Friday, July 22, 2011

Berries, Radishes and Visitors

A couple of days ago, friend Jenyfer Matthews and her two kiddlies stopped over to say hello. Until last February, Jen and her family were living in Cairo, Egypt. Her hubby stayed behind to continue his work and maintain their home there, but because of the extreme political unrest they decided Jen and the kids should leave. It's been a difficult journey for them all which she's chronicled on her blog.

Jen's father and step-mother live in our county so she and her son and daughter are here visiting right now.

One of the first things her son asked when they got here was, "Where did you plant the carrots this year?" When they visited last summer, both he and his sister had a lot of fun pulling carrots right from the dirt and enthusiastically eating them while pronouncing them the best they'd ever tasted!

I think he was more than a little disappointed to hear this is my non-gardening year and, alas and alack, there were no carrots to be sampled.

They had to content themselves with a little berry picking. Above is Jen's daughter in the strawberry patch. (And yes, folks, the huge, lush, green weeds you see in the background are what is growing in my field garden. I hang my head in shame.)

The kids ate some berries while picking (that's the fun of it!) but did save a couple of containers full to take home with them.

This is what happens when I'm too busy to even keep an eye on my beds of salad fixings. Carrot Boy was eager to pull the radishes that got away from me. That's a French Breakfast Radish he's holding.

The round radishes were the size of tennis balls. Surprisingly enough, they were still tender . . . not woody or pithy as I had expected them to be. However, they were so hot and spicy we couldn't eat them without our eyes watering and our throats starting to close up! (If only I had some spare time, I would have liked to try fermenting them for a winter time tonic!)

As it is I need to hire a gardener for the rest of the season. And a cook. And a maid who does windows. And will clean a bathroom.

7 comments:

2 Tramps said...

When you find your "maid, window washer, gardener and cook", be sure to tell them they are welcome here, too. Tramp 1 helps so much but we have finally both hit the wall and could sure use the extra help!

Mama Pea said...

2 Tramps - Is it just the season? Are we all trying to do too much? Are there more walls to hit these days? What is it??

Sue said...

Well, I dabble a bit in gardening. You must provide tarps, however.
:)
I can imagine those radishes were HOT after the heatwave. Zowie!

Erin said...

See? You could have planted out carrots and had ready made helpers this year LOL! I think picking berries is a fine substitute!

Mama Pea said...

Sue - You "dabble??!" Define dabble!
If you dabble, I've never held a seed in my hand!

I put one of those radishes in our tossed salad tonight and it tasted pretty darn good!

Erin - If I had only known the garden crew was coming in!! ;o}

The Apple Pie Gal said...

Maybe try frying them up like MamaTea did? I didn't plant enough this year for other than keeping pests out of my squash and melons or I would have tried it out. Well, the kids are close now and maybe next year some carrots are in order. You WILL garden next year right???

Mama Pea said...

APG - Will I garden next year? JUST. TRY. TO. STOP. ME!!! (You have no idea how much I've missed it this year. I feel as if we've missed a whole healthful season of eating . . . which will go through the winter! Ugh.)