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I spent part of my Sunday preparing goodies from my garden. I was busy shucking, chopping, dicing, boiling, packaging, freezing and tasting. After patiently waiting for several months to see reap the fruits of my labor, it’s finally time to starting enjoying the produce from my garden. I planted my garden around the second week in May and have been worried ever since that this hot, dry summer that we are having would wreak havoc on my plants…however my plants are doing better than they have in the past few years! I credit a lot of that to my boyfriend, he keeps it watered when I can’t get there to take care of it. I live downtown in Hastings and my garden is at his house south of Roseland.

This year I’m growing two different types of tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, bell peppers and cucumbers. My tomato plants are up to my shoulders and everything is thriving! I got a bunch of sweet corn from a friend in Harvard and spent part of the afternoon shucking, boiling, stripping the cob and packaging my corn to freeze. There is nothing better than a little taste of summer in the middle of winter! I also prepared some eggplant, that I got from another fellow gardener, for eggplant parmesan for supper. I sliced some cucumbers for the week and diced some peppers to put in my eggs for breakfast. In the coming weeks I’m looking forward to making some salsa when my I have more tomato’s ready and also trying to can some dill pickles, which I have never done before.

Even if you don’t have a garden doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some fresh produce. Hastings has a great farmers market at the Museum on Saturday mornings, there are several Frankes Sweet Corn for sale in town and if you have friends and neighbors like I do, there is always more than enough produce to go around and share. Enjoy the fresh food of the summer!

 

About the author: Amanda McKenzie

Amanda is a 20-something resident of Hastings who found her way here via Hastings College. She is an Exercise Specialist at Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital. She coaches girls a competitive 8th grade girls basketball team called Nebraska Heartland. In her spare time she enjoys getting together with friends and family, watching and participating in sporting events, working out and shopping.