Tag: Garden

Late Fall Light

Zebra grass glowing in the sun

I’m not a big fan of winter, but I am a fan of seasons, so I always look for the beauty to get me through those shorter, colder days. There is a peacefulness to the end of fall – start of winter.

The work is done, the gardens are put to bed, the yard is winterized and it leaves time to sit on the patio and just breathe.

One of the perks of winter is with all the foilage gone, my mountain view returns with spectacular mountain sunsets.

Now is a good time to move indoors and focus on indoor tasks, like painting and deep cleaning…oh, you thought I meant writing. Yeah, that, too.

Gardening Is Good For The Soul

Saturday I set out to do some early morning gardening and think through the next scene in Duxbridge that’s giving me trouble. Gardening is good for that

A few minutes into pulling bindweed and trying not to swear with every vine, my now 11-year old (how does that keep happening – wasn’t she just 4 and her dad would park his car across the driveway so she could ride her bike without worrying she’d land in the street?) neighbor stops by.

As usual, she wants to talk about plants and the household menagerie. We chat amiably for quite a while and then she disappears, as kids are wont to do. I figured she’d grown bored of watching me weed. Understandable, I was bored with weeding myself.

But no, she reappears with her mom’s gardening basket filled with gloves, tools, and a knee-pad. She slips on gloves and grabs her clippers, kneels on the pad and begins to help me trim down the iris leaves.

She also brought cilantro seeds for me to plant for the ducks.

I did figure out that scene, btw, it just didn’t happen while gardening.

Garden Fresh: A Few Grapes For Smoothies

I processed the few grapes I got this year into juice that I then add to my morning shakes. My neighbor gave me a handful of passion fruit, as an exchange for all my plums her toddler loves to eat. So I also added those to my shake this morning.

Not exchange was not necessary, he can have all the plums he wants! He’s a pandemic baby, born just as we went into lockdown, so I have probably seen more of him than I normally would, as mom and dad walked around the neighborhood several times a day and my office faces the street. Socially distant chats were a welcome diversion.

It’s been my pleasure to watch him grow and start walking and now starting to talk, enough to make his desire to pick plums from my tree clear. Still a nice distraction from work, as far as I’m concerned.

This morning’s smoothie:

Mixed Berry Smoothies

  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt
  • 1 banana
  • 1/2 cup ea:  blueberries and raspberries, frozen
  • 4-6 whole strawberries, frozen
  • 1/4 cup fresh grape juice
  • 2 passion fruit (scooped from shell)
  • opt: 1 tbsp ground flax and 1 scoop whey powder

blender

Add all ingredients to the blender and blend well.  This makes 2 thick smoothies.  For more of a milkshake consistency, add 6 ice cubes and blend well. I use frozen fruit, so I don’t add the ice cubes, but sometimes a bit of water to make a smooth consistency.

x-posted at What’s 4 Dinner Solutions

 

Fresh Summer Salsas

The tomato harvest has been lackluster this year. Weird weather has caused the fruit to be small and slow to ripen. Some I’m afraid are not going to ripen at all. The San Marzano, which should be about the size of a Roma, look more like cherry tomatoes. Early Girls are anything but early and no bigger than golf balls. And I have to wonder what the Park Wonders would look like in a good year – beefsteak size for sure. Flavor has been great on all of them, but I take comfort in that. 

Since the jalapenos are not only abundant this year, but incredibly hot, I decided to try and roast them to bring out a bit of the sweetness. It wasn’t all that successful, but I did manage to make a couple of jars of pickled jalapeno and freeze them to use sparingly in cooking over the winter.

I set a few aside to make salsas this week. I went with Fresh Salsa (recipe below) and Cucumber Salsa to cut some of the heat (recipe here).

For most of the summer, whenever I grill, I toss an onion on to the grill and let it roast until the grill cools down, so usually about 20-30 minutes on the back of the grate. The flavor can’t be beat and it slips right out of the skin. I refrigerate and add to various recipes. This week, it’s the salsas.

As the weather cools, I may roast a dozen or so and freeze them – they lose their shape but are great in soups and stews and with roasts.

Fresh and Easy Salsa

  • 4 tomatoes, quartered
  • 6 green onions
  • 2 tsp crushed garlic
  • ½ to 1 bunch cilantro, remove stems
  • 2 to 4 jalapenos*, remove stems
  • 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • dash of limejuice if desired

blender or food processor

In blender or food processor, add all ingredients and coarsely chop until blended well**.  If you can make a day ahead, it gets even better.  Seal in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to a week.

**If you prefer a chunkier style salsa, you’d be better off chopping vegetables by hand.

How is your garden looking this summer?

x-posted at What’s 4 Dinner Solutions