Pea season has ended.

...and it did so in spectacular fashion.  I am not sure what happened... on Monday we were in the backyard, picking peas and eating them right from the plant... and then on Thursday, this:

You can see that the plants were starting to yellow, and upon closer inspection, even the leaves that were still green had turned a little... weird.

Swiss Chard

Here is what I know about Swiss Chard:
1) It is nutritious
2) It is typically prepared the same way you'd do spinach
3) It is easy to grow
4) You can eat the leaves and the stems (cooked).
5) It comes in a "rainbow" variety that I sadly did not buy seeds for, so mine is plain green

Here is what I know about myself:
1) I don't really like cooked spinach unless it is inside pasta.
2) Sometimes I grow things just because I can, not because I necessarily like to eat them (i.e., 'The Great Radish Debacle of 2009")

They're ba-ack...

A neighbor told me he saw a deer in our yard the other evening, and again this morning.  This is a problem.

And it has been a problem for the past few years.  Our backyard has served as an amazing salad bar/dinner destination for the local deer, rabbit and groundhog population at great cost to us.  Well, at least great emotional cost.  Last year we had eighteen ears of beautiful golden yellow corn growing - ready to be picked in less than a week.  And then one morning I came out to find utter devastation.  Something - something BIG - had literally hacked them all in half, ate all the corn and then had the nerve to leave the scraps all over our yard.

Cleaning up the mess left by the monster that ravaged our corn crop?  It was nothing short of heartbreaking.