Summer of Food: How my Garden Grows

Calendula and Tomatoes
Zinnia and Tomatoes

Yellow Zucchini- though honestly I'm starting to wonder if these are actually straightneck squash- they seem to want to curve up at the neck, and get fatter at the bottom- I may have to let some get big to test my theory.

My Eggplants- I'm in love with these plants, they are pretty enough to plant anywhere.

Pumpkin- branching out.

Winter Squash Blossom- either Bush Delicata- or Burgess Buttercup- I won't know until they fruit as the tags got mixed up when I planted.

the eating from the garden is fairly monotonous latley- swiss chard, swiss chard and more chard- broken up by some zucchini. All tasty- but not really post worthy- next week I'll post about raspberry delights I promise, in the meantime-Happy growing!

Summer of Food: Swiss Chard

This week has been the week of Greens- they're just out of the 'baby' stage- adolescent greens maybe? Whatever you call them they're delicious. I'm thinking about picking most of them at this stage and freezing them- but I've never done that before- does it work to freeze greens- are they tasty?

We're not too fancy with these anyways- just slice up some garlic and season with salt and pepper and either sautee in a frying pan- with olive oil- or in the summer we like to pop them on the grill wrapped up in tin foil.

Summer of Food: Baby Greens

This week we've been feasting on the thinnings from my beets, Swiss Chard and Spinach. I've never bothered with thinning in the past- which is so silly- especially on things that are tasty while young- like greens.

Not too fancy- but we had a killer salad with the greens and fresh baby lettuce the other night, just olive oil and white citrus balsamic, salt and pepper. Also I put them on grilled pizza too- where they were good- but not as good as fresh in salad.

Summer of Food: Chocolate Mousse

When we first moved out to the country, one of the seemingly massive perks was farm fresh eggs- but not until these latest eggs have we become real egg people. They're really nice eggs, the hens are fed flax so they're higher in omega 3's and until we get our own layers- this is the next best thing. They have nice 'body' if you will - not thin measly little whites, and they taste great.

This Chocolate Mousse Recipe is the best- Last time I made it I used Dark Chocolate- this time I used Milk Chocolate, maybe next time will be white chocolate...we'll see.

Summer of Food: Shitake Mushrooms

When my In-Laws lived here- they started a Shitake Mushroom, well, farm I guess is the best way to describe it. They bought the inoculum and put it inside oak logs- then irrigate them and the logs produce mushrooms- it's all very simple. These logs were started a while ago and they seem to be petering out. Nevertheless we found a few last time and they were delicious, I made up acream sauce for them- it would have been awesome with Bacon, but it was good without any meat too, always a bonus.

I used this recipe, with a few alterations- Milk instead of sour cream, and Ham broth for Dry Sherry.