For lunch, we had tuna salad sandwiches.  The tuna salad included boiled eggs from our chickens.  Well . . the chickens didn’t lay boiled eggs . . that only happens in July and August! 

Eggs, Lettuce & Carrots from the Chickens/Garden

I could let myself feel very smug about the garden and how well it’s doing but I know that all it takes is one crop of grasshoppers or a hungry deer, and it could all be history.  Of the things I do, such as sewing, quilting, canning . . probably the garden gives me the greatest satisfaction.  I love playing in the dirt.  The anticipation builds from the time I buy the seeds, til I plant them, seeing them sprout .. even the watering and pulling weeds just doesn’t damper the thrill I get when I dig around in the dirt and find bright, crunchy, sweet, orange carrots, or juicy, tangy, maroon beets.  I used to call them burgundy but now that Texas A & M could be my favorite college football team, my beets are no longer burgundy . . they’re maroon.  But . . what do you think about that?  I mentioned orange and maroon talking about my garden.  I should probably not do that again!    But, my carrots are bright orange . . not that muddy orange that some other Texas team uses.

OK .. back to lunch!  We had tuna salad sandwiches using the eggs from the chickens, the lettuce from the garden and we had fresh carrots with Ranch dressing.  Of course, the sandwich was on homemade bread.  Oh, did I mention I was feeling a bit smug about lunch today? 

Lunch!

I was trying to wipe the crumbs off the plate for the photo.  The top piece of bread kept falling off.  Vince said “What are you doing?”  I told him I was trying to wipe the crumbs off the plate because Pioneer Woman never has crumbs on her plates.  He told me that I am not the Pioneer Woman so I should take the darned picture and let’s eat so . . I did!  You probably have crumbs on your late when eating a sandwich too, don’t you?

Even though I love the carrots and beets, it’s so nice to have the lettuce growing in the garden.  I just go out and pull however many leaves we need and it just keeps growing.  It should grow just fine til it gets too hot — June or July.

Lettuce

Compared to the lettuce we get in the stores . . well, there’s no comparison.  I suppose lettuce is the crop I miss the most during the summer because we use so much of it in salads, on sandwiches and burgers and for juicing.  Without a doubt, the summer crop I miss the most is tomatoes.  There’s also no comparing home grown tomatoes to any that I can buy in the store.  I can hardly wait to go out and pick a fresh tomato and make a BLT.  I suppose there’s no chance I would have tomatoes and lettuce in the garden at the same time but I’m real happy to have at least one of them out there.