Tasty treats...from the yard!

Thought I had a picture handy of the raised bed garden that we planted right after we moved in to the mini-farm, but can't seem to find it.  So, here is a picture of the first thing we were able to "harvest".  And when I say harvest, I mean that I picked them while Willa destroyed parts of the plants in an effort to...help?  We can't take any credit for the strawberry patch, as it was already planted and in full production mode when we moved in.  It was so much fun to go out and grab a few berries and rinse them and eat them while they were still warm from the sun.  Hopefully next year we can take advantage of the full season and maybe I can even attempt to make something with my strawberries, even if its just to slice them up in some strawberry lemonade.  Man, that sounds really good right now.  Today was a scorcher. 

As for the garden, we decided to try out a few things as neither Brad nor I had ever had our own garden.  Historically, I have been really bad with green, growing things.  I have killed some really beautiful plants in my day, but I think the fact that Willa is still alive and healthy and growing has given me some confidence in my ability to have a garden.  Working in the yard, and picking veggies straight from our own dirt is something that I want Willa to associate with her childhood when she is older.  Our garden is not big, I think its measurements are something like 5x10 maybe?  We built a nice box, dug it into the ground a bit, and brought over wagon loads of soil from the old garden.  Then we bought some organic seeds.  Corn, spinach, leaf lettuce, carrots, kale, tomato plants, basil, and zucchini squash.  So far, everything is looking good!  We put up a nice little chicken wire fence but some sort of evil creature still managed to eat all my spinach.  I may try to replant it and set up some sort of surveillance system to catch the rascal.  We have used lots of the basil, it happens to be tied for first place for my favorite herb (along with cilantro).  Willa and I even sampled the leaf lettuce, even though its still small.  Can't wait for the first tomatoes to be ready!  Then, all I will need is a mozzarella plant and I can eat caprese salad every day and be happy as a clam!  Fingers crossed for my little garden.  If it goes well, I plan to build at least 2 more identical beds for next spring and try lots more plants.