August things. Corn on the cob and/or green beans for dinner, tomato and cucumber salads, tomato sandwiches.
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August things. Corn on the cob and/or green beans for dinner, tomato and cucumber salads, tomato sandwiches.
The Secret
Artist: Alexandre Pierre Markelbach (Belgian, 1824-1906)
Date: 1848
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Royal Collection Trust, London, United Kingdom
the garden garlic is coming along fantastically
i chopped up most of the bulb, including a lot of what later becomes dry paper-like wrapper not right now is tender
the stalk was a hint tough raw but chopped into disks fine to eat and very good in a stir fry
i got a pound of london broil from the butcher who was kind enough to chop it off of a monstrous piece (way too much for me to buy) and he also thin-sliced it with the deli cutter which saved a lot of effort. i marinated it (soy sauce, shiaxing wine, mirin, rice vinegar, sugar, ginger powder) and then cooked it in the scotch bowl that serves well as a wok after the veggies, adding the garlic near the end plus a bunch of chili crisp and fermented pepper sauce (last year's garden product... or possibly the previous year's lol)
the veggies had a lot of peas from the garden, garden chives, plus some not-my-garden-but-local cabbage, onion, carrot
it was
delicious (served over brown rice)
Back to garden
So, I have been, reasonably, neglecting my garden, due to not being home for a month, and having too much to do afterwards. The garden is overgrown, weedy, diseased, and overrun by slugs. I've decided to go and take a look! Let's see how bad it is.
So it's bad, and I wouldn't normally show you this version of the garden, but I'm planning to clean it up, and it's always more fun to see the 'before' pictures. But also I think, while it looks bad from here, if I zoom in, I might find some pretty stuff!
There's a single leek, a zuchinni that's going to be a part of my lunch now, the basil flowers might make seeds if I leave them be for long enough, and kale is just, thriving, it does not mind the rain or weeds, and the slugs find it bitter. The little red ball you see is growing on the asparagus, it contains asparagus seeds! There's another part of the garden, that belongs to the plant lady, where I planted peppers because it's closer to water, and for some reason they decided to also thrive:
I have no idea why they're doing so well right now but I will take it. I planted these earlier, maybe thats the catch.
If I was taking care of my garden properly, it would have been producing more food even now, and it might seem like I failed at gardening this year, but look at this:
That's my basement. All of those jars, pumpkins and squash, that's what the garden created this summer. I was too tired to maintain it, but I was going in every day, harvesting, cleaning, cooking, canning, and I created this entire stash from it! There's over 60 jars of food in there. The garden has done its main purpose, to give me food security over winter.
Roots
To see the earthy vegetables cleaned of soil and laid out ready for storage every fall brings such a joy for me. The work of a successful summer garden and harvest at the end of the season gives proof of a future that provides for winter health and happiness.
Gardening and the food it provides is medicine.
I forgot to take a picture, but we just had roasted purple potatoes and carrots, from our garden, for dinner and they were fantastic.
Cube the potatoes and carrots. Toss them in olive oil and seasoning of your choice (we used season-all).
Cook in oven or air fryer @400F for 20 minutes, tossing halfway through.
Today's garden harvest turned out great!
Nettle and Green Onion Rarebit (Vegetarian)
After a few hours spent gardening, sowing, planting, weeding and tilling, how satisfying to return in the kitchen with freshly dug go, and freshly snipped (very carefully, with gloves!) nettle. These Nettle and Green Onion Rarebit, inspired from a recipe in this month's Simple Things, make the harvest all the more delicious! Happy Thursday!
Ingredients (makes 4 slices):
a large Green Onion
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 cup semi-skimmed milk
a pinch of fleur de sel or sea salt flakes and freshly cracked black pepper
nutmeg
Mature English Cheddar
4 small slices White Bloomer Bread
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 cup freshly picked nettles (wearing gloves), leaves removed from the stalks and thoroughly washed under cold water (wearing rubber gloves!)
Preheat oven to 250°C/480°F.
Finely chop Green Onion.
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over a medium flame. Once butter is just foaming, add chopped Green Onion, and cook, a couple of minutes.
Sprinkle in the flour. Give a good stir, and cook out, 1 minute.
Remove from the heat, and gradually stir in the milk, to prevent lumps, so the mixture is smooth and loose. Return over medium heat, and cook, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens. Once the béchamel thickens, season with fleur de sel and black pepper. Grate in about 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg. Then, grate in 1/3 cup Mature English Cheddar. Give a good stir until melted. Remove from the heat.
Place White Bloomer Bread slices onto a pizza pan, and place in the middle of the hot oven. Toast, at 250°C/480°F, 4 minutes.
Melt butter in a small frying pan over medium-high heat. Once the butter is just foaming, add the nettle leaves, and sauté, a couple of minutes until wilted. Transfer to a chopping board, and chop finely. Stir nettle leaves into the cheesy béchamel.
Flip White Bloomer Bread slices on their other side, and spoon cheesy nettle and green onion béchamel onto each slice. Grate a little more Cheddar on top and return to the hot oven. Bake, at 250°C/480°F, 3 to 4 minutes, until bubbly.
Sprinkle Nettle and Green Onion Rarebit with chopped green part of the Green Onion, and serve immediately, with a glass of chilled white wine, like Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc.