Simple summer meals like this one taste so much better to me when the tomato and the basil were picked just feet away from my kitchen. (Next up: how to fit a cow on my patio to facilitate homegrown mozzarella for 100% all-me caprese ... hmmm.....)
Here's the rest of my lunch today:
One of my favorite things to eat when it's sticky outside is chilled cucumber soup. This soup is gorgeous and cooling and delicious, but I barely used anything from my garden to make it. Next year, I'm definitely planting cucumbers - we eat too many of them not to give them a shot ourselves. As for the rest of it, while you all know how well my basil's done, my mint and dill haven't done nearly as well. Even though it's already August, I might try another mint plant. So many people I know have a mint bonanza outside, and all I can figure it that my mint plant is a dud - and possibly in a container that's too small. I don't know anyone successfully growing dill, which makes me feel a tad better that ours didn't last. But we are dill freaks, so I'd love some tips if you have them for next year.
How are your August gardens taking the heat? What are your latest garden-fresh eats?
PS: The eagle eyes among you might have spotted hints of a new patio and garden setup outside. We did some fun stuff out there, and I'll get pictures as soon as we're closer to having it done.
Of course, you'd really want a buffalo on your porch, right?:)
ReplyDeleteYES! :)
ReplyDeleteWe just started getting ripe tomatoes about a week ago. Its true that there is no tomato as good as one you grow yourself. Even farmers market tomatoes don't hold up. We also just started getting cucumbers. We always plant them late because it seems to reduce squash bug invasions.
ReplyDeleteAs for the balcony buffalo, no help there. YET. Its only a matter of time before someone breeds a mimi-buff. There are already mini-Jerseys. Crazy 4 foot cows! I kind of want one.
http://www.miniaturejerseyassociation.com/
We've been eating our garden tomatoes for a few days now, and they're so good. I especially love when they're still warm from the sun. Our peppers are also ripe, and I think we may have a few hybrids -- possibly because we planted our banana peppers too close to our jalapeños? Lots of basil here, too, but no dill. Which is unfortunate because Nick wanted to use it to make pickles. We shall try again next year.
ReplyDeleteYour tomatoes look SO much better than the ones I'm getting with my CSA, which are flavorless. (And I'm pretty sure picked underripe.) It drives me nuts... they are FARMERS, they should know how to grow a damn tomato!
ReplyDeleteI had lots of success growing dill in my Aerogarden. I've never tried it outside though, so I have no idea what could be going wrong. But if you can find yourself a good plant and get it growing, you can get a ton of dill from one plant. (We still have a lot in our freezer... dill also freezes, and thaws, quite well.)
I loooove tomatoes in the summer! Delish.
ReplyDeleteI'd love the recipe for the chilled cucumber soup if you are willing to share!!! And, I'm still way jealous of your basil plants. Mine is doing ok, but it's slow going.
ReplyDeleteJust came across your blog through PoP - good stuff!
ReplyDeleteMy new favorite summer recipe is Shepherd's salad (sometimes called Turkish salad) - tomatoes, cucumbers, pepper, onion, feta, parsley and mint with a lemon juice/olive oil dressing.
I've made mozzarella before although none of the ingredients were homegrown. You can get the ingredients you need (citric acid and rennet) on line - try it sometime!
Home grown tomatoes for a caprese salad? That's my idea of heaven!
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