Making Pesto

Eric and I made pesto this weekend while Yoli sat on the sofa reading a book. We harvested two bags full of pesto that was starting to flower from the community garden. I left enough lower leaves and stems that the plants should send up a new burst of growth within the next couple of weeks. I cleaned the pesto and removed the leaves and small stems from the larger, tougher stems while Eric made the pesto.  My thumbnails are still stained from using them to cut the basil stems.

To make the pesto, we stuffed a food processor bowl with basil and added about a tablespoon of salt, 1 cup of olive oil, 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup of walnuts (because the one store in their town didn't have pine nuts), 2 tablespoons of minced fresh garlic, and 1/2 tablespoon of sea salt. These measurements are approximations because we eyeballed the amounts of ingredients that we added. We processed the ingredients on high until they were fairly smooth. We spooned the pesto into 1 cup containers and froze all of them except for what we ate over the weekend.  We made a gallon and a half of pesto. Stupidly, I left mine at Yoli's house and will have to pick them up next time I visit her. This weekend, we made crostini and roasted potatoes with the pesto.

My Favorite Summer Salad

As soon as I get my first cucumbers in the summer, I start making my favorite summer salad and I don't finish making it until the last tomatoes have ripened in the fall. I almost always have tomato, corn & cucumber salad in my refrigerator. I made this salad for the first time this year last night using cucumber and basil from my garden.

To make this salad I used fresh tomatoes, cucumber, corn (fresh when I can get Indiana corn), garlic, basil, sea salt, a very good balsamic vinegar, and a decent olive oil.

First, I saute minced garlic in a small skillet in 1 tablespoon or so of olive oil at a medium heat until it turns golden brown. If I am using fresh corn, I saute the corn for a few minutes in the skillet right as the garlic starts to show a little golden color.

While the garlic is browning, I cut up the tomatoes and cucumber into bite-sized pieces and add them to a salad bowl.

Then I add the browned garlic and some chopped basil leaves to the bowl.

Finally, I toss the salad with some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and sea salt.

Harvest Monday

I finally got to harvest something that I planted this year. My volunteer lettuces were ready to cut today.

I filled a colander with an assortment of lettuces. I also pinched off some basil and flat leaf parsley from plants that I bought at a farmer's market this weekend.

I used the lettuce to make a salad to share with my neighbor, Gaynell, and her husband, Ken. I rinsed and dried the lettuce. On top of the lettuce, I placed avocado, tomatoes, and crumbled goat cheese. To finish the salad off, I sprinkled the fresh chopped flat leafed parsley and basil. I made a dressing out of pomegranate balsamic vinegar and blood orange olive oil. We ate the salad with pork loin that was marinated in a Hawaiian barbecue sauce.

Seed Mania

I spent much of January and February every year in a funk because I don't get enough sunlight and I don't spend much time outside. I usually pass my time pouring over seed catalogs and websites. In the past, I have mostly grown flowering perennials in my garden, some herbs, and tomatoes. Last year, I started an asparagus bed and planted some raspberries. This year, I'm getting deeper into growing produce. I even dug out a perennial bed to make room for veggies!

Last year, I experimented with starting many of my plants from seed. I bought a shelving unit and attached shop lights under each shelf. I used this set up to grow seeds in my extra bedroom. My plants did quite well and I got an abundant harvest from them.

[Here is one of my tomato seedlings right after I potted it up in order to develop a strong root system.]

[On the porch, you can see some of the plants that I started under lights. They were on the porch to harden off before planting.]

This year, I am attempting even more plants and varieties. Here's some of what I have planned:

basils: cinnamon, genovese, lemon, bounty, Thai, opal, lime, sweet, magical Michael, osmin

other herbs: stevia, chives, oregano, parsley, chamomile, cilantro

tomatoes: Napa grape hybrid, brandywine, sweet tangerine hybrid, Wolford's wonder, Henderson's wins all, Fred Limbaugh potato top, chocolate stripes, blondkopfchen, bloody butcher, yellow stone, 1884, Italian heirloom

potatoes: all blue, banana fingerling, carola, German butterball, red gold

other veggies: lemon cucumbers, sweet success cucumbers, bush champion cucumbers, mesclun, spinach, zucchini, greensleeves beans, royal burgundy beans, super wax beans, carrots, sugar snap peas, onions, garlic, shallots

I didn't initially plan to plant this much, but I lost my mind in the seed catalogs. I'm sure that I will have enough seedlings for myself and all my neighbors :).