Growing Food

What I am really interested in these days is growing food for us to eat. I am interested in this, of course, in a political and ethical way. I want to eat locally and diminish our carbon footprint. I want to eat foods that are organically grown and are environmentally correct and taste great. And right now we are harvesting from our small garden all the vegetables we need. We never have to buy anything from the supermarket except meat and toilet paper and detergents and milk. We get eggs from a local person (four years old).
Every day I go out and tweak the vegetable garden. I nip off the suckers from the tomatoes, peel off the leaves from the brussel sprouts, and water the lettuces I want to keep on producing into the hot weather and check the beets. I cut many broccoli sprouts and heads, pick the beans and swiss chard, examine the collard leaves for the dreaded caterpillars and squash them into the ground. I marvel at the many gourds climbing the fence and already fruiting. I look up to enjoy the morning glory blossoms in all colors threading through the cucumber vines and the hummingbirds at the feeder and I look down to pull a few weeds and throw them into my weed bucket. And the tomatoes! I have at least thirty plants, mostly heirlooms I grew from seed. They are all potential right now but they are robust and have no bugs or blight. There are several interesting holes in the earth- not armadillos, thank god. These small holes belong to the black racers and the toads and those interesting bees who help pollinate the squash and gourds and tomatoes.I know this because when you have time to be quietly weeding and tweaking in the garden you are not alone and can see and enjoy these creatures as they emerge. Heaven!
I love to grow flowers as well, but vegetables are king to me, always an interesting challenge. I think that an abundance of home grown organic vegetables are so tasty! I love to bring a basket of this day's produce to my husband, the cook, and he uses what's there today. Admittedly, we have to eat a LOT of broccoli right now, and then a LOT of green beans, and then I see beets and brussels sprouts on the horizon. I can hardly wait until the tomatoes kick in. They are in blossom.