This summer, F and I have been enjoying, and being challenged by, the produce coming out of our garden. We have the same two raised beds we had last year, but F planted them with different things: this time around the raised beds have eggplant, mexi-bell pepper, arugula, basil, strawberries, and three kinds of tomatoes (heirloom, yellow grape, and red grape). We also have an herb bed on one side of the house and a few zucchini and corn plants scattered in the flowerbeds. This arrangement has been working out well for most of the plants. The zucchini has been gleefully happy, and the tomato plants are so huge that three cages can’t contain them. Things haven’t worked out for the arugula, and something keeps eating the strawberries before I get any (next year: fences!), but overall, the garden has done extremely well this year.
Which has brought its own challenge: what to do with all these veggies! We’ve had sauteed zucchini a few ways: mixed in with pasta, in a wrap with hummus and cheese and spinach, and as a side dish by itself. We’ve had zucchini and tomato frittata, zucchini black bean quesadillas (which were such a hit with everyone that we had it twice), zucchini bread, and zucchini muffins. Then we got creative. We had a friend over and made zucchini “crab” cakes (minus the crab) on a recommendation from one of my coworkers, and they were awesome – YB was so excited to eat hers that she burned her mouth. We had a zucchini tomato bake, and I made another loaf of bread. Twice we’ve had caprese salad, and – lest we forget the eggplant – we had an eggplant parmesan that was pretty tasty. My helpful coworker also sent me her caponata recipe, so that’s on the agenda for the next eggplant. And none of this includes all the raw veggies we’ve been munching while we cook or between meals, the leftover grated zucchini that didn’t get used in a recipe being incorporated into the rare non-garden-inspired meal, the fresh-off-the-plant tomatoes YB happily chomps when we’re outside harvesting. (She’s always trying to bite the whole zucchinis but we won’t let her; I’m pretty sure she couldn’t eat the whole thing.) F and I have each taken a load of tomatoes to our offices to share with our colleagues. And there’s still more growing.
I feel grateful for all of this wonderful bounty! It’s the perfect time of year to be a vegetarian. If you had my garden, what would you cook up?
Rox Does Yoga 