May 10, 2010: Mother's Day Love & Harvest Monday

What a wonderful Mother's Day I had! It started with brunch at my youngest daughter's house. Mr. Granny and I drove over to West Richland to spend the morning with Amy, Bryan, Alicia and Alicyn. Grandbaby Alicyn was so happy to see us, and full of kisses for her Grandma and Grandpa. We were served hot biscuits with sausage gravy, a casserole of hash brown potatoes, eggs, bacon and cheese, fresh mixed fruits (melons and grapes), deviled eggs, apple and cherry turnovers, orange juice and coffee. Everything was so good, Mr. Granny threatened to go back the next morning for leftovers.

We returned home in the early afternoon, and I went out to the garden and planted the first four of a dozen Quadrato Rosso D'Asti peppers into the garden. These have been well hardened off, but I want to see how they respond to transplanting before I put in the rest of them. I think our cold weather has passed, but I'm not going to bet the farm on it.

While I was in the garden, my youngest son, Scott, and his family showed up with hugs, lovely roses and card. Shortly after they arrived, here came my older daughter, Shannon, with three of her children and that new great-grandson that I wasn't able to hold and spoil on their last visit, as I had the flu. I made up for it though. We headed straight for the squeaky rocking chair, and spent the rest of the afternoon getting acquainted. They had also come bearing gifts and candy.

Great-grandson, Remington J. Ripley, at 7 weeks of age.

Later that evening, son John came with lovely red roses for his Mom. So my day was filled with good food, beautiful flowers, lovely gifts and, the best gift of all, my loving children and grandchildren.

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This week's harvest................

I'm not surprised that Annie and Otto both love fresh veggies, as they have been my garden companions for their entire lives (which is only two years). I doubt it's unusual for dogs to enjoy the things they like to consume from the garden, such as raw green beans, peas, carrots and strawberries, but I am surprised at their latest rage.....radishes! Annie is especially fond of them. She stands by me at the kitchen sink, poking me on the leg with her nose, begging for "just one more radish". Otto seems to like them too, but he's more fascinated with playing with them than he is with eating them. So my harvest totals for the past week include the 23 ounces of radishes (cleaned weight, no tops) that I put in the refrigerator, but not the ones that went to my two little beggars.

The first of several handfuls of radishes that were harvested this past week.

Eleven ounces of spinach were harvested for some wonderful salads. Mr. Granny likes his with ranch dressing, but I ate all of mine with sweet green onions, dried cranberries and a sweet balsamic vinaigrette.

I'm using the thinnings from the Walla Walla sweet onions, which are sizing up nicely, and the flavor is fantastic.....sweet with just the right amount of "bite". Five ounces of onions (cleaned and trimmed weight) were added to this week's harvest total.

Salad fixings for the week.

Oh, man, I shouldn't even show these next photos on my blog! But this is what I look like when I garden........if I'm not in my pajamas and slippers, I'm all about baggy jeans and wonky sweaters. Alicyn was looking at my garden, from a safe distance behind the fence. Later she wandered over to the corn and tried to "weed" it. Luckily, no baby corn stalks were lost in the process. I caught her just in time.

Psssst, Granny, watch your posture! And buy a new sweater. And wear the tight jeans.....you know, the ones where you have to lie on the bed to get them buttoned. And for heaven's sake, comb your hair. You never know when someone will take your picture! ;-)

To date, the harvest total for 2010 is 7.25 pounds. Please visit Daphne's Dandelions to check out what other garden bloggers are harvesting.