These are salad days, where we may have lettuce and whatever else presents itself for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Gardens burgeon. We feast. Chicken-bok choi stir fry on the menu tonight.

Rabbit cacciatore: better with home grown tomatoes, even if they are last year’s put up to get us through the long tomato-less months. We refuse to buy tomatoes anymore, having been spoiled by the high-acidity variety we grow.

We don’t buy chicken either. First, our chicken tastes better than anything you can find in a store. Letting our chickens, even broilers, out on pasture, allows them an stress-free environment and tasty bugs and grass for nibbles. Broilers grow at an amazing rate. We got them as day-old chicks on May 6th. On June 14th they averaged 4.5-5 pounds. On June 24th, that increased to 6.5-7 pounds. Better yet are the heritage chickens. They grow slowly and are tougher meat, but make up for lack of tenderness with flavor.

We have not harvested any wild mushrooms yet this year. Taking time to go out and look for them is a type of harvest in itself, reaping the knowledge that comes from traversing the same paths in different seasons, seeing what the weather has brought this time.

My brother John called his children his “tesoros,” his treasures. It is the time we are gifted to see children grow, become adults, form loving relationships that produce another generation of beautiful, smart, funny, amazing people, that is a true gift. “Work hard. Rock hard. Eat hard. Sleep hard. Grow big. Wear glasses if you need them.” Webb Wilder