So, what do you do with your spare time?

I will wait a moment while you recover from laughing yourself silly. 

I was reminded of how much there is involved in growing your own food when I read Jenyfer's post this morning.  This time of year, I find myself facing the bean jungle with trepidation.  I try to get out there once a day to pick beans and check the overall progress of the garden.  I am not a measurer, weigher or keeper-tracker of these things.  Let's just say I'm getting a WHOLE lot of beans this year. 

After wingeing and whining over the slow development of my cucumbers, upon closer inspection I discovered two the size of clubs.  Sigh.  This always reminds me of a conversation I had with a strawberry grower south of me.  He runs a pick-your-own farm and is located near a main artery that draws Cityfolks up to the country.  After getting lots of complaints that there were no strawberries (when he knew there were), he went out and asked this young couple with a child to show him.  They stood over the berry plants, looking down in dismay.  "See?"  they mewled.  "There aren't any."  He then bent down with their little girl and lifted a few leaves.  Tons.  They were shocked that they had to bend down or, gasp, actually touch the dirt with their knees, to find ripe berries.  I digress.

I do need to remember to dive into the morass which is my cucumber vines on a more regular basis.  I also harvested my first Ronde de Nice zucchini (thank you, Candy, for the inspiration) and cannot wait to stuff the little bugger.  Of course, it's not as little as it should be (see Cucumbers...)

I am throwing in the gloves and pulling my onions this weekend - probably tonight, as it's supposed to rain this weekend.  They are pulling themselves out of the ground as it is.  I don't want  to be accused of onion neglect.  My cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen and I got another handful of black cherry tomatoes (OMG are they good!)  I also pulled a few more of the golden beets - the reds are running in last place.  My peppers are sad and my eggplant are downright woeful.  Still.  Pep talks don't seem to be having any effect. 

My original point (waaay back there at the beginning) was that, not only do I have to go out every day and pick what's ripe, I have to bring it in, wash it, sort it, package it for the fridge, or process it if I'm not using it right away, and then I have to plan my meals accordingly.  Gardening is like commiting to a relationship.  It's like a whirlwind romance in the spring and summer, nice and comfortable like an old shoe during the fall, then bundled up and sent to bed for the winter.  I am not complaining, nope, not a whit.  There is nothing more satisfying to me than sitting down to every meal, knowing that I have grown most of it.  I know exactly where my food comes from.