Three point nine pounds.

Lately I've been feeling the need for affirmation that the work I do in our home is valuable. Not that Jonathan doesn't tell me he appreciates the effort I put into hour home, but words aren't tangible; you can't quantify them like you can a paycheck...

I've gotten in the habit of weighing our garden produce when I bring it in. It shows me what grows well here, and what I might like to plant more of next year. I'd like to figure out how much money we'd spend on the food we can grow by comparing how much I've harvested to the prices at the market. And I realized today, it gives me a value that I can hold up and say "through all that hard and yucky work of sifting compost and picking bugs off of things, I earned this!"

harvesting, the best part.

first meal 100% garden grown. lettuce, peas, calendula petals.

coming soon: our first carrot!

Three point nine pounds was the figure, in case you're wondering. Three point nine pounds of homegrown produce, in one month! Most of which was chard, kale, arugula, and leaf lettuce. Let's rephrase that...not three point nine pounds of produce but three point nine pounds of leaves!!

Dang. That's a lot of leaves. Now I'm really stoked about harvesting tomatoes...of which I will theoretically have about 12 plants...imagine the poundage!!! I'll beat 3.9 pounds in 5 tomatoes or less!!

Lest I get carried away, however, I must remember: You can't put value on the mystery of nature. It is amazingly interconnected (worms & germs = dirt = plants = food = us) and amazingly beautiful.

the beauty of an average backyard veggie plot? priceless.