Mid-Summer Abundance

Despite, or perhaps because of, the great heat wave and dry spell the Niagara area has been experiencing, my garden's bounty has begun in earnest.

I've been collecting little odd bits here and there, a few basil leaves to make pesto, a bit of kale to add to potato salad. But the last couple of weeks things have really begun to produce. We had friends over for dinner the other night, and though I didn't get to offer them any tomatoes yet, we did have cucumber salad, fried baby zucchini and a killer Swiss-Chard Tart ( stole the recipe from Laura Calder).

The mulberries! You can't pick them by hand or else they will burst. So I laid out a vinyl tablecloth (a tarp would work too!)  under the tree, shook the branches and watched as all the fully ripe berries fell. It was easy, and I love that I've got a harvest of something for free!

It all kind of started with the discovery last week that we had a Mulberry tree in the front yard. I googled all kinds of Mulberry recipes and had decided to just make them into another liqueur. Then I finished gathering them all up and wouldn't you know it, they are just about the most delicious berry I have ever tasted. Needless to say, they did not get turned into alcohol and are tucked away in the freezer so that I can grab a handful of them to make frozen yogurt or throw in a smoothie or on oatmeal.

Layered out to get frozen. Once frozen I threw them into a baggie and now I can grab them as I please.   Leaving them frozen means that if I want frozen yogurt, I grab the frozen berries add them to a cup of greek yogurt and blend with my immersion blender. Instant delicious!

This week the tomatoes are beginning to ripen, and they are delicious. I was worried that all this heat and no rain would make them super tough, but they are sweet and juicy and delicious! ( I threw the cup or so I collected tonight into my Pesto Quinoa Salad with Tomatoes, Olives and Cucumber...mmm...yum.) And I've had to begin checking on the zucchinis everyday now, as I had a couple that got so big they had to be shredded for winter consumption ~ hopefully in the form of chocolate zucchini cake!

Today's bounty. From the left: Collard greens, kale, massive zucchini, snowpeas, basil, cucumbers, jalapenos (and one large red chilli) and the first of the tomatoes.

I was also able to pick a large bowl full of snowpeas - the vines are taller than me now and full of peas. The cukes are coming along steadily, I can eat at least 2 of them a day now (and by "can" I mean I have to eat 2 a day just to keep up with them.) I also picked about 10 jalapenos off the bushes and they are HOT!! like super HOT! My fingers are still burning! I cut them all up and froze them, so I can crack open a bag of them whenever I need jalapenos. I've also had to start paring down all the greens I planted. Both the collard greens and the kale got wrangled down to size today, blanched and frozen.

Thankfully, my mom got me a FoodSaver for Christmas and though I didn't open it until last week, it is now getting put through its paces.

And this is what I ended up with! Go Foodsaver Go!

I spent the evening (4 hours!!) blanching and chopping and grating (with the food processor, thank goodness!) and foodsaver-ing. But now I feel incredibly good about having begun to store the excesses of summer for the winter when I'll be craving all those fresh from the garden veggies.

Next up, Tim and I will be making pickles. I'm not sure he's aware he'll be helping yet, but considering his only concern has been being able to make crunchy pickles, he's got to help out. Although I might have to send him out of the room when I start boiling vinegar (he hates the smell!).