliding glass door. This balcony is above the garage and is attached to our seldom used office (ok, it's really a box storage area at this point in time.). But it's the SECOND STORY! Why is our postal dude and fedex dude leaving packages up there? How do they get them up there? Are they throwing them? Climbing on their trucks? What gives? The first couple of times we would find packages on the ledge, which was odd, but now next to the door? A good 5 feet in from the ledge? Stuff will sit there for days before we go in that room.

But anyway... I have my smartpots!!!!  And after they arrived, I checked where they were shipped from (becuase they made great time...) and they are from Paso Robles..... I'm going to be there Saturday. I could have saved the shipping and picked them up direct! D'oh!

Finally here!

D'oh!

And now we need to build some toddler proof barriers for the strawberry patch. My little guy likes to wander around the back yard foraging for food. He's in the peas, radishes and strawberries. He does bring them by for me to inspect before he pops them in his mouth (most of the time). But the majority of the strawberries he's claiming aren't ready. I guess he likes them a bit tart.

Well, happy gardening all! (I have to go save the strawberries).