Lemons and Basil

Sorry for the serious lack of blogging, all 3 of my blogs have suffered this month. As a teacher, the last month of school brings a million extra things to do, and add into that all of the children's end of year activity parties, etc, and I am NOT living simply, I'm simply surviving.

Yesterday for Mother's Day, my husband and children gave me a lovely little lemon tree and a large potted coneflower. I haven't learned a lot about either one, but a month ago I was admiring the lemon tree because of the fruit on it, so I am looking forward to next year. The dilemma becomes.... where to plant it. I have an expensive goal of removing all of the tall pine trees in my yard (about 12 of them) and I know what that is going to cost.... so the lemon tree may have to enjoy it's pot for a little while longer.

The basil is growing nicely, and had quite a few large leaves (unfortunately I didn't photograph the plant until I picked off about 8 of the large ones). The tasted AMAZING however, when I made mozzarella caprese for dinner tonight. Brian and I enjoy it as an appetizer at restaurants, so I bought some "real" mozzarella and used my basil. Maybe by the middle of summer I will have figured out how to make my own (I hear it isn't too hard), and then use my own, basil, cheese, and tomatoes ......mmmmmmm..... So if you look carefully at our plate (the first one was polished off quickly) and ignore the sloppy tomato juice everywhere, you can see the green peaking through.... I grew that.... and then we ate it.

Also, getting ready to be eaten in a few weeks are all of the tiny grape tomatoes suddenly making their appearance. I haven't grown these before, but we eat so many of them I figured I would give it a shot.

I really enjoyed watching the girls last year discover that food from our garden tasted better than the food from the grocery store. They loved the taste of our cucumbers and peppers, and were very surprised at the actual taste of tomatoes. I've given Brian the ultimatum - this fall he MUST move the butterfly garden so we can expand. I CAN'T WAIT. Hopefully another update tomorrow - I'm starting to get control over the madness that is my schedule (4 more weeks until summer vacation.... and I can do ANYTHING for 4 weeks).