That was easy!

When we planted the garden in mid March, I took a chance on red potato bulbs. I only had about 8 bulbs and planted them along a two and a half foot space that remained at the edge of the garden. The potatoes sprouted quickly, and the plant tops grew to almost a foot and a half tall, but began to die about 2 months after I planted the bulbs. I decided to cut the dead parts away and realized that the entire 'plant portion' was basically dead.

I googled potatoes online, and of course read about a hundred different methods to grow potatoes. I decided we mine should start digging and see what happened underground over the last 2 months.

Low and behold, A LOT happened! We had about 20 potatoes! It was extra fun because my mother in law and 2 year old niece were over the day we decided to dig. My sweet niece Baylee had a lot of fun and may now think that when she digs in the ground, she will find potatoes (everywhere)! "Diggin for potatoes??..." (phrased as a question) was the quote of the day!

Let me Count thy Ways

...to cook squash. Squash is like a weed. You can pick it on Monday and in just a few short days you have MORE squash! I previously mentioned the many ways I have prepared squash, but included some photos today.

Stuffed Squash:
1. Boil the whole squash for ~ 30 minutes (until you can somewhat easily puncture the skin with a knife)
2. Let squash cool
3. After the squash cools, cut each one in half (I used 4 squash)
4. Use a grapefruit spoon to clean out seeds/middle part

Stuffing:
1. Follow directions to prepare 1 box of Jiffy cornbread. (I used the cornbread mix, skim milk, 1 egg and cooked in an 8x8 pan so it was a bit thin.)
2. Begin a saute with 3/4 stick of butter, diced green onion (fresh from the garden) and celery (which I was out of so I used green banana pepper from the garden) I think bell pepper would be really good, but ours were too small to pick yesterday
3. Add parsley to the simmer with the butter, onion, and pepper (or celery)
4. Break up 1/2 the pan of cornbread with your hands in a mixing bowl
5. Pour in the saute mix and knead together
6. Add Cayenne pepper or red pepper (I added a bit too much red pepper for my taste, but Derek liked it)



Final:
1. Stuff the cornbread stuffing mix into each squash (Note: I added a little bit of the squash seeds, about 2 spoon fulls, to the stuffing mix to make it a bit more moist as well as another quarter of the pan of cornbread)
2. Option: lightly salt the entire squash once they are stuffed
3. Place in the oven for ~ 13 minutes at 300 degrees before you serve

Produce - ability

The garden has indeed grown! We have enjoyed squash, peppers, and green onions so far. We have our first zucchini that I plan to use for dinner tomorrow night, and I picked a coffee can full of green beans on Tuesday! The squash grows like a weed. We've enjoyed boiled, sauteed, and grilled squash in addition to my squash casserole and stuffed squash (Thanks Mom - stuffed is our favorite!)

I am anxious for our tomatoes to turn red! More photos to come soon!