Veggie surprise

James is excited to have a garden again. We identified the space behind our garage and next to our side neighbors' fence as an excellent spot - plenty of sun and out of the way. He built two raised garden beds and planted a wide variety of items, although tomatoes are the primary crop and the one in which I am most interested.


The plants are coming along quite nicely, and James has already harvested some radishes and one head of broccoli. The broccoli is particularly lovely:


Aidan adores eating raw broccoli and asked to take some of the broccoli in his lunch yesterday. Yes, you read that correctly; he ASKED for broccoli in his lunch, and I happily obliged.

As we drove home from school yesterday, he cheerfully told me that his broccoli had a surprise in it: a caterpillar! I laughed so much I thought I might run off the road. Apparently we did not wash the broccoli vigorously enough, and it survived the refrigerator and the lunch box. The lunch personnel allowed him to set it free outside, and the news of the caterpillar was all over the cafeteria by the time he returned.

One thing concerned me, so I asked him: "Did you find a WHOLE caterpillar or HALF a caterpillar?" When he realized what I was implying, Aidan burst out laughing and said, "Mommy, don't worry - I didn't eat any of it!"