Garden duty

I’ve traded mommy duties for garden duties for the next few days.  It’s not a bad swap, since one of the major tasks is picking [and eating] strawberries.

At this point, the berries are just starting to trickle in, and (like so many crops), they would be best grown in your own yard, where you’re there to pick them fully ripe every day, instead of at a commuter garden twelve miles away.  I draw the line at hopping in the car every day just for a few strawberries, so I’ll be headed there every other day at the most.

Also on my garden task list for the day:

• Pick asparagus (there was none)
• Pick lettuce, arugula, and spinach (now have WAY too much lettuce, as I’d been planning to give some to my FIL who ended up with plenty of greens in his CSA share)
• Squash flea beetles on eggplant — success!
• Water areas with recently planted seeds

I also harvested some cilantro and mint (not quite sure what I’m doing with the mint).  There may be something else, but that’s all I’ve got at the moment.  Of course, it’s a three-thousand square foot garden — there’s MUCH more that I could have done, but I am, alas, a slacker gardener.

Also, I made it a quick visit so I could run by the farmers’ market and buy strawberries.  I know, I know, I just wrote about how I’m picking strawberries at the garden, but I’m not sure our harvest this [first] year will be enough to yield much for the freezer.

As long as I was out and about in the car, I decided to hedge my bets.  Once at the market, instead of buying tons of berries (as I’d originally planned), I ended up with a very moderate three quarts.  The price break for buying eight quarts was less than fifty cents per quart, and I just wasn’t sure we needed that many.  Turned out I could have gone by bike after all.

After spending the morning on spring bounty, I spent the afternoon working with some of last fall’s bounty.  Yep, we still have winter squash and sweet potatoes!  With possibly the coolest temps we will see for months, I fired up the oven and roasted three large squash, plus some sweet potatoes.

After all that, I thought about biking to Forest Park for some Shakespeare action, but I really just wanted to call it a day.  If you can’t give yourself a break, who will?