The Bounty of Broccoli (and Carrots)

Remember those 32 broccoli plants Ashley so kindly planted for us? After a month or so of me doubting if they would produce (they just seemed to be taking up garden real estate for the longest time), my doubts are put to rest. ALL 32 plants produced heads. ALL at the same time. That's a lot of broccoli, even for a family who loves the small green trees (that's what my brother and I called them growing up). 

I gave away a lot of heads to friends and family members but that still left us with a good bit. After setting aside the amount I needed to make a broccoli salad for our mother's day lunch with Ashley's family, we blanched the remainder and froze it. I've never done this before but it seemed fairly foolproof. We'll see in a few months when we want it!

 Although we could have let the carrots keep on growing to reach their full potential, Ashley decided to go ahead and pull these because our younger son was taking it upon himself to pull the carrots up every time we went to the garden. Every time. Gardening for him is harvesting whatever he wants, even if that is the not-quite-ripe strawberries, peas that aren't ready or drinking water off the broccoli leaves. So now we have a nice batch of carrots stored in the fridge in water. They're delicious. And our older son has the memory of pulling big carrots and eating them fresh from the garden. 

In other news, the goats. Ah, Ziggy and Waylon. I'm not sure I really want to keep them because they have bucked me twice and I have the bruises on my legs to prove it. And our boys are a little unsure of these wild creatures that charge at them and then dash away. They're definitely not pets and they're not really contributing yet either (though they do like to nibble up dried oak leaves). For now, Ashley is completely in charge of dealing with them until we figure out a good system for staking them for grazing or we give them to his parents.  Their crazy behavior makes me love our chickens even more...they are happy to see us, have only escaped twice from their pen, eat all of our kitchen compost, and lay beautiful eggs. Thanks, girls!