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First Fruits (or you know, Lettuces)

Last night we harvested the “first fruits” from our garden. Now, mind you, when I use the terms “we” and “us” in reference to gardening, I am talking about my husband and my daughter. A green thumb, I have not. My daughter, however, must have gotten the gardening gene from one of her grandmothers because she is in heaven with this garden.

You may remember how it looked just a month ago — April 15th, to be exact.

As of yesterday, May 17th, it looked like this.

Can you even believe it? Well, if you’ve been gardening for long, you probably can, but I don’t think I expected it to actually, you know, grow or anything. Oh ye of little faith…

So last night my husband and daughter harvested our very first bowl of lettuce.

We threw some balsamic vinegar and olive oil on it and tossed it all with a sprinkle of sea salt and freshly ground pepper, and we had our very first homegrown salad.

Now, I buy freshly harvested, homegrown, farm fresh lettuces at the farmers’ market, and I really didn’t expect to tell any difference. I mean, fresh lettuce is fresh lettuce, right? Well, let me tell you, I have never in my life tasted anything like this simple salad.

Now I get it. THIS is why people garden. I mean, it’s cheaper, for sure, and I love knowing that not a single chemical was used to grow this lettuce. But the taste… nothing short of divine.

My daughter couldn’t get enough of it. Wanna know how to get a kid to eat healthy food? Let her grow it herself!

I’m hooked. This gardening thing is the shiz, yo!

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23 Responses

  1. So funny! Last night I picked the first baby spinach for a salad and yes, there’s a huge difference. We’ve been growing an organic garden for years and every year it gets bigger and bigger! We eat and freeze and can, and then give tons away. Too bad we don’t live closer!

  2. I made the mistake of planting an entire packet of lettuce seeds – enough to fill a pretty decent sized yard. We have a ton of lettuce that has to be thinned out now. I also love knowing that no chemicals have come in contact with our food (I almost flipped out at our neighbor last year who insisted we use Miracle Gro on our garden – we pretended we did just so he’d leave us alone.) I also love going out there on evenings when I’m at a loss for dinner ideas, and just going with what’s ready to be picked!

  3. that’s great! I don’t have a veggie garden {i’m still just trying to get used to being a home-owner!} but my parents have maintained a veggie garden for years and I’ve always loved what they grow WAY more than what you can buy, even at the farmer’s market. except for tomatos. i hate them. but you know, i’m sure they taste great to people who actually like tomatos. 🙂

    1. I’m not crazy about tomatoes except when they are freshly homegrown. Then I can really appreciate them, even if they aren’t my favorites. I can’t wait to have our own!

  4. Yeah, you! Yes, homegrown lettuce tastes just so much fresher than store bought. Are you growing tomatoes? A freshly picked cherry tomato is something completely different. Same with freshly grown snap peas. I can’t wait for my snap peas to start producing; we don’t have any flowers yet. 🙁

    1. The peas are starting to flour. Or, um, something is. Maybe it wasn’t peas. We do have tomatoes planted – oh yeah, I think it was the tomatoes that were flowering. And we have peas. Can’t wait!

  5. Congratulations! That’s wonderful! I love your garden. It seems like a perfect project for kids.

  6. totally agree with you – nothing better than gardening will help kids to eat veggies

  7. I am so glad I read this post, just for that last line! Just the laugh I needed. We have not tried growing lettuce, but now I wish we were. We do have some squash waiting to be harvested though.

  8. OMG…I can’t believe I missed your gardening post! I knew you would love it once you got started!!! Congrats on your first harvest!

  9. I love your square foot garden!! This is my first year for a square foot garden and I’m loving mine. Although by the time I got everything together, I planted too late for almost everything but peppers. Still loving it anyway!!

    1. You can probably put some spinach and lettuces in for fall. We’re going to plant them again.

    2. Beans and carrots can still go in. I succession plant mine through June, meaning I plant a short row every 2 to 3 weeks. It makes the harvest more manageable, and we get a harvest throughout the summer rather than all at once. If you have tall plants, the lettuce can go under them. New Zealand spinach is slower to bolt in the summer heat.

  10. Mental note, plant lettuce. I am STILL waiting for my raised beds to be shipped to me Gah!

    And I’m always surprised when a plant or animal survives me and actually thrives. I’m not good with either. My boys got a butterfly garden and, of course, I’ve been in charge of the care and feeding. Every morning I approach the net praying that nothing died LOL!

  11. If you want to taste something amazing. grow your own aspargus. It takes patience — you get nothing the first year, maybe one meal’s worth the second year, and the third year is when the crowns really start producing. There is nothing like cutting your own asparagus and cooking it right away. It tastes NOTHING like what you get in the grocery store, or even like what you can buy locally! It’s worth the the investment in time and in a permanent garden bed!

    1. I DO want to grow that! We will move our garden next year to the back yard, and I hope to do more “perennial” types of plants then. I want rhubarb too!

  12. We just planted a garden for the Salvation Army this morning! All four of us had so much fun…and we have officially decided that we are going to have a garden at our next house. No excuses. No questions. We just are.

  13. I started my own garden last year, and having the BLACKEST thumb ever, had no idea if it was going to work and what it would taste like. OMG, heaven. Started it again this year and after some trial and error, and a few run-ins with the gdamn birds… things are happening!

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