I got to spend last week back home in Washington with the kids. Besides being awesome because of all the sleeping in I got to do and the TLC we got from my mom, I also found myself super inspired by gardens I got to explore.

Vegetable gardening pretty much just happens during the summer around Washington. Every spring, my mom’s sister-in-law comes and plants a ton of different seedlings in my parent’s backyard. It’s all Korean style. There are lots of Korean peppers, lettuce for ssam (lettuce wraps), green onions, Chinese chives, Korean cucumbers, chard, kale, and a spattering of tomato plants. Some new additions this year were large beans growing up some wiring that Gianna had a blast picking and shelling. The colors on these beans were so vibrant and they would go straight into the rice cooker to cook alongside our rice for dinner. There was also a large tub to grow mi-na-dee, a Korean watercress-like green.

A few evenings we also got to go blackberry picking! Blackberry vines grow like weeds up in Washington, they are EVERYWHERE and free for the picking. My mom uses them to make blackberry crumble (YUM) and my aunt has used it to make blackberry wine! I brought a few huge bags back home with me and I have plans to make a crumble as soon as possible. And then, there was my Aunt Pat’s garden.

I’ve been itching to get out to her place the last few years and finally we got a chance to. She’s a little bit out in the country with a few acres of land. 

Talk about a harvest. My aunt has been gardening and canning for years and years. There were ripe raspberries, bell peppers, tons of tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, zucchini (of course), and fall squashes sitting around getting plump. And then there was the fruit. They have one Gravenstein apple tree that has produced boxes upon boxes of fruit this year. Aunt Pat has plans to can a ton of applesauce. They also have pear and figs! The whole time visiting, I was trying to glean all the gardening and canning wisdom from my aunt that I could.

Now that we’re back, I’m very motivated to get some seeds in the ground for our fall garden! I’m planning to get carrots, beets, spinach, and snap peas starting next week with my darling gardening assistant, Gianna.