Yesterday I was at the kids’ school to dropping off some things before school starts next week. Last week at a meeting, the Educare Director told me there were beans, chard, and kale to pick along with some other things.  Given that it was a week later, I figured we were going to be too late to pick anything. As I went about dropping things off, I sent McKinley over to the garden with instructions to pick green beans.

Imagine my surprise when I got there and he had already assembled a huge bundle of green beans.

I picked some chard and kale – both of which were delicious at dinner last night. I made the kale with our Strawberry Showgirl jam (this was a strawberry & basil jam from our Buncotini night- thank you Stephanie for making such fabulous Jam) and garlic and a bit of white wine and olive oil. I loved it, but the kids, not so much.

Bryce was into the herbs and picked basil and sage.

I also had to investigate the garbanzo beans because I had never seen them growing – you treat them like edamame beans when cooking them. The ones in the garden had dried already so I picked a few to explore.

Bryce also picked peppers (sweet and hot), which we didn’t try yet. I guess we’ll save those to make something with this weekend.

This is the first year our school garden has survived the summer months – thank you to Elysha and Jenn for making this happen. The produce is amazing. I am glad we could partake in its bountifulness.

We are so grateful to be able to pick things from our school garden because the deer have eaten absolutely everything we have planted this summer – tomatoes, tomatillos, artichokes, strawberries, basil, you name it, the deer have eaten it! McKinley painstakingly planted things and has watered them regularly only to have them eaten wholesale by the deer. It was a treat to be able to share the produce from our school garden.