BOUNTIFUL HARVEST

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Bountiful Harvest

Here in Ottawa we are fortunate that most years we enjoy an early spring in April or May as well as hot and humid summers in June, July & August. The autumn season brings shorter days and cooler temperatures in September and October. Naturally this translates into great growing conditions for our vegetables and flowers in our home garden.

Every summer my husband and I grow our own vegetables to enjoy and share with our families and friends. Every meal we make from our freshly grown organic produce means more vitamins, more minerals & less worry about the harmful effects of chemical additives & preservatives, not to mention the delicious taste to please our palate.

As the popular saying goes: VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE! In addition to growing the common vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, lettuces, squashes, beans and snowpeas...etc, we try to grow different varieties each year. The following gives you an example of the different varieties of vegetables we grow in our garden.

Tomatoes are just about the easiest vegetable to grow in our climate. I remember years ago I had sent a photograph of our homegrown huge beefsteak tomatoes to my mom in Malaysia. She was so impressed she asked me to send her some tomato seeds to plant. However, her tomatoes did not grow to be as big as ours, possibly due to the much hotter temperatures there. Mom told me she even tried watering her tomato plants with ice cold water, but no huge tomatoes!

We enjoy many varieties of tomatoes each year. Next year we will try growing yet another new variety which is a mini pear-shaped yellow cherry tomato, evidently very tasty & a lot less acidic.

Plum Tomatoes	Heart-Shaped Tomatoes	Cherry Tomatoes

Yellow Tomatoes	Twin-Shaped Tomatoes	Huge Greek Tomatoes

Lettuces: We also grow many varieties of lettuces. We love to pick them fresh for our salads or use them in vegetable stir-fry.

Romaine Lettuce	Chinese "Kang Kong" Lettuce	German "Gai Lan" Leafy Greens

Asian Romaine Lettuce	Chinese Lettuce (Gai Choy)	Leafy Lettuce

Peppers -- Over the years, we have tried to grow green, yellow, red, orange and even white peppers in our garden, with better success some years than others. In addition, we also make sure we have a sufficient supply of the very hot varieties of red peppers to make our favourite Asian Chilli Sauce with.

Cherry Bomb variety	Hot pepper--Malaysian variety	Green and white peppers

Cucumbers, summer squash, zucchinis, papaya squash, spaghetti squash (white and yellow) grow all over the garden. The only regret is that our garden is (never) big enough!

Cucumbers on the vine	Seedless English Cucumbers	Seedless cucumbers--short variety

Yellow zucchinis, papaya & summer squashes	Yellow zucchinis on the vine	Papaya-shaped squashes hiding amongst vines

Squashes galore -- big and small, summer and winter varieties.

Here are an assortment of favourite vegetables that we grow in our garden.

Here are some thoughts on how gardening can affect us spiritually, emotionally and physically. Growing up as a child, my parents' garden taught us "love" -- love of watching things grow, love of life, love of home. Every time I smell the tomato vines I remember my childhood, how we enjoyed picking tomatoes (and other vegetables) in my parents' garden. Every time I pick vegetables and flowers to share with our families and friends I remember how our parents taught us to love those who mean so much to us in our lives. It is with great love and joy that we present our bountiful harvest to you.

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