First Friday Giveaway and Life in the Garden

Ooh. Let's do a garden update! I haven't done one of these in awhile! Lol. It's been a little hectic around here. April wasn't really a good month (it's wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that good, either). There were only a few handfuls of days were the sun even shone, and it was cold, windy, and rainy for almost the entire month. My greens didn't make it, but the tomatoes are still holding on, as well as the bell pepper plants and zucchini. Here's a look at the garden:

As you can see. It's pretty damn big! On the left, those small plants that start at the front are tomatoes (celebrities, juilets), followed by an assortment of peppers in the back (hot bananas, long cayennes, poblanos). Behind my boyfriend is six rows of sweet corn and about four rows of green beans. We also planted some cucumbers in mounds after this shot was taken (small picking cucumbers and tasty eating cucumbers). There is also a row of butter beans on the very left, but they're not above the ground yet. To the left of the tomatoes we're going to plant some Roma tomatoes and eggplant.

On the right, you can see a little plastic container in the front. I have a zucchini plant in there. They're a little tempermental, so they have their own little "greenhouse" for now. I have five zucchini plants total. I have a feeling I'm going to be swimming in zucchini... Also on the right, near the font of the garden you can see potato plants. Most of them are covered in a layer of grass to keep the sun off them. And the back has a row of turnips, kohlrabi (usually a fall plant), radishes, butter lettuce, and a dozen rows of onions; mostly green onions and I think some yellow ones.

We haven't even planted the melons and bell peppers yet!

Once this garden starts producing, I'm going to learn how to can as well. I'm looking forward to that! I'm working on all my homesteading skills, lol.

I was also able to take home my first "harvest" of the season! The turnips needing thinning out, so I was able to take home a whole bag full of baby turnip greens, as well as some green onions.

Beautiful! And since nothing goes better with greens than beans, I made some of that to enjoy for supper that night! I had sauteed greens with garlic and onions and some large butter beans. I'm not gonna lie though, after that picture was taken I doused that plate in hot sauce and more green onions. I'm a fiend for all things onion-y or hot-sauce-like.

Anywho. So that was my garden update! I'm just now starting to get my finals out of the way, so you can except some good ol' fashioned recipe posts soon. I've mostly been eating stir-fries and noodle stuffs because they're quick and easy, although I did make up a batch of my famous Super 'effing Awesome Chocolate Cookies, by request. Oooh! And I discovered the most glorious tofu scramble magic evah! But that's a post in itself! I'm also going to make some Cinco de Mayo deliciousness tomorrow. Since I'm down for all things autentico Mexicano. Luckily, my May issue of Saveur contains some accidently-vegan recipes! 

And one last thing before I bounce out: 

Now that my giveaway has been posted, it is time to begin our First Friday giveaway!

The first book is The Conscious Cook by Hal Ronnen:

In order to qualify to win this book, all you have to do is leave a comment about anything! It could be about cookbooks, gardening, daily life, winning stuff, etc. Just leave a comment! That will get you one entry. To gain another entry you can post an entry about this giveaway on your blog, and then link back to me. To gain a third and fourth entry, you can facebook and/or twitter about it. Since I don't have a facebook or a twitter, I'll just have to take your word for it! Lol. Anywho, the winner will be picked by a random number generator. The deadline to enter is Wednesday, May 11. I know I said it's a "Friday" giveaway, but by making the Friday the midpoint, you get a whole week to remember to enter. :)

The winner will also get some super-awesome, secret, snickety-snacks in their book box! Good luck! Oh, and anyone can enter. You don't have to be a regular reader to get in on this! Have a great afternoon!