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| Gluten-free pasta, pesto, and sweet red pepper |
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| Extreme close-up! |
This surfeit of green goodness is brought to you courtesy of the aforementioned garden beds, supplemented by pots of herbs in the porch window. Despite weeks of blazing heat and statewide drought conditions, my Very Small Garden is flourishing (by the grace of God and with the help of twice-daily watering).
This year's crops include collard, kale, and serrano peppers:
Basil, tarragon, thyme, flat-leaf parsley, and chives (plus spearmint, not shown):
And two varieties of tomato:
All punctuated by dianthus and bright marigolds:
And to top it off, backup basil and mint in the porch, plus rosemary awaiting transplantation:
I feel rich.
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What do you like to grow?
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*My pesto recipe is a very loose one, little changed from the version I first posted here: 4 parts packed fresh basil leaves, 2 parts finely grated fresh parmesan, and 2 parts olive oil, with walnuts (or pine nuts if the exchequer allows), crushed fresh garlic cloves, and salt to taste. Toss all ingredients into a blender and process to desired level of smoothness. I've recently started adding a tablespoon or two of hot pasta water to the blended sauce, which smooths out the flavor and seems to prevent oxidation.
You have a lovely vegetable garden. Mine is a bit meager this year as I haven't found much time to do gardening last fall and spring was wet and cold. So I was late with everything when the weather turned sunny and warm and then dry. I have salad and onions in the garden beds, very few beans. The strawberries were delcicious but tiny. I have an abundance of zucchini though. Some tomato plants are growing in the greenhouse. I hope to do better during summer break that starts tomorrow at noon. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Regula! I hope you are enjoying your summer break.
DeleteWhat a fantastic garden you have, Sue!! Now, you know that my husband has Celiac disease and must eat gluten free, right? Give me your best gluten free recipes!! If you cook like you crochet and garden, I bet you have great recipes!!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear about the Celiac - it's very prevalent in my family. A lot of my cooking is recipe-less, so hard to share, but I've heard good things about the blog Gluten Free on a Shoestring, and I'm sure there are lots of other good ones out there. I have converted some of my baking recipes to use oat flour (we always keep certified gf oats on hand, and for a frugal minimalist like me, it's easier to just grind up enough oats for a recipe than to keep expensive specialty gf flours around - but some Celiac folks are sensitive to oats as well, so use what you know will work for Richard). For occasional store-bought flour purchases, I like Bob's Red Mill products - they have a dedicated gf facility to prevent cross-contamination, and they also have some good recipes on their website.
DeleteYum! And peppers... Oh, my! I think you have a bit of New Mexico in you!!!
ReplyDeleteBut they're not Hatch chiles.... :) We've harvested a couple serranos already, and they're certainly spicy.
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