 |
The backyard funny farm is a sea of green. The vines of the pumpkins and squashes are so thick, you have to carefully thread your way through all the leafage.
The potting table can no longer be used for potting as it is currently the home of two large tomato plants and a ghost pumpkin.
The green house is housing a sea of cucumbers, a watermelon plant, and various peppers and eggplants. We are growing jalepeno peppers, wickedly hot Thai red chilis and habeneros, and mild wax peppers. We have two times of eggplants, tiny egg sized ones and lovely lavender and cream mottled ones.
Evidence of the recent bounty: tomatoes, blackberries, eggplants, English cuke, lemon cuke, zucchini, tomatillos, wax peppers, and beans.
This day, we harvested kale, blackberries, a lemon cuke, beans, fennel, eggplant, and tomatoes. You may notice the tomatoes look orange. Yep, you're right! Most of the small ones are golden orbs and ripe at orange. The larger ones have to be brought in early or Barkley the wonder doodle dog will eat them!
Blueberries, an onion, lemon cuke, peas and beans, tomatoes, eggplant, and a Lakota heirloom squash. We're trying the Lakota squash for the first time this year. It's delish with a sweet nutty flesh.
Onions, tomatoes, beans, eggplants, wax peppers, cucumbers, blueberries, Thai basil, zucchini, and nasturtium flowers.
Thai basil, tomatoes, wax and jalepeno peppers, zucchini, a tiny carrot, beans, chives, black berries, English and lemon cukes.
An artistic arrangement of cucumbers, zucchini, beans, eggplant, berries, and tomatoes.
Well, what to do will all those veggies?
Make something. Quick!
So, here's my favorite recipe for that rare cooler summer day.
Super Veggie Ministrone
2 Tbsp. olive oil, 1 onion finely chopped, 1 carrot finely chopped, 1 large clove of garlic minced
Heat oil in large stock pot. Saute onion for 3 minutes, add carrot and cook another 2 minutes. Add Garlic and cook 1 more minute, until garlic is turning golden.
1 Tbsp mixed Italian herbs (or more if fresh from the garden), 2-4 cups of chopped tomotoes (more if you like them, less if you don't), 8 cups of veggie, chicken, or beef stock (chose the one you like).
Add herbs to hot sauted veggies and stir through. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper. Add tomatoes and return to medium heat until tomatoes begin to break down. Add stock. Bring to boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes.
Here's where it gets fun. Add 2-4 cups of whatever veggies you need to use. In my last batch, I added 2 whole zucchinis, 2 potatoes, 1 cup of fresh green beans, 3 chopped wax peppers, and 1 cup of shelled beans. Cover and cook for 15 more minutes. Turn off heat, add 1/2 cup of your favorite grated Italian cheese. Personally, I like Romano, but Parmesan is good too. Now, eat your soup with some crusty bread, or cover and refrigerate and eat tomorrow. (It will be even better!) Enjoy!
Besides the garden news, the news of the day around here is the Washington State forest fires that have burned over 500,000 acres on the Eastern side of our state. It's an indication of just how hot and dry our summer has been this year. Normally, Canadian and Washington firefighters help each other out during summer forest fires, but this year both are busy battling their own set of fires. The governor has declared a state of emergency and sent the National Guard to help, as well as sent out a call for volunteers. President Obama declared the entire Eastern side a disaster area as well. Today the winds were blowing from the East and the entire sky was a smokey haze, even on our side of the mountains. Our thoughts are will those that live on the Eastern side, especially folks that have had to evacuate their homes. We are thinking thoughts of cool rain.
