Garden fresh

Last night, my husband and I each made a delicious salad to go along with our meal. The salads were so fresh and good and were made from tomatoes, green bell pepper and a cucumber from our raised bed garden.
We've been eating the cucumbers for several weeks, and just a few days ago had our first, ripe and juicy tomato. Last night, we added a very tender and tasty bell pepper to our salad. I really love homegrown bell peppers; they are so much better than their thick-skinned cousins I buy at the supermarket.
Reggie and I have loved our little garden, outlined from 2X4s we found stored under my Daddy's shed. We visit the garden several times a day, just to check on things. Over the weeks, we've gotten excited over the first cucumber, the siting of the first watermelon and the first red tomato. I know, we're silly, but it's really been fun for us.
Our newest discovery this week was a few crop of tiny cantaloupes! I had given up on them and had decided I might just pull up the vines and plant pumpkins instead. Buy my patience paid off. We have five or six walnut-size, fuzzy green cantaloupes growing in the garden now with two more up to the size of an orange. Anna and I love cantaloupes and can't wait to see if these grow to be as sweet as some of the ones we've bought this summer.
This weekend, I'm going to make a roasted vegetable pasta dish and will use our abundant supply of grape tomatoes, a zucchini I bought at the farmer's market today, and one or two of my bell peppers. I know I'll be stingy with my peppers. I'm hoping to have enough one day to make some stuffed peppers.
I'm so glad Reggie and I decided to do the raised bed garden this year. We never had much luck with patio tomatoes and peppers. It was expensive to fill the plot with bagged garden soil and manure, but it was worth it. We've enjoyed working side-by-side, having something different to talk about and now relish in our little harvest.