From Garden to Table

It is too far gone into the heat of the summer to do any gardening.  The shelves at the nurseries and garden shops are bare but for Rose Mary and flowers.

Here at the Back Forty, we get up at crack of dawn to brew coffee and while it's brewing we venture out into the garden to  fight mosquitoes and bugs to harvest what we planted and sowed earlier this spring.

After removing the dark skin from the eggplant and slicing the fruit, I let the the slices soak in water to lessen the bitterness.  I will use them in an Eggplant Parmesan.

While the eggplant is soaking, I brown ground beef; slice and dice tomatoes, onions, and peppers

I arrange the eggplant, beef, and the vegetables in an oven proof container; pour over tomato sauce to cover, top it off with shredded cheese, and finally put the casserole into the microwave oven to cook for 18 minutes.  I have a meal for two that lasts several days.

When the silk on the corn is brown and dry, the corn is ready to be picked.  I shuck the corn, blanch the nicest looking ears for a few minutes, cool under running tap water, bag them, and put them into the already packed freezer.  The less attractive ears, but wicked good Silver Queens, are put in the fridge to be cooked and eaten soon.

The peppers may be cut into strips, put in a bag and into the freezer.  No blanching is necessary; only removing the seeds.  It will be a fine compliment to fried onions later.

I am still able to pull a few red and yellow onions from the ground but the weather is much too hot for them:  they are cooking outside!

A simple but delicious salad is made by halving the small tomatoes; removing skin and seeds from a cucumber and cutting it into "half moons" and mixing them together.  For a dressing, I mix vinegar and oil with cayenne pepper and ground black pepper, a tad of salt, and sugar (!) to taste.  How sweet it is!

We are sharing our bounty and we are eating well from the garden at our table.

Hope that you are enjoying your garden and your vegetables.

Thank you for visiting my blog.