In Season & Fresh from the Garden, the Fields, the Orchards & the Woods
I do love crusty toothsome baguettes, perfect for a spot of rillettes, mopping the dressing after a steak salad, or in the morning with a slather of good butter and fruity jam – or a good country loaf for sandwiches. But baking those breads heat …
La Cigale, ayant chanté Tout l’été, Se trouva fort dépourvue Quand la bise fut venue. * Jean de LA FONTAINE (La Cigale et La Fourmi) While I don’t think you have to toil the entire summer to put some food by, this is certainly the …
Summer has been cooler here than in prior years. So while tomatoes are really just starting to ripen and yield – finally!!!! – for real (a good 2 weeks past my usual tomato target date though), cabbage, kale (kale!!! in July! edible!) and lettuce greens are doing just well. On the other hand, the sweet potatoes are looking anemic, and the okra… well, we won’t talk about the okra. Frankly, there isn’t much to talk about!
Let’s talk instead about the colorful lunch (or dinner) plate that one can make from the garden at the moment . Everything can be cooked, days in advance, and assembled just a few minutes before serving. Perfect for when one feels lazy or is hurried. For example, today’s lunch:
First, spread a variery of lettuce leaves on the plate; Continue reading Summer Lunch
Purslane: I call it a nutritious easy to grow crunchy little green (now officially renamed par moi a “super gourmet green” !). Add it to green salads, or – my favorite – to potato salad. Other people like it too: El – of course! (go …
That’s really not the way it’s supposed to work, but that’s how it’s working this year.
Despite having started my tomato plants early in February, I did not plant most of them them until fairly late, and since they don’t hold as well in pots as peppers do, the peppers are harvestable – not yet the tomatoes. Yep, here it is, not quite July 1, and I am harvesting peppers. On the picture: Sweet Banana (which I love) , Jimmy Nardello – new to me this year, supposedly great for frying and drying – and probably (because I forgot to look at the tag and I am too lazy to go check it now) Acongagua.
The tomatoes? Well they are ripening, and I should be able to pick a few before July 4 (maybe!), but it’s nothing like last year, when I was harvesting cherry tomatoes from June 14 on, and big fat ones by late June. OK, I did pick 5 ripe cherry tomatoes (ah!) so far, and one green fat one to make a green tomato salsa. But it’s nothing like last year… Of course, i have also heard from others who were the recipients of some of my plants, that THEY are harvesting RIPE tomatoes. Sigh…
What else in late? Squash, winter squash and cucumbers. But that was on purpose. Last year squash bugs, cucumber beetles and stink bugs were just awful. So I decided to plant all those squashes late, with the hope that the first generation of bugs that emerge would find nothing to eat and nothing to host their eggs. While I have seen – and squashed – some bugs, at least for now, it’s nothing like last year (this is good)! So, unlike Ed of The Slow Cook who is making true pickles with his cucumbers at the moment, pickles are at least 3 to 4 weeks away for me (although I can see the first flowers on my young vines).
Okra? Beans? Corn? late too, but like tomatoes, that was due to short of time in May and June (as well as old seeds for beans that germinated very poorly. Lesson learned, I hope….). All should do OK provided we don’t get cold too early in the fall.
On the other hand, I am harvesting kohlrabi, cabbage and still lettuce, and enough basil to already make pesto.
So goes life!
A plant of our hedgerows and abandoned fields that are being reconquered by the forest, the elder favors the sides of ditches and embankments – especially those with a bit of shade. Oh, it grows well enough in full sun, but it seems to appreciate …
I am zonked. Elated, but zonked. The Summer Solstice Farm Dinner worked beyond our expectations. There is absolutely something magical that happen when you gather people around a long table (or in this case 3 long tables of 50 people each), in the fieldd, in …
An all local seasonal menu to celebrate the summer solstice:
Canapés
Rappahannock Cellars Seyval Blanc 2008
Gadino Cellars Pinot Grigio 2008
Blueberry Wasmund’s Rye Cocktail
Blueberries from Roy’s Orchard in Sperryville, VA
Rye from Copper Fox Distillery in Sperryville VA
Sometimes we forgot how good simple food is. Or at least can be, when one is eating pure fresh unadulterated food. Like what we pretty much did today. Delicious and hardly any cooking! We simply listened to the garden who told us what was for …