After years of disappointing yields, POD is swimming (or drowning) in garden-fresh produce. What a deliciously beautiful thing.

My days as a container gardener were rewarding, for sure. I loved pushing seeds into the soil with the Hurricane’s tiny fingers assisting, we loved watching those tender shoots push through the deluxe organic-by-the-bag soil, and we loved June. We loved how healthy and vibrant the young plants looked, we loved the possibilities and the promise, and we loved having the only garden on the block. Heck, one of the only gardens in all of Pennsport.

For all the pleasure, those days were also pretty demoralizing. What I didn’t love so much? July and August. And aphids. Given the scarcity of delectable gardens in the neighborhood, each and every pest and squirrel came a’callin’ each and every year. Still, we managed to eke out enough of a harvest to come back for more, year after year, but only barely.

And on the menu for this week?

• Frankies Spuntino Caesar with tomatoes
• Kofte kebabs with a cucumber and tomato salad
• Nigel Slater’s panzanella with Porter Road Butcher’s  Surryano
• Nigel Slater’s stuffed zucchini
• (Not to mention a snack of garden-fresh cucumber slices for 25 hungry kindergart[d]ers)

And on the shopping list? Lamb and Surryano and not much else.