Playdates and the Garden

Last Saturday Bronwen had a little reunion with some of her friends that she hasn't seen for 6 months. 

We used to have a little playgroup of toddlers all around the same age (within 2 months of each other)-- but then when the one year mark hit half of the moms went back to work and the group was a lot smaller. Last Saturday we met up for coffee and snacks and fun!

These little crackers were a big hit! Just like adults around the chip bowl...

It's not very easy to get a picture of 7 wiggly kids..

James is pretty much done with this... dumped out his crackers and trying to slide off the couch. The girls are shocked.

And here are some pictures from our garden! I kept forgetting to take pictures so now everything is pretty huge.. it's easier to see what is going on in our plot when the plants are smaller. I went to the garden last night on my own to do some weeding, watering, and harvesting. We have a plot in the community garden at the university, so what you see in this picture actually belongs to a whole lot of people (though maybe one day, we will have a homestead with a garden this big ;).

If you look very closely you can see a string which is the border of our plot. There are three sections in our plot: from left to right- kale and chard, zucchini, then in the middle carrots and beets and turnips/rutabagas, and on the far right onions and greens.

Our onion section! And a couple of cucumber plants.

Beets.. with their beautiful colour! The greens are also good to eat, and apparently as good for you as the beets themselves. We have been eating a lot of greens the last few weeks... feels very healthy and they are tasty too. It's nice to use almost all of what we harvest!

Here are some zucchinis. I am really looking forward to having these grilled on the BBQ.

Our kale and chard. For boerenkool, stumpot and stir fries! :)

Romaine lettuce which is just waiting to be put in some tasty Caesar salads.

And here are the turnips! We have been eating the greens from these too as they are getting really big.

It's been really fun to grow things and a good hobby to do as a family.
Sometimes it's a bit more complicated as the garden is at the university rather than right in our backyard. However, Brian often goes on his lunch break or before school, or I go with him in the morning with Bronwen. I like to go by myself in the evenings too. And on Sunday after church we usually pop by since it's just down the road from our church. This past week we took some friends over so they could have some fresh-picked greens... I have a feeling we will be doing that more often in the next few weeks as things keep growing!