Strawberry Harvest Festival

so in the spirit of getting the kid out of the house for something a little more out of the ordinary, we decided to take him to a local-ish farm that i found online.  we weren't sure what he'd think of it but it turns out he had a GREAT time!

the corn castle (really a shed with corn kernels inside instead of sand) was ok and the bounce house was a hit (surprise, surprise!) so we did ok for the first couple of activities for the day. 

took some encouragement for pid to warm up to the very friendly farm animals. it actually took encouragement, the purchase of a bag of food for the animals and a few minutes of dad feeding them for pid to try it. he befriended a little white goat and fed it most of the veggies we bought. lucky goat.


after the animal feeding, we took a break for lunch and to rest a little before heading out to the strawberry patch to pick the berries. the hayride there was uneventful but once we got there, pid was very concerned that we would miss the hayride back. eventually he got into picking berries though. 


and boy did we get berries:

they were sweet and juicy and i made some fun things with them:  strawberry jam, strawberry curd, and strawberry shortcake. we also at lots and lots of fresh berries. a definite outing to keep on the list! fortunately they have various pick-your-own items through to pumpkins in the fall.

mmm... salad!!!

tonight's dinner features a salad with lettuce and tomatoes from my very own little garden. both are delicious and made even more so with the addition of some buffalo chicken bites! i'm so happy that my garden experiement has some successes in addition to the several not-quite-successes! can't wait until next year to try again!

From train of thought

Deeper Waters...

we finally got pid out into water that was a bit deeper this past weekend. he truly loves the lake but is pretty committed to the shallowest waters. as luck would have it, there was a friendly young boy from the neighborhood that owned this little floatie car deal in the picture below. he must've noticed pid eyeing it as he came and told my husband that they could use it. still stuck in the shallow end but loving the car, we eventually convinced him to venture deeper into the water and he had a blast! yay! i'm very much loving the decision to live near the lake. it's a great little bonus in nice weather!

First tomato, the reprise

It finally ripened!

Harvest!

wow!! i didn't get out to harvest yesterday due to heavy rain and thunderstorms so i went out this morning and lo and behold - cucumbers! they grew a lot in the last two days - good thing i didn't forget about them! i saw some more little ones, too. hoping those will grow well now that these aren't sapping energy! will update later on the taste of these two.

UPDATE - the boy approved of the cucumbers once sliced, however i felt they were a little bitter... not overly so, they were definitely edible! a link i found on causes of bitterness in cucumbers (http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/bittercukes.html) suggests that i might have better results if i water them more evenly and mulch them. might give that a go...

Independence Day 2011

we had a nice relaxing independence day 2011 - it was our first day to go hang out at the lake and re-meet some of our neighbors. weather was great and we had a nice few hours outside. the kid was on cloud nine and called himself "swimming" though he was really just scooting along on the sand in the shallowest part of the water. but it was good to see he is much more at ease in the water after swimming lessons last winter!

veggies ahead!

i was a little worried about my cucumbers a week or so ago... there were NO flowers in sight. but then suddenly there were tons of blossoms all over the thing and today, 4 little cucumbers! cute little specimen below! that's the largest of them right now and i think they were pickling size so will probably take it off in a day. had to get some stakes for that plant though - it was running off on its on agenda!

Pickles - July 7th

in other good news - there are now 20 tomatoes or more on the tomato plant - can't wait until i see some red ones for harvesting!



Tomatoes - July 7th

my potatoes are a whole other issue - they are no longer displaying the yellow leaves that i decided meant i should fertilize them - i think that's a good thing. BUT... they are looking a bit sad and pathetic overall. i did just come across a comment online (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1428862/yukon_gold_potatoes_are_a_great_potato.html?cat=32) that yukon golds are short season so perhaps they are simply approaching harvest time already? [article quote: "Yukon Gold potatoes are a great choice for a private home garden potato. Yukon Gold potatoes are an early variety of potato so that means it needs a shorter growing season. They are a great potato choice for people who live in an area where the growing season is short. Yukon Gold potatoes have small eyes that are receded into the potato therefore they are more resistant to sprouting then other potatoes. Since the Yukon Gold potato is resistant to sprouting they are good for storing for a long "]

Garden - July 7