Gotta love summer — you get to work outside in the sun (read sweating like a pig in 90 degree weather), you get to lovingly tend your garden beds (read weeding until you back feels like it will break) and, best of all, you get to eat fresh foods (read eat REALLY, REALLY large!).
Check out this garden pizza — one of our favorite meals after a hard day’s work. I used a flatbread for the crust and, instead of pizza sauce, layered on a few sliced tomatoes from the garden. On top of that there was some pepper, onion and Swiss chard from the garden. Granted, the mushrooms, cheese (of course!) and the garlic were not homegrown but it was still dee-lish! And, since it’s on a pre-cooked flatbread, the pizza only needs about 10 minutes in the oven so we don’t heat the house up and have to turn on the air conditioner. Win-win.
We’ve also been eating a LOT of cucumber sandwiches and bagels. It actually makes a very nice breakfast. Slice up some fresh picked cucs, slather some mayo or Veganaise on your toasted bread or bagel, layer on the crisp, fresh cucumbers and add a bit of salt and a healthy amount of freshly ground pepper and you’re all set!
It’s also green beans and taters season here on our half acre homestead. We’ve been getting eight to ten pounds of Rattlesnake beans every few days. Rattlesnake beans are an heirloom variety that are very prolific but any that don’t sell at the farmer’s market go right into our tummies! Or the freezer. Either way, we’re happy campers.
The potato yield was not what I expected (or, rather, what I hoped for). I really love the taste and texture of Pontiac Reds better than any other variety of potato but the yield has been low every time I’ve grown them. Wonder why that is??? But I also pitched a few organic Yukon Golds from the store into some large grow bags and was very impressed with both the size, quantity and taste from the four plants. In fact, they tasted so much better that I’ve decided to put those on next year’s seed order for sure.
There were definitely a few failures this year too. Instead of being overrun with zucchini, yellow squash and patty pans, powdery mildew from the very wet spring and early summer finished them off pretty fast. We didn’t even get to eat fried zucchini once!! Oh well, you know what the farmer/homesteader’s mantra is — “there’s always next year.!”
