I decided to take a break from my job today to give a brief update on the garden now that we’ve moved into summer here in western Pennsylvania.
The spinach has gone to seed, but we put up a few bags and ate quite a few meals of the fresh stuff. The raspberry bushes are alive with small white berries and the bees are buzzing around the blossoms. I watch daily for the first sign of red. I’m ready to pick and preserve–and of course, slip a few in my mouth.
The news this week involves peas. We’d been snacking on peas for the past week. I put some in a tuna macaroni salad, and we’ve been eating them raw. Late yesterday, Robert went out to pick and he came back in with a grocery bag packed with them plus enough for us to have large servings for our supper–we’d had a late lunch, so we made peas our evening meal. Tonight I’ll be blanching and freezing. 
Peas should be blanched in boiling water for two minutes and then submerged in ice cold water for another two minutes. They should be a wonderful bright green and ready for putting in freezer bags for winter consumption. Peas hold up well for freezing, perhaps the best vegetable of all for preserving this way.
So it’s back to work. I’m in the process of getting three books ready for publication. I participated in a Romance in a Month class and really did finish a draft of a book. It’s shorter than my previous novels so I should be able to publish Behind the Altar by September. 
Native Lands is next in my Florida Fiction Series. I started this novel in 2006, and then left it for a few years. I’ve been working on it since 2013 and it heads to my editor in July. I hope to have it published by October.
And finally, the third book, Odyssey to Myself, is a collection of travel essays I’ve been working on in my spare time for the past year. It covers a decade in my life when my world tilted. As I struggled to adjust, I traveled: Morocco, Italy, Panama, and Chile. There was a trip down Route 66 in between. Most of the essays were already written and published in various places. I’m just writing the transitions and pulling into one cohesive whole. I hope to publish this one before summer ends.
I’ve been busy. I imagine things to pick up with the garden with the ripening of twenty tomato plants. I’m excited to make Italian sauce and salsa since we didn’t make any last year, partly because the tomatoes didn’t perform as well and partially because I wasn’t performing at all.
What a difference a year makes. I’ve never felt better, and when I look out at the garden, it reflects my feeling of health and well-being. We’re eating broccoli, cauliflower, and lettuce almost every night. Thanks, Robert, for a job well done!
What’s growing in your area right now? I haven’t been out to a Farmer’s Market yet, but I bet they’re bursting with local food.
Living Lightly 
Fresh peas – delicious. Beautiful lettuce is abundant in our garden right now. Everything else is growing, but lettuce is the only thing being harvested. Raspberries will be up next. 🙂
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Wonderful! It’s fantastic to have fresh lettuce. I can’t wait for raspberries. We made the mistake of planting ten bushes on the edge of our garden, and they’re taking over!
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Our peas are so slow this year – boo hoo. We’re eating salad from the garden every night which is a wonderful treat – lots of varieties of salad greens and radishes and the first zucchinis are coming. The picture of your garden is wonderful. Thanks for posting it.
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Salads every night – that’s wonderful! We have zucchini blossoms but nothing yet. We did have a cucumber the other night–how delicious. I don’t even bother buying them in the store anymore, even in the winter.
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We don’t have anything growing this year, mostly due to the fact that this apartment in Pittsburgh doesn’t come with a yard. We are hoping to move to a new house North of here by next summer, with a good sized yard to grow a small garden in. Keeping our fingers crossed for that. Your garden looks amazing.
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Aurora, I’m sure you’ll love having a garden next year. The past two summers haven’t been that great for us here northwest of Pittsburgh, but this summer seems to be just right. It’s great when that happens.
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Yeah the last couple of years seemed like they have been just a little too dry. The house we are look at buying is up in Oil City. We are going to go and have a look at it tomorrow, and hopefully it will be as nice as it looks in the photos. Not sure how close to there you are, but it’s a really pretty area up that way.
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Just went to your site and read your post from yesterday (left a comment there). We’re not quite that far north. We’re about 20 minutes northwest of the airport. Good luck on your search.
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I love peas. My wife hates them. I don’t get peas often enough. lol
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Come on over–we have plenty to share!
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On my way!
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As soon as the rain stops, I’ll be out picking. You might have to do some shelling. Seriously – I spent two hours shelling the other night and we had a large helping each for dinner and I put up eight bags (2 servings each). I really thought I was going to get more than that. It’s a labor intensive job, but I watched several shows of Boardwalk Empire, so all was not lost!
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I’ve just bought pea seeds, planted them and I think a rabbit got them. So, I’m starting again, this time I rolled them in a wet paper towel and hope to sprout them that way and then maybe plant them indoors to give them more of a head start. The rabbits seems to like the tender stuff. I planted a blueberry bush and it is the first time I’m growing fruit other than tomatoes. I should have planted the blueberries long ago but I didn’t realize they would grow well in Indiana. I dumped a seed packet of mustard greens into my little plot because I tried growing them before and they didn’t take. Don’t you know they all took and in one spot. I’m not going to bother transplanting them because I’m not that crazy about mustard greens although I haven’t tasted these, they might be good!
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My hubby sprouts the peas in paper towel and then puts them out. It might be a little late for peas–I know it is here. Blueberries are a great idea! I agree about mustard greens. They have to be cooked just right for me to like them.
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That’s what I started to do – put them in a wet paper towel a few days ago. I checked yesterday and nothing is happening yet. I put the baby mustard greens in a salad yesterday and for some reason, they weren’t as good as when I plucked a leaf and ate it a few days before. We had a very heavy rain yesterday, a record for the day so I wonder if all the rain water had anything to do with the flavor. If the paper toweled peas don’t make it this time, I’m giving up on them for this season and will plant them again next season. I put lavender and lemon balm in the towel too. Something should sprout!
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You’d think! Peas are usually pretty quick. Maybe the rain had something to do with it. I’m getting bombarded with cucumbers and zucchini right now so I’ve got to get busy with some of my recipes!
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