Garden Dinner Party

I invited my gardening comrads to come by for a Lettuce Party and the gals were all for it. I instituted the theme of Lettuce, but our dinner included other early crops as well.

Before the dinner, I visited my garden after a week of abandonment to pluck a head of Romaine (though Laura was kind enough to watch it for me in my absence). Everything sems to be growing well (except my failed peas), but most especially the weeds. Why is it I'm the only gardener with weeds as my predominant crop? Could it be the hay I use, or not enough of it? I threw my arms up and got busy weeding...wondering where to score some more hay, or whether I should just ditch it all.



Twisting head of lettuce from the garden is surprisingly satisfying, which worries me slightly. They are so huge it's hard to find where the lettuce meets the ground. With both hands on either side of the head, and my feet firmly planted rather stoutly, I twist my upper body in a counter-clockwise direction and *snap*, the head pops off and the root ball is left in the ground. It sort of feels like I'm snapping off a person's head, but much easier I would suspect, minor all the gore and resistance. Not that I'm into that you see.



Anyways...I took my lettuce home and got the place ready for the dinner party. Laura came in with some arugula, local bread and solar powered cream beer. Karen brought some leftover pesto wheat pasta she made and rhubarb crumble (the rhubarb is from her garden). I made a grilled chicken caesar salad with the romaine.



The dinner went on through a lightning storm and much conversation. By the time it was over I was pooped from all the activity and chatting. The gals and I hope to continue the garden dinner parties into the upcoming months and mid summer crops. More updated to come!

Plants on the porch: