The ingredient came from my garden
April 28, 2026 · my garden-spinach lunch. This preparation began with spinach I had grown myself. My recording names strawberries, frozen bananas, flax seed, chia seed, whey protein, skim milk and light vanilla Greek yogurt, with pineapple juice added too.
I was adjusting the texture and temperature, then singled out the pineapple juice after the first sip. That is the firsthand origin of this account. The garden image on this page and the August smoothie photographs belong to different dates; no matching photograph of this April drink has been established.
On April 28, 2026, I used spinach from my own garden in a smoothie for the first time. I recorded the preparation and my reaction after the first sip. I was pleased with it. A small part of the garden had become something I was eating that day.
A first taste from the garden
The recorded preparation and my first reaction captured the same small milestone: I was using spinach I had grown myself.
I was pleased with the result: spinach I had grown was part of something I was eating.
A season beyond one ingredient
My later notes returned to the plants outside. In September, I was looking at the vines, wondering about the cantaloupe and noting the condition of the blackberries. Those were observations made during the season, with questions still open.
The smoothie was one definite result. The later checks were part of following the rest of the garden through its season, including the plants I was still uncertain about.
Follow the wider season in A growing season, one observation at a time.
A result small enough to remember clearly
The first garden-spinach smoothie is a useful anchor for the season because it has a clear beginning and an immediate result. I had grown an ingredient, put it into something I was making and tasted the drink. The pleasure in that moment did not depend on a large harvest or a calculation of what the garden had saved.
It also gives the later plant observations a different perspective. Questions about the vines, cantaloupe and blackberries were still open, while the spinach had already become part of lunch. Keeping those experiences distinct makes the garden account more honest and more interesting. A season can contain a small success, uncertainty and unfinished work at the same time. The smoothie has its own account in Smoothie preparations in the kitchen; it does not stand in for the whole harvest.