harvesting weekend in three acts

Just like "This American Life" I will present my weekend in three acts:
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Act 1
Also know as attack of the large creepy spider:

This past Saturday, I got up at a reasonable hour got dressed slathered on some sunscreen and some bug spray and set out to work in my garden. due to the neglect of being gone on vacation and the massive amount of rain we received last week I had a jungle on my hands.

I started at one end cleaning up some of the larger weeds in my flower/mulched areas working my way back towards the garden. One of the things I noticed was that there were a ton of crickets all over the yard. This weather must be perfect for them or something because my yard is literally crawling with them. As I get to my garden area I notice how well my herbs are doing and then I start pulling the big weeks.

I get about 2 feet down the fenced part of the garden when I feel spider web on my arm. Like a lot of spider web. Like I need to brush my arms and check this out only to see a big crazy freaky spider right next to me on the brown bag I had been tossing the weeds in. I scream my bug scream and freak out. by freak out I mean I simultaneously run while slapping/brushing off my entire body. I also start shedding extraneous clothing: one glove laded half way to the deck in the yard the other on the deck stairs the hat on the deck it self (it received a few good kicks). Then I proceed inside with Winnie, who is wondering what in the world is going on. I then take off my clothing in the down stairs bath and stomp on it a few times. After checking my body in the mirror for any bugs, I replace the clothing and decided that I can wait until Bill wakes up to finish weeding.
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Act 2
Actually harvesting in the garden:

After Bill awoke, we went back outside and he took care of the spider. I know spiders are good for my garden and what not, and this morning I told Bill not to disturb the very large web on the side of our garage, but I couldn’t work in the garden ever again knowing that thing was out there waiting to get me again.

I take the view that if I get about 60% of the weeds each time I go out and if I weed regularly the diminishing weed population will be a very acceptable amount to maintain. I would like to get more but the way my tomatoes and cucumber plants grew there are weeds I just can’t reach without harming my plants.

Anyway, I wrap up my weeding and go get some of the farmers market containers that we have. I grab a pair of kitchen shears and snip a bunch of tomato clusters. I then get two semi-overripe cucumbers snap off two peppers and cut a bunch of the remaining broccoli. I then go crazy on my 4 foot tall basil plants and cut foot long pieces off of them.
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Act 3
Cooking and Sunday activities:

Sunday mid-morning we head over to the farmers market after dropping Winnie off at pet smart for a bath and nail trim. With the bounty from our garden and some leftovers from last week, we don’t need much this weekend so it was a quick trip. I should note that this weekend was the first time in a month that we went to the grocery store. (we had gotten some milk at fair oaks farm on our way home last week). Once home we made some left over chicken into a chicken salad and got to boiling the carcass to make stock. I also get started on my pesto. With as much basil as I had culled I made 4 one cup batches of pesto. I don’t’ know what I’ll do with that much, but there you have it.

Last night, after wrapping up cooking and playing with our clean nice smelling dog we went out to dinner. I know, with all the food and stuff around I doesn’t quite make sense, but I had been bugging Bill about trying fondue for like a year now, and he had made reservations. We had a great time and I have decided I need to learn how to make the cheese sauce they had at the restaurant.

Ok I hope you all have a great week.