In the 'Look what I can do' category: Saturday, Matt and I enjoyed a delicious* salad procured completely from our own garden! What a power trip!

There is lettuce and mesclun, 'Sweet Treat Hybrid' carrots and a sweet banana pepper, 'Sweet 100' cherry tomatoes, 'Sumpter' cucumber, and a bit of purple ruffle basil (which has an anise taste to it, but looks lovely).

The cherry tomatoes, which only recently have gone crazy, are still a bit on the tinsy side, but they taste good. Especially sun warmed and gobbled directly from the plant (which is how they're typically consumed). The cucumber has been our star plant this year, nearly constantly keeping us in large, flavorful cukes.

There is a lot of our garden not represented in this salad. Tomato plants that have only produced a single, small fruit. Pickling cukes that shrivel before they're more than embryonic nubs. Onions and cilantro that are just gone.

Each year we learn little lessons from our garden, what it will tolerate, and what will tolerate us. I expect to keep learning these lessons until I'm old and gray. (Watch those comments! I know who you are!)

I am planning to start some more seeds in the next week or two for a fall/winter harvest. That's the nice thing about TX: multiple planting seasons.

* This salad was delicious mainly because we grew it ourselves, but in reality, we had let the carrots and lettuce go a bit long and they were a bit bitter. But everything else was fantastic and the bitterness didn't really bother us intermingled in the sweet taste of success.

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