Organic Gardening and Baking (How Domestic!)

Somehow I have managed to be quite domestic today. We have been growing an organic garden for the past 2 years and this will be our 3rd. The first year was marvelous! Everything grew, we had more produce than we ever knew what to do with and it was quite an ego boost for a first time gardener. If you have been following my blog for a while, here are some flashback photo's of that garden:

It must have been a particularly good growing year because I really knew nothing about gardening and I had so much produce it was incredible. We planted everything at the same time and ended up with a massive amount, so much that I couldn't even give it all away and much of it went bad. The next year, we decided to plant things in weekly or bi-weekly increments. Last year was a particularly BAD gardening year. None of my tomato's yielded fruit, my carrots didn't grow, my peas didn't grow, my strawberries rotted as soon as they were ready to pick, the onions rotted before they were ripe, the mint took over a section of the garden, the lettuce variety we chose was bitter. It was a very sad year for our garden. I heard most people had trouble, not just us. The weather was horribly wet, it was cold far into the summer, it never got particularly warm. 

I have high hopes for this year. I got a Farmers Almanac this year and I plan on following the planting date recommendations. I trust that they will know the right time to get things into the ground. So, with that, I planted 3 items in my garden today, just in time to miss the sideways rain but not in time to avoid stepping in dog poo, gross (thanks Trooper).

For the first time, I planted Broccoli. I planted 1 row now and I will plant the next row in a week or two so that they grow at different rates (unless we have a repeat of last year)

I planted some Carrots and I hope they grow because the first year, these little guys were so tasty. I planted 1 row and will plant another in a week or so and they are next to the Broccoli. 

Finally, I planted some Sugar Snap Peas. Again, 1 row to be followed by another in a week or so. Last year the peas didn't grow so here is to hoping we don't have a repeat. 

After planting and making it inside just in time to avoid the rain and wind, I prepared chocolate chip banana bread with the old mushy bananas that were staring at me from the counter. I just pulled it out of the oven and it smells delicious! I followed the recipe from the Better Home's Cookbook which has been a good resource in the past when making zucchini bread (using zucchini's from my organic garden of course!) and pumpkin bread (again using garden grown baking pumpkins). 

I feel like I am on my way to being a domesticated wife. The process is slow and sometimes painful, but I am working on it. And I feel so rewarded when I grow my own organic veggies and cook delicious baked goodies, I just have to keep myself motivated and remind myself how good it feels when I accomplish things. 

Pretty soon, I will be a regular domestic!