Fresh Vegetables Grown With Love

So, Joseph and I have been creating a beautiful garden at our place. Mark was kind enough to allow us to dig up an additional plot to double our garden size. The people here last basically grew a few herbs and some tomatoes. We're going at it full on: leeks, garlic, kale, collard greens, carrots and lettuce in the fall and winter; green beans, sweet peas, red cabbage, brussel sprouts, beets, strawberries, cucumber, red bell peppers, zucchini, sunflowers, eggplant, melon, and radishes. We just ate a fresh radish today. Man, it kicked the back of my throat. I've never had one so spicy! We also have various herbs growing: thyme, lemon thyme, chives, garlic chives, cilantro and dill. We will also be starting some basil soon. Wow. We're going to have tons of food here and only two people to feed! It's great practice. Mark calls it the "Garden of Eden" or maybe it's the "Garden of Eatin'." I haven't quite figured it out yet. This are our brussel sprouts and cabbage.



Today was easter. Happy Easter everyone! The past two days I have been on a raw foods diet. It has been somewhat of a struggle. I have been craving salt since I started. I was hoping to detox and just create better eating habits. It is amazing how full you get when you aren't eating any sort of starches from pasta or bread or heavy fats or processed, packaged foods. It just doesn't fill you up like a smoothie made of fresh blueberries, strawberries, orange and apple juice. I just spoke with Carol today and she is really keen on raw food diets (it's less of a diet and more of a lifestyle change). She gave me a couple of books on raw eating and how to make crackers/breads using a food dehydrator and how to make raw hummus and nut cheeses by sprouting beans and seeds like lentils, peas, and sunflower seeds. She is a wealth of knowledge and I am grateful that I know her, as I'm sure Joseph is grateful that he knows Mark. We couldn't be in a more wonderful place right now.

Everything is blooming here right now. I think this is the time of year when people fall in love with North Carolina and are so grateful that they live here. They seem to forget that your eyes dry out in the summertime because it's so hot. Here is a photo of a tree that is blooming right outside our cabin window.



These are the beautiful purple iris outside our front door.




What a beautiful place to live right now. I might be saying something different in a few months. The bugs are already starting to take over. Flies, spiders, ticks, chiggers. Yay!