Yesterday I pulled a total of 5 tomatoes, 7 Anaheim chilies, 4 green bell peppers out of my garden. It was the first time that I needed a bag to haul in the bounty. I was proud. This was food that I grew without chemicals at my home for my family. This was my penultimate stab at a great big "Fuck you!" to industrialized food. And it worked. One of my crazy, hair-brained schemes actually paid off. It's a lot of hard work raising a garden organically. A friend asked, "How do you keep the weeds out?". Well, you weed or hoe almost every single day. We don't use any kind of weed inhibitor or chemical based plant foods. It's just elbow grease and animal shit. Vegetarian chicken and bovine to be exact. Thus far, I figure we're still in the hole monetarily but things are looking promising and it felt good to bring food into the house.

As for what's happening in the rest of the garden, not a lot. I did take king zucchini out. He tasted okay. I grabbed him a little late. The seeds were big and tough. We now have another white zuke growing in his stead. I don't get why they're white. It's a genetic mutation and it's rare. I understand that. But can I please just have one green one?

I have taken two squash. They were yummy on the grill. I took 8 pickling cucumbers and jarred them. I got one good meals worth of broccoli and not much since. I have to be doing something wrong there. The handful of red onions seem to be doing awesome.

The modicum of success we have enjoyed has inspired us to expand next year to nearly double the length. It will be a tremendous amount of work, but we want to do corn, carrots, asparagus, and some leafy greens. Also, we intend to grow sunchokes next in 2011. We will definitely plant garlic in the fall. There are lots of other possibilities rattling around my skull.

E-I-E-I-Oh!