Our friends, Jim and Arnold, bought a home almost a year ago in Long Beach, and while they are still deciding what to do with the inside, they have had no problem putting roots down on the outside. And I do mean putting roots down literally. Their new backyard had been neglected for 6 years, but with a lot of water, a lot of dirt and a lot of sweat equity, they have a miniature farm right outside their backdoor.
We were invited over for a straight-from-the-garden dinner party a couple weeks ago. Jim and Arnold are wonderful hosts, and they made this a fun, interactive party. Everyone contributed by marching out into the garden, picking vegetables and turning them into one of the many dishes we ate that night. We even made homemade butter and queso fresco as we sipped on our beers and chatted the afternoon and evening away.
Anson couldn't make it, so I took plenty of pictures to show him...
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| This photo hardly does justice to the depth of the garden which is overflowing with herbs, squash, carrots, beets, tomatoes, chard and more. It's amazing to wade through the plants. |
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| Neighbor Bill brought over plums from his tree as an appetizer. |
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| Shake Shake Shake, Shake Shake Shake, Shake that Butter. |
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| Et voilà, cream becomes butter. |
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| The butter beauty shot. |
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| Could this qualify as a cornucopia? |
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| More payload from our garden harvest. |
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| Arnold is the proud father of two baby...carrots. |
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| A delicious dinner just steps from the garden it came from. These are the kinds of days that summer was meant for. Thanks for the great time guys! |
This looks wonderful. How great is that -- picking dinner from a garden just steps from the house! Your shots are beautiful too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
What a great idea, and a wonderful excuse for getting together!!! Might have to copy you and have our own garden dinner party. :-)
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P.S. I'm mighty jealous of those carrots. Mine were done a couple of months ago, and it'll be a few months before I have some more. Boo!
This sounds like a perfect dinner party. I love the idea of everyone pitching in to pick fresh food from the garden, then preparing it together. How awesome!
ReplyDeleteYou have a beautiful garden! I am envious. I have a few containers full of tomatoes, and herbs and that's about the extent of my gardening, but yours looks heavenly.
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