Vegetable Garden...

Last week I started the vegetable garden with the verve and energy that early spring in Michigan brings!  John fired up the rototiller to turn over my small patch of earth. 

Clay soil has ever-so-slowly turned into tillable soil over the last 18 years we have gardened in this area and 3 years ago I cut my garden to 1/3 of its original size to be a lot more manageable!  I plant my necessities...haricot verts, parsnips, radishes, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, Rouge vif d'Etampes pumpkins and Long Island Cheese pumpkins.  This year I also added peas JUST to make this:

A beautiful fresh pea puree with homemade gnocci and garnished with grated Sicilian chocolate flavored with black pepper!  We had this memorable dish in Modica, Sicily and I have been wanting to create it at home ever since!  Magnifico!  I am making it with my first harvest of peas!

I marked my rows with branches and copper this year, as those small plastic tags can never be found once the plants start growing!  I like the sparkle they add!  I have a small raised bed just for lettuce as I HATE to weed and I can harvest leaves and let some grow into heads.

I found some other treasures in the yard this Spring day...

Julia's sock that Pierre had stolen and hidden behind a rock!

And then there was lunch...a lovely fresh herb butter with a bit of German mustard from our friends Helmut and Dorothee.  Beautiful and fresh, perfect for a spring day...