autumn harvest

You could say I have garden envy. I see these massive harvest bounties each weekend at Jarboe Park in Neptune Beach. Local growers come out to sell their crisp organic fruits and magnificent veggies, making me wonder when the heck my tomatoes are going to spring up and say hello. I thought they would never bare fruit. Here's why...way back at the end of May, we purchased 4 tiny little plum tomato plants in little degradable pots. We also bought seeds of squash, zucchini and green beans. They all produced for us and are ending their cycle.

After 5 months, lots of water, cow manure and some wickedly power packed nutrients (Jungle Growth at Lowe's) and spending an hour getting the heavy plants off the ground three weekends ago, this "jungle" is starting to perk up. Last night Larry and I excitedly went out (as we do almost every night) to see if any of the heavy bulbous objects were turning from neon green to bright red. Yessss! Victory! Not to mention our green bean plants have been cranking out some beauties (see the pic?).

For dinner, we sauteed the green beans with squash and zucchini from Jarboe Park's fresh market and sliced the tomatoes, mounded them on top of our fresh romaine (also from Jarboe) and had very satisfying veggie dishes. Paired with our black-eyed peas (Jarboe again) with diced ham, garlic, onion and jasmine rice, I'd say Julia herself would have wanted to cozy up to our table. Bon Appetit!

My message: buy local, buy organic, and grow the rest yourself. I now feel guilty buying produce at Publix. The horror.