A Fabulous Time of Year to be Eating

Time in the kitchen; time in the yard. That seems to be where my focus is these days. We've expanded our "yard garden" this year to include many tomato plants, a couple of bell pepper plants, one eggplant, and some broccoli.  I'm not sure that the plants are looking quite as healthy and full as they did last year, but most of the tomato plants already have little tiny tomatoes on them. Those that don't are flowering.

Tomorrow I volunteer at the Farmers' Market kiosk. This makes my third time this season. I enjoy it immensely, although last week I got so wrapped up in volunteer duties (and socializing) that I missed my window for eggs. Two vendors, and they were both out by the time I got there. I did get tomatoes, however. A guy who has some sort of little greenhouse tunnels had some ripe red tomatoes. So I had to send the hubby in search of some farm fresh bacon--many thanks to Jim and Marilyn at Heritage Hill Homestead for coming through for us--so that we could eat our first BLTs of the season.

YUM!

Shepherd's Valley CSA is also making weekly deliveries now. As a bonus this week, Farmer John was able to provide us with organic strawberries from Cherryvale, Kansas. I only wish I had been in a place to order more and put some of them away. They were excellent on-the-spot eating. I didn't even get to share in the first quart. The kids had it devoured before I got into the house.

More Strawberries! I didn't think to take a picture until I was almost done cleaning them.

Perfect over a bowl of old-fashioned, home-made ice cream.