Eating from the garden

This time of year is always delicious because the garden is producing enough to be able to make entire meals out of home grown foods.  We don't have a huge variety of vegetables yet but each week we will have more ready to pick.  This afternoon I picked asparagus, broccoli, and our first two artichokes of the season.  It was a very green meal but when combined with a home grown baked chicken it was very satisfying.  We had strawberries for dessert...not too many though since the plants are still young.

The drink wasn't completely home grown.  Boy decided he was making a "concoction".  He picked lemons and oranges, cut them in half, and squeezed them over a bowl.  He didn't use the juicer; he just squished them in his hands to show us how strong he is getting!  It was wasteful doing it this way but it sure was fun to watch him.  The peels went into the compost bin so it wasn't really wasted.  Once he got a couple cups of juice he had me dip my finger into it for a taste test.  Too much lemon!  Squeeze four more oranges then it should be good.  Once he did that I poured the liquid into a pitcher of cold water and added some sugar.  While I'd rather drink straight orange juice rather than orangeade, having the combination orange/lemonade wasn't too bad.  So, the only thing not produced here on our property was the sugar added to the drink.  Even the water came from the well and in another year instead of sugar I'll be able to replace that with honey.