First Vegetable Harvest

We harvested our first vegetables! The cherry tomato was ripe. I'm not sure if the yellow sweet pepper was ripe and we were not going to pick it, but Mary picked it when I turned my back, and there's no gluing a vegetable back on a plant! (We also have one red raspberry and plenty of basil ready to pick.)

We made a salad, with John doing all the cutting himself. Unfortunately, his enthusiastic involvement ended there and he let the rest of the family sample our crop.

But in bright moments, John has tried quite a few new foods this week! I discovered the allure of the bulk bins for my three-year-old! He was so interested in all the bins, I asked randomly if he wanted to try a walnut and, if he liked it, I'd buy some. He tried one and he did like it. I bought some and he ate them on the drive home! Walnuts!!! He also chose (and begged for) red quinoa. I had less hopes for that one, but went through the motions anyway. I was very pleased that he tried two whole bites before declaring that he didn't like it--and he didn't throw up. It had a chewy texture and nutty flavor, so I suspected he wouldn't eat it. Then the next night, I made burritos for the rest of us, assuming John would eat only the accompanying white rice. But I went out on a limb and smashed up and thinned some pinto beans to make my own "refried" beans. Then I tried a new tactic of pushy cheerfulness with John instead of force. To our joy, John was able to be coaxed to go back and forth between one giant bite of rice and one tiny bite of beans. He ate probably 10 bites of beans--admittedly totalling only about one teaspoon. Still, my child ate beans! A wet food!