Harvest

Today was an amazing day; we had the first yield from our potato garden. It was pretty much garden pandemonium at our house. Back in March, the boys helped plant these potatoes and we anxiously watched the first dark green shoots make their way through the dirt and grow measurably larger each day. Jack and Matteas made a commitment to these potatoes and watered them faithfully each day, something which was necessary after 27 straight days of sunshine

Patiently, we watched the plants grow and finally, flower. I think I might have been the giddiest of the three; it was indescribably satisfying to watch my kids plant, tend, and harvest their own food. Matteas isn't quite two, but he can add "potato farmer" to his list of skills.

Matteas calls them 'toes, and he was running around the yard clutching his treasures and shouting "Toes!" at the neighbors

It was like an Easter egg hunt, pulling up clumps of earth and finding jewel-colored orbs nestled in a tangling of roots and soil. The sounds we made upon seeing our prize was more like what you'd expect from people watching fireworks, but this was way more exciting. We couldn't keep bounty like this to ourselves, so we invited Trevor and Tristan over for dinner. I made roasted pork tenderloin with spiced pears, cut some fresh arugula and dressed it with lemon vinaigrette and shaved Parmesan, then steamed the potatoes and tossed them with butter and salt. The boys(including the big boys) were picking around their meat to get to the potatoes. It was more than just the romance of having grown our own food, they really were far and away the best potatoes I've ever eaten. They were much sweeter than store-bought, and the texture...it was as if the potatoes had somehow grown heavy cream into their very flesh, waxy, smooth, and almost custard-like in their silkiness. I wish I had pictures of Matteas shoveling large bites into his mouth and furrowing his brow in pleasured concentration, but I couldn't stop eating long enough to get the camera. There were no leftovers. Even the last tender leaf of arugula was scraped from the bowl, and by Tristan no less, who claims to hate salad. I am so looking forward to more harvest parties; we haven't even gotten into the tomatoes(six kinds), cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, onions, raspberries or carrots.

It's hard to believe that our little garden has gone from this to this in just a month. The tomatoes are taller than Jack. The cucumber vine even has lovely curly tendrils that I think are rather picturesque. So far we've only eaten lettuce out of our garden, but all of the tomatoes and the cucumber have blossoms and should be producing something edible soon. The garden is one of the things I'm going to be sad to leave behind when we move, but there are lots of things I'm excited about not having to deal with anymore, like the mysterious dank smell that the kitchen sink emits at random times and the burnt-orange shag carpet on the stairs. It's going to be so cool to OWN something and be able to do whatever we want to it. I bought a sink today off of Craig's list to replace the ugly stock stainless steel one that's in our new house right now. It's a white cast-iron Kohler sink that came with a really pretty polished chrome faucet with detachable spray head and matching soap dispenser; I'd been watching the listings for sinks for three days, and called fifteen minutes after this one was posted. I'd seen other sinks I kind of liked for around $100 but none of them came with a faucet; this one was listed for $50 including the faucet. I checked Home Depot and the model I bought retails for about $270 and the faucet is another $230, so I got $500 worth of sink for $50. I did have to drive all the way to Federal Way to get it, but it took me just shy of two hours round-trip and I have something that I'm really happy with to put in our new house. I have sort of an addiction to Craig's list now. We've bought things using Craig's list before, but now that we have a house of our own that we can make alterations to there are so many more possibilities. It's especially fun to look at what people are giving away for free and then compare those listings to the ones people are trying to charge money for. Lots of people actually give away perfectly nice kitchen sinks, but most of them don't come with faucets. My next hunt is going to be for a hutch for the kitchen since it doesn't have a lot of cupboard space or a pantry, one thing our Brier house had lots of. We had an inspection done on our new house Thursday afternoon and signed off on it that night, so that's one less thing to worry about. Megan(our agent) said that everything was flying through with no problem, so as long as things continue to go well we get the keys in 23 days. I've started packing in small batches and am trying to think of the best way to do things before getting too involved. We decided to get a storage unit for one month so we can pack things and unpack things at a more relaxed pace and I think doing one room at a time will help me focus and not get overwhelmed. If anyone has any really good moving tips or horror stories, please share.