Despite the unusually moderate weather summer is in full swing and as you can see from the picture above so is the garden! The wall of greenery you see in the background are my cucumbers scaling the 6 foot yard fence. Everything is beginning to produce with the zucchinis and tomatoes being harvested daily. D and I are looking into canning and pickling recipes to handle all of them.
A zucchini blossomEggplant blossoms
Eggplants are the only thing we haven’t harvested yet. The poor plants have had to fight with giant tomato plants on one side and aggressive beans on the other and haven’t done as well as I’d hoped.
Eggplants are starting to show up, though
Despite how aggressively the beans are growing they aren’t producing very meany beans though. Only a handful every other day or so. Not enough to do anything with but throw in salads or eat as a snack.
These blooms better be beans soonCucumbers and beans climbing up the trellisA tiny cucumber and blossomFried green tomatoes, anyone?This was the complete haul for last Saturday
The harvest for last Saturday was 11 tomatoes, seven bean pods, two zucchinis, and a cucumber. The cucumber, tomatoes, and zucchinis we all be going into a bread salad that I’ll be enjoying tonight!
I don’t know what it is about hot weather that makes me think about pickles. Maybe it’s all the barbequing or the desire for food that doesn’t have to be cooked over the food or the need for a chilled snack? Maybe all of these. Whatever it is when the temperature starts climbing into the high 80s, low 90s my mind turns to pickles. The local food co-op sells these locally made New York deli pickles that are wonderful and I’ve been hitting them all summer to satisfy my craving… Until a few weeks back when I decided that I should make my own pickles. The internet is full of recipes, easy ones, an pickling by itself is not difficult at all. Also, pickling cucumbers had just started showing up on grocery shelves. I mentioned this to D and last weekend she came back from the store with two pounds of pickling cucumbers and a bag full of spices. She even found a recipe that looked promising…
So, I made some pickles!
First, you need to find some pickles these are kirbyshalf or quarter them...Cram them vertically into a sanitized jar of some sortAdd your spice/pickling mixGet your brine boilingPour the boiling brine into the jar with the cucumbers
Seal the jar, let it cool until it’s room temperature and then throw into the fridge for 24 hours.
This is the part where you eat them!It's generally at this point I wish I had a better camera and some photography skills...
Thanks to Punk Domestics for providing the recipe it worked perfectly! I did change it by omitting the garlic, onions, and dill (in the future I’ll put those back in.) Though, in the future I think I will use white vinegar instead of apple cider which is a little too strong for my tastes…
D and I went to the local u-pick berry picking patch this weekend, Impossible Acres (I love that name if I had a farm I’d name it that too). Turns out it was a great time to go too! Both the raspberry and boysenberry bushes were heavy with delicious berries and they hadn’t been picked over dozens of times (we normally go later in the year and have to really work through the bushes and thorns to get a decent amount). Berries aren’t the only thing available at the picking patch. They also have multiple varieties of cherries, peaches, apricots, tomatoes, apples and pumpkins (those last two are not currently in season. You knew that, right?)
Rows of berry bushes, to the left are stone fruit trees
Most of what we got has already been used up in the making of smoothies, cakes, and for snacks. D and I are definitely heading back to Impossible Acres before the end of the season, I don’t know how many times. It’s just enjoyable to spend an early afternoon walking through a garden with D picking fruit as we go along. The amazing things we do with them once we get home aren’t bad either. Below are some more pictures from the excursion.
We made smoothies with all the boysenberries. Oh! and cake too
D picking some boysenberries (stop staring at my wife's ass!)
Bing cherries? What do I know? I'm no fruitologist
Who's that dashing, good-looking fellow picking cherries?
This cherry tree was literally being pulled down by the amount of fruit on its branches
Spring (or is it summer) came late to Northern California this year. But, despite a 4 week delay it seems to finally be here now with temperatures rising to the high eighties and low nineties. Spring and Summer have a lot of things going for them; one of my favorites though, is sun tea. What is sun tea? Well it’s tea, usually herbal, you brew in the sun. I suppose most people just call it iced tea but I like the phrase ‘sun tea.’ ‘Sun tea’ conjures up images of a blue sky, mild breeze, blinding white walls, and sparkling pools. Oh, and the delicious taste of ice-cold tea!
Sun tea is really easy to make. You don’t need any fancy teas or tea bags (though you can use these things! Lipton is the blandest of teas and there are so many great flavors out there!) Here’s how I make it!
This is an Orange blossom, clove, and cranberry tea. I bought it in bulk from my local grocery co-op
You’re going to need some tea, a tea bag (if it isn’t prepackaged tea), and a large water jug. My jug is an old Santa Cruz Juice gallon jug.
I find it easier to place the tea bag in the jug before you put in the teaI fill the bag up as much as possible
Once you have the tea bag full, make sure you close it tight. The bag is going to be submerged in water for several hours and you don’t want it spilling out into the water. The tea won’t be ruined if it is but you’ll have to pour everything through a strainer, you can save yourself the hassle by making sure it’s closed tight.
Push the tea bag into the water. Make sure it is fully submerged
Once the tea bag is in the water, make sure the strings are still hanging out of the jar’s mouth and that the bag has plenty of slack, seal the jar and set it out in the sun.
Place in a spot where it will be fully exposed to the sun for at least 3 or 4 hours
After the tea has been in the sun for a sufficient period of time (the longer it’s exposed the stronger the tea’s taste) bring it inside, remove the tea bag, and chill in the refrigerator. I rarely, if ever, add sugar, honey, or other sweeteners to my tea but you can of course. If you feel fancy enough you can mix sun tea with a simple syrup for some Sweet Tea. As you can see from the first picture I enjoy mine over ice with some lemon juice and a slice or two. Sun tea is best enjoyed anywhere summer is happening.
Anything in particular you associate strongly with the summer season? Share it in the comments below!
