And more foodgasms!

The early harvest season is in full swing in our household. Our new blueberry plants have a small amount of berries on them. I plucked one luscious fruit--dusky purple blue--and popped it into my mouth... omg. Why does everything from your own garden, even if you don't know what the fsck you are doing, taste better?

We have strawberries beyond what we can use already. Raspberries from our first year vines are calling my name right now.

But my favorite... POTATOES! I've never grown potatoes, but my husband suggested we do a red and a white this year. The foliage alone was worth it: pop a piece of potato into the ground, and up comes a very large, vigorous and gorgeously deep plume of leaves. It started to yellow and die back recently. I thought it might have been because of too much water; it's in a barrel so we drilled holes in the side for drainage, but the decline continued. Last night I dug my hands in the soil, and from one haphazardly planted potato piece came at least 5 lbs of gorgeous reds. Dinner last night was the last of green beans from the farmer's market (with a handful we picked from a bush bean we planted that didn't do well), marinated chicken thighs from Gartner's, and our own fresh potatoes.

And yes, they did taste better! Much more moisture than in store bought potatoes, and they were firm, not soft like potatoes in the store usually are. And the flavor was just... more and cleaner. Hard to explain.

Late yesterday afternoon we spent time outdoors doing chores, straightening things up, tending to the plant babies. This week we've spent some time up at Legacy Good Sam with a friend/family member, a year younger than us, who is tackling a tough health issue. The work and the earth was therapeutic.