Fruits of our labor....

Or should I say vegetables of our labor?.....

Today we picked our first eight ears of sweet corn from our garden.  There's just something about eating farm-fresh food that one has grown from his own garden.... the garden that he has plowed himself, the rows that he has hoed, the seeds that he has dropped into the fresh dirt and tenderly covered with his own hands.  For some reason all that anticipation ... all that standing at the edge of the garden... all that praying for rain ... just makes it taste better. 

We have a bumper crop of tomatoes this year.  We have a mix of red and yellow... and occasionally we'll find a couple of bright orange ones.  The yellow tomatoes are large and meaty, while most of the red ones are smaller.  They are all fabulous when eaten warm... fresh from the vine. 

We grow yellow crook-neck squash, which is actually not common.  Most people grow the plain yellow squash, but I prefer the crooked ones.  Why?  Because that's what I grew up on!  My parents grew yellow crook-neck squash when I was a kid, so that's what I grow.  I don't cut them in circles and fry them, but I dice them up like fried potatoes.  Then I coat them in flour, and fry them in a skillet until golden ... just like frying a skillet of potatoes.  I do this for two reasons... 1) this is how my mother fixed squash 2) it saves bundles of time, and as an added bonus, it's GOOD!

Today's harvest consisted of corn and tomatoes...

Alec and our boxer Chloe shucked the corn in the back yard while I put the water on to boil...

Then he brought them to the kitchen for me to clean.  These ears are slightly small, but that means they'll be tender.  Into the pot of boiling water they go.

We added today's tomatoes to the group ripening on our sink top.  We'll carefully choose the ripest ones to slice for our supper this evening.  They'll be good beside that hot buttery corn on the cob.

The mixture of red and yellow is pretty! 

Gotta get the rest of my supper on the table....
Nothing in the world tastes as good as garden-fresh food!