Living On The Edge

This is an interesting time to garden.

It's pretty hot outside - the kind of warm that makes you reconsider your ban on grandma linen capri pants that you bought 2 pairs of a few years ago in a moment of humidity-induced weakness. (Or not. Maybe that's just me. I have three summer wardrobes: one that's meant for external audiences, a dowdy but comfy look that is Borderline Bag Lady, and a few "breath-able" things that could make a pastor blush.)

In Charlotte it rains nearly every other day, either as torrential downpours or blink-and-you-miss-'em showers. I love the rain -- thanks to Mother Nature I get more time to sleep in the a.m. instead of lugging the hose to our backyard raised beds and our two plots in the community garden. 

And the vegetable plants in the garden are right on the verge of exploding... but not quite. 

You see the flowers popping up on the tomato, cukes and squash plants. Your green bean plants double their height overnight. Everything is finally starting to look like a real garden, all on the cusp of producing. But for now you'll just have to go down to the farmers market and buy someone else's garden goods.

Pure Pizza's Sustainable Saturday

Last weekend Scott and I visited "Sustainable Saturday" at The Barn at Pure Pizza and purchased blueberries, a cantaloupe, arugula, tomatoes, green beans and some (cool) kale chips. Over at the Noda Farmers Market we bought three varieties of tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, a half-dozen duck eggs, chicken thighs,and more blueberries because Scott is a fruit monster.

I enjoy supporting these businesses. After working on watering, fertilizing and coaxing our plants to life for weeks and then months, I finally understand why organic blueberries cost $6 a pint and tomatoes are $3/pound.

But still... part of me is kinda jealous. Scott's the fruit monster, I'm the green monster of produce envy. Wearing my linen capri pants!