Instead of going to the Farmer's Market, we went to the Farmer

Amanda and I have a weekend tradition of going to the farmer's market and loading up on fresh veggies for the week.  This past weekend, we skipped the farmer's market and went straight to a farmer.

The photo above doesn't really do this garden justice.  It's massive.  And prolific.  I remember when this area was all hog lots.  I guess 30+ years of pig poop will leave some really fertile ground!

One highlight was the red potatoes.  My mom gardened when I was a little girl, and I vaguely remember learning about planting potatoes: cutting up a potato, planting the pieces eye-up.  By the time she had four children and a lot of for-money farming to do all day every day, she scrapped gardening for a couple of decades.  I'm glad semi-retirement has brought back the love of gardening!

Reagan and Adrian thought the potatoes were really cool, too.  I'm looking forward to trying to plant some next year.  I think I'm willing to give up zucchini and yellow squash to make room.  I grow them because I know they'll produce, but I get pretty bored of eating them.

Best of all, Mom's garden has no shortage of tomatoes.  They were a joy to behold, since our tomatoes have provided nothing but disappointment this year.  I think the hot hot summer has been hard on the garden overall, but the tomatoes are especially sad.  I've noticed more squirrels eating what few green tomatoes are there.  I'm told the squirrels are eating them for the moisture, since they are thirsty from the lack of rain.  Go figure.

Here's the awesome caprese salad we made tonight with Mom's tomatoes and our basil.  The other half of dinner was a beet salad with beets from last week's farmer's' market.  Delicious!