Among the many things I [over]planted in my raised garden beds this year were tomato plants and peas. I had one beautiful tomato growing earlier this week and what can only be presumed to have been a squirrel got hold of it before it could get out of the green stage. That put me square into the red stage. We need to get a chicken wire fence up asap, but I'm pretty helpless in that department and Craig's still out of town (but he comes home tomorrow!) so I decided it could wait.

But then these peas – the heat is so intense I'm losing my pea plants. It could be a combination of the heat, the fact that I planted too many in the same area, and also that I had nothing for them to grow up (I'm new at this, cut me some slack). So when I saw these tonight and also knew the plants are about to kick the bucket and that some furry villain might come and help themselves more than they have already I decided to go ahead and pick them tonight.

Here's what I had. They are small, but they are mighty:

Okay, so they aren't really even mighty. But they are mine and I planted them and they grew! And look how cute they are in their little pod here:

And here, my friends, is what I got from my pea plants this year. And I ate them all by myself. Raw. They were yummy.

So. Fully aware that this year's garden is still an experiment, but one I'm counting on seriously learning from so as to know exactly what to do next year, I figured whatever we grow will be for immediate consumption. Any preserving will be done via farmer's market. Bring in the green beans:

I felt sorta like Ma as I cut off the ends, blanched them, cooled them, dried them, and bagged them. Four pounds of green beans. So really that's not that much but it felt like something the other night.

Tomorrow I need to figure out what to do with the eggplant. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now they are staring me down. I'm not sure what I should do. Can I do something to them for the freezer? And I think the zucchini has sweet bread written all over them. Though I do like to saute them in butter as a side dish. Yum.

Anyway, that's that. I'm thinking about going to a canning class next month via University of Missouri Extension. We'll see how that goes.

Oh, and Craig comes home tomorrow night. Yay.