Is there anything more rewarding then home gardening? I don’t mean to sound like a touchy, feely, NPR-listening, hippy shoe wearing, latte drinking, eco-friendly, nerd but I just grew my first cucumbers. I went to the farmer’s market today. When I went past the cucumbers I thought with great zest, “Nope, I don’t need THOSE…I have them growing in my backyard.” The same goes with jalepenos, which, ok, so they aren’t quite big enough but I still picked one anyway. I planted yellow peppers…but the pepper growing on the plant is green–and getting bigger and bigger, (did they make a mistake? Or do they start out green and turn yellow eventually?) My mint is out of control and delicious in mojitos. My tomatoes are bountiful, stubbornly green, and I am impatient. Finally! One of my “early girls” is turning slightly orange–which means soon I’ll have a ripe tomato. Somehow I’ve collected four full grown tomato plants and six baby tomato plants that I stuck in random places because I couldn’t bear to throw them out. (I grew them out of a free seed packet that came with my Burgerville happy meal). I know that marveling over one’s garden is cheesy. However, it’s simply expounding on the little pleasures in life…and right now growing my own food in spite of looming recession, housing crisis, and war is remarkably satisfying.