The first harvest

In my past life I thought harvest was a word that lived only on bougie grain packages. I've come to find out that harvest describes that time when you turn something you've grown into food. In other words, when you stop growin' and start eatin'.

In February I planted seeds in the house. In March I planted asparagus. In April I planted tomatoes, eggplant, cabbage and cauliflower. I also transplanted my seedlings (arugula, lettuce, broccoli rabe, broccoli reg,  and parsley from the indoors to the garden.

Today, Cinco de Mayo eve, marks our first harvest! It was the arugula and red leaf lettuce. I wasn't sure if it was ready so I did a little research. I felt like a phony going to the internet to find out if it's time to eat my garden. In any event, I found that if you arugula is starting to flower then it's time to harvest it. Mine had sprouted some tall yellow flowers, so I went out with scissors and cut me some arugula. I also took some of the outer leaves of my red lettuce.

Yum! The arugula I buy in the store is so different. The leaves on my home grown are so thick and juicy. It was deliciously peppery. To celebrate I made a ridiculous salad.

Joseph and I grunted with delight as we devoured our dinner. A salad four months in the making! Was it worth it?

Hells yes.

Of course we had to hook Mike up. So I brought him some of our fresh greens announcing the product of our first harvest.

Mike gave us an extra shotgun.

"Guns for greens!" exclaimed Joseph.

We've come a long way as Southerners. We growing our own food, it's edible and we've got our own shotty.