“Sex is good, but not as good as fresh, sweet corn.”
Today is a chilly, dreary day with clouds and periodic rain. The weatherman says the next few days won’t be any better.
My front walk is lined with potted flowers and herbs waiting to be planted. They are from my first run at the garden center. My herb garden, though, needs to be weeded and cleaned first, but I’m waiting for some sun before I tackle that job. I bought my herbs with recipes in mind. There’s cilantro for Mexican food, spearmint for drinks and thyme for just about anything. The basil will come later. Oregano, sage and lemon verbena are already growing high in the garden. I can barely wait to snip my own fresh herbs.
I’ll make several trips to the garden center before I’m finished. The front beds need more flowers, the deck flower boxes need to be filled and I want tomato plants. Last year the possum ate my tomatoes. I’m hoping this year I will.
When I was a kid, the only fresh vegetables we ate were carrots, summer corn and fall squashes. I don’t count potatoes because their skins always looked old to me. The rest of our vegetables came from cans. My mother served LeSueur baby peas, French green beans, regular green beans, yellow beans, and corn niblets. She also served creamed corn, but I always thought it look gross. My father liked canned asparagus, but the rest of us didn’t.
I roamed all over town, and I don’t remember a single backyard vegetable garden. Nobody had little stands in front of their houses selling mounds of zucchini or bags of native tomatoes. I remember the lady across the street had grape arbors, and I thought that was amazing because I got to see grapes growing in the wild and eat some fresh off the vines. They tasted spectacular.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
April 25, 2010 at 2:09 pm
I have a small herb garden but never seeme to use any of it. But it´s nice to smell the scents when walking by 🙂 There´s always lots of weeds amongst them too, I just don´t know why weeds love to grow amongst herbs.
We ate fresh carrots too and corn on cobs too when avalible, but like You I think all other vegetables came in cans unless we ate at grandmas place.
It was farly warm here today but the sun didn´t show up more than for a couple of minutes.Tomorrow will be much the same they say but temperatures might get up to 63F. But it won´t last for more than a day, then cold weather and rain will come.
Have a great day now!
Christer.
April 25, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Christer,
I love going to my little herb garden and snipping what I need for a recipe. You are so right-it smells wonderful. As for weeds, only a few seem to grow around the edge.
We didn’t have the availability of vegetables the way we do now. Once the season was over, few were sold in the supermarket; only root vegetables were plentiful.
Today stayed cold.
April 25, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Just peeked out the window and right now it is snowing, just a flake here and there but still. A couple hours ago it was raining and then an hour of brilliant sunshine and now snow. Hopefully, it will become real spring by the first. Hopefully.
There is not much of a growing season here, so gardens are pretty limited, corn if your lucky and tomatoes if you don’t mind ripening them in the basement. But the shorter seasoned thing like spinach, beans, carrots, summer squash and of course the ‘z’ stuff all do well as does rhubarb along with asparagus, if you can keep enough water on it.
Good luck with your’s, it sounds just perfect.
Carl
April 25, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Carl,
My sister had snow in Colorado, but I think we are finally rid of frost and snow. It will stay cold for a while yet because of the ocean. I don’t mind as it will stay warmer longer in October.
The tomatoes are plentiful starting in late July and the sweet corn comes in August. I can’t get enough of wither, especially the corn.
I love my little garden.
April 25, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Don’t forget the mint. I love mint. I even pull some leaves for my iced tea. I’m taking someone’s advice on Christer’s blog and buying upside down tomato plants this year so I can bring them in at night. Store them in the garage. It hit 97 degrees down here today so it really feels like Summer has arrived a tad early. Usually we get into May before the really hot temps attack us. Enjoy your garden!
April 25, 2010 at 9:21 pm
Z&Me,
I bought mint the other day and am putting it in the yard where it can spread. I use it in tea and for drinks. I even have a few fruit recipes which call for it. I love the smell of fresh mint.
We sometimes never hit 97° during the summer. Our hottest is around 88 or 90°. That’s quite hot enough for me.
This time of year I’m happy with 60°
April 25, 2010 at 6:38 pm
G’day Katry, How different from my childhood in wartime England, everyone who could had a vegie garden. I think I was well into my teens before I had my first canned food. Wartime rationing continued well into the 50s so sweets and chocolate were also not a part of my early childhood, they were included as part of the sugar ration so even if we had the money we needed a sugar coupon from mum, and rightly, dad’s tea cam first! Is the cilantro you refer to a prickly looking plant or is it the ordinary coriander, these names seem to be pretty well interchangeable. Spring is a lovely time of year, our seasons are not as pronounced as yours but I still love the new growth of spring.
April 25, 2010 at 9:30 pm
G’day to you too Bob,
My parents never had a victory garden as they were called here, and I suspect that’s how the canned vegetables came in-that’s what both of them were used to eating. Even later when my mother served fresh vegetables, my father still preferred canned.
We never had rationing in my lifetime so I always had my chocolate as a kid. I think rationing ended when the war did.
The cilantro is the same as coriander. I use it the most when I make Mexican food.
The season are wonderfully distinct here in New England. It is one of the reason I love living here.
April 25, 2010 at 7:37 pm
We had a vegetable garden from the time I was 12 until my father’s death. He grew lots of vegetables. Corn, carrots, beans, peas, squash, tomatoes (of course) spinach and swiss chard. He tried potatoes one year but they were not a huge success. We never canned any of it so late fall through late spring we also ate the Le Seure baby peas and all that other stuff in cans. I hated it but everyone else in the family actually prefers canned veg. My brother’s all-time favorite was jarred peas with pearl onions. They were a must have at every holiday meal. I suffered a lot until I learned to cook. 🙂
April 25, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Caryn,
I couldn’t believe it when I got older, and my father still ate canned asparagus. They were limp and mushy, but that’s what he preferred.
I admit I still have a fondness for LeSeure baby peas-they were always my favorite when I was a kid.