From My Garden to You

Final Post on the Corn So you will probably be glad to know this is the final corn post !! I harvested all the ears last week as various "creatures" had discovered it and were having a very happy time munching away.   My - how those stalks have grown, taller than me now !     Corn Harvest     Lovely ear of corn     "Munched Ear of Corn"   Time now to look for some corn recipes !!   Happy Gardening      

AZ Style Summer Vegetable Frittata Last week in the garden I harvested squash, yellow tomatoes and some bell peppers. We are getting a bit bored of eating lots of spiralized squash salads, even though the salads have been good, so I thought I would have a go at a summer vegetable frittata - AZ style. Making a frittata on the stove top is also a way of cooking something relatively quickly, without making the kitchen too hot ( believe it or not, this is a very important consideration in AZ in the summer). The less time you have the oven on when it is 116 degrees outside, the better, trust me on this ! I use a cast iron pan which I love. Anyway here's the finished dish, which I have to say was delicious and if you would like to know what I did and how to make it, then read on.........   Ingredients 1 onion chopped ( I use my own, harvested in may) Summer vegetables of your choice - I used peppers, squash, tomatoes. You could also add a chile if...

Black Eyes Peas - the veggies, not the group ! My Black Eyed Peas have really started to grow like crazy the last week or so. They love the heat here ( unlike us gardeners !) and are really easy to grow. Not only that, they are good for the soil - they fix nitrogen, provide shade for other plants AND you can eat them too ! So...if you would like to know more about them - read on.   Black Eyed Peas growing in my garden - Photo taken June 27th 2017 Black Eyed Peas are also called Cow Peas. They originate from Africa and are grown in many areas around the world. Their name comes from the so-called small black 'eye' where the bean joins to the pod within the shell. Here in the Low Desert, unlike the traditional peas that are planted in the Fall, black-eyed peas are a warm season crop. They do tolerate poor soil much better than most legumes. Planting guides may say plant in March for a crop in early June, however, I have found you...

Another spiralized recipe - a healthy salad So my zucchini are still producing - albeit slowly and now I trying patty pan squash in the spiralizer. This is a very easy salad to make and while I have not grown all of the ingredients, most are from Arizona, so I am supporting local producers, if nothing else !   You can pretty much use any greens of your choice to start with. In this case, I used hydroponically grown lettuce, but I have also used spinach that I purchased at Prescott framers market too. (A good little market to try out on a Saturday morning at Yavapai college.)   I then layered on top the following:   Spiralized patty pan squash (my own) Spiralized cucumber Halved yellow cherry tomatoes (my own) Chopped local figs Toasted AZ pecans Crumbled feta cheese ( Goat Cheese would work too) Chopped basil from the garden.   ( You could also try spiralized carrots, chopped melon and mint, the combinations are many, ...

Harvest Pasta Sauce with Spiralized Zucchini Having made the pasta sauce as I described in the previous post, you can now choose to either sieve it or use it as it is. If you do sieve it, that removes the seeds and bits of skin. For sieving, I use the method shown below:- Sieved pasta sauce - all organic, sown, grown and harvested in my own garden. Such a delight to be able to do this I must say ! So now I have the pasta sauce, I can either freeze it or use it in the next day or so. One of the ways I like to use it, is with spiralized zucchini "pasta". The good thing about this, is that the "pasta" is completely carbohydrate free. I just heat up the sauce and then throw in the zucchini "pasta". Turn off the heat, stir the "pasta" into the sauce thoroughly and by the time you get your plate out and serve it, the zucchini "pasta" is cooked. Spiralizer and homegrown zucchini Zucc...

June Harvest Easy Pasta Sauce So by now you will have gathered that I have been harvesting quite a lot of summer fruiting vegetables and I thought I would like to share a very easy recipe for a June Harvest Pasta Sauce. Ingredients A mixture of any of the following vegetables, but I always include an onion - it adds flavor. Onion Summer squash of any kind Tomatoes Peppers Eggplant Olive Oil - about 2-3 tbsp. depending on how many vegetables you are using. Sprigs of Oregano and Thyme, remove leaves from stems. Method Set oven to 375 degrees F Using a large non-stick baking sheet, lay out the chopped veggies. Sprinkle with herb leaves and then pour over with olive oil.       Bake approximately half and hour, stirring once halfway through cooking. Again, this depends on how many vegetables you are cooking. You do not want them to burn, just to be cooked and the onions very slightly caramelized.     Scrape all the vegetabl...

Harvest in the Heat   Believe it or not, all these were harvested yesterday morning. Despite the heat, I am still harvesting from my vegetable garden. As well as tomatoes, there are 3 kinds of squash, peppers and just ready - the first grapes.   It is too hot to really plant anything right now, so hold off for a little while. Now is the time to look at those seed catalogues/websites and decide what you are going to plant in the Fall. Another post will include some suggestions of good low desert seed varieties, so watch this space !      

           Tomato Tart Recipe A great way to serve all those heirloom tomatoes !           1 sheet puff pastry, thawed but still cold 2 tbsp olive oil 1 cup ricotta cheese 4 oz crumbled goat cheese 2 large eggs 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil ¼ tsp fresh ground black pepper ¾ tsp coarse salt ¾ lb tomatoes, cored halved and sliced about ¼ - ½ “     Heat oven 425 degrees.   Line large baking sheet with parchment paper.   On lightly floured surface roll pastry to 10’ x 15” and transfer to baking sheet. Score border 1’ from edge all around rectangle, not cutting through the dough all the way. Prick dough inside the border all over with a fork, this allows the border to rise higher than the inner part. Brush inner part all over with 1 tbsp of the oil.   Mix 2 cheese, eggs, basil, ½ tsp salt and the pepper.   Spread this mi...

Saving Pea seeds A month ago, in early May, my peas were finished and I collected the pods that had never been harvested (the ones that got away!), plus some pods that I was saving for seed. How did I do that you may ask ? Well, I allowed the pods to reach full maturity on the plants so that they were nearly dry and then carefully collected them into a paper bag. I made sure the paper bag top was folded over and placed the bag on a shelf in the garage for a month, so that the pods could dry put thoroughly. It is important to make sure the top of the bag is folded over, because once the pea pods dry out completely, their method of seed dispersal is for the pod to burst open explosively, scattering peas everywhere in the local vicinity. This works great for the pea plant in the garden, but trust me - you don't want peas all over your garage floor -so keep that bag closed ! Today I brought the dried pea pods into the kitchen, harvested the pea seeds from the pods, packa...