our spring 2015 garden

Strawberries, cucumbers, radishes, green beans, green peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, blueberries, figs, and apples are all in the ground! Just like I knew he would, Matt prayed for our garden as I covered the seeds in their tiny finger-size holes. He prayed that God would bless our efforts and cause our garden to yield fruit, but as we joked together after, if the garden gives us absolutely nothing this year, we're less than $12 in the hole for it (that doesn't include the fig and apple trees), so nothing lost.

Watching the veggies we've never grown climb to the sun will be exciting, but it's the fresh tomatoes that I most look forward to. I've been making a summer salad a lot lately as a side with lunch or dinner, and it uses two tomatoes every time, so plucking them off the vine before the cutting board will be a money saving treat.

Bean Summer Salad

• 1 can of red kidney beans
• 1 can of chickpeas
• 1 can of black olives
• 2 tomatoes 
• 3 artichoke hearts
• Sea salt to taste 

It wasn't a difficult recipe to dream up, but it's the perfect cold, fresh salad on a warm day. Do you have a go to cold meal on hot days? Those are the trickiest meals to come up with, I think.