Garden Goodies

There's been a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes, and not nearly enough blogging. Mea culpa! As you can see, things are coming up all over. We've gotten several nice batches of broccoli cuts for dinners, but I had to pull the 2nd patch of broccoli due to a sudden infestation of grey aphids. Perhaps I ought to have tried harder to rescue it, but they had gotten quite a foothold while I was ill for almost a week and not keeping tabs on the garden. Have planted yellow and purple bush beans where they were pulled, so the bed is percolating at least.

There's a nice feeling about being able to pull together a dinner salad for 5 - 6 folks from the garden, especially just in time for Weekend Herb Blogging. Batavian Nevada lettuce seeded a few weeks ago joined the new 'cut and come again' mesclun mix and some nasturtium flowers and tender new nasturtium leaves to make a yummy salad. Nasturtiums are a gorgeously edible flower, but many folks overlook the leaves. Added judiciously to a salad, they are excellent: chew one by itself, and you'll get a tangy, peppery mouthful that may be too much to handle. One bonus of the chilly, wet weather-- almost no ants to chase out of the nasturtium blossoms. You really want to inspect those closely before putting in a salad. I tend to cut or pull the petals off-- you lose the sweet/hot nectar reservoir of the flower, but you also discard any ants. I'm growing two types of viola as well, but I always seem to forget about adding them to salads. They're just so pretty right where they are!