the garden grows

since the sun has been shining everyday for the past couple of weeks, there's been an explosion of growth. the golden swiss chard was about 2 inches high before all of this sunshine. it's now ready to harvest. looking forward to sauteing it up with some butter and garlic. speaking of which, we're experimenting with garlic - just planted a short row of bulbs that had begun to grow in our kitchen. so far, so good! green stems are shooting up. broccoli raab, red kale, french radishes, and gold beets are also on their way up - slowly, but surely. cucumbers, squashes, and tomatoes are nearing production stage!

in other news, the corn is doing extremely well, despite its prior victimization by a yet-to-be-identified garden intruder. (apparently, the corn got over this violation, but i did not. i suppose whatever animal did this was just trying to survive.) back to the corn, though, brian's family has this saying that it should be - "knee high by the fourth of july." well, we didn't think we'd get there a few weeks back, but the corn is definitely up to our waists and climbing. hopefully ears will start to develop soon.

corn is one of my favorite vegetables. i'm looking forward to picking fresh ears and eating it straight off the cob, raw. i also love it in macaroni and cheese. that's right. highly recommended with a side of ketchup. and, over the past several holidays, we've been sauteing it with shallots, butter and a few swigs of half & half or cream. a fresher take on creamed corn. and then there's corn bread, best eaten with honey butter alongside a hearty bowl of chili. alright, this paragraph is quickly turning into something out of forrest gump. enough already - you get it - we like corn.

as i was out in the garden taking pictures yesterday, i was really struck by the transformational beauty that's been taking place in each bed, with each plant. something that really caught my eye were the blossoms on the small red onions. they look like little presents opening up and stretching. we should probably eat those soon.