The Brandywine and Roma tomato plants were beginning to wither at the beginning of September. They had produced some tasty tomatoes in a satisfying quantity for our household. Seeing them, made me realize the growing season is just about over and I didn't feel like I had really used the garden to it's full potential. Thanks to some cooking episodes (Thank you PBS & Food Network) I was inspired to amp up the amount of herbs I had been using in my recipes. Now I realize I had been much too conservative with the quantities of herbs up to this point and they do make a big difference in flavor. Some herby recipes that I have been using most recently are:
Herb Roast Chicken (America's Test Kitchen)
Carne Asada (my version: Soy Sauce, Thyme, Rosemary, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Olive Oil & No Tequila & No Cilantro & No Butter)
Porchetta (my version: No Pork Belly, included small bit of lovage)
Halibut Vermicelli with Dill & Pineapple-Anchovy Sauce
Vietnamese Spring Rolls have included some to all of the following
ingredients: slices of rolled lettuce, matchstick carrots &
radishes, thai basil, cooked shrimp, nasturtium leaves/flowers, &
mint.
Basil Pesto that I keep in the fridge for a
week's use at a time includes just olive oil, garlic, salt and as much
basil leaves as can be kept under a protective layer of olive oil in
whatever jar I use. I add hot pepper flakes & Parmesan cheese just
before serving.
Salsa (of course!!): roasted tomatoes or fresh chopped brandywine, cilantro, hot peppers, roasted garlic, lime juice and onions. Added Avocado to turn into Guacamole or mangoes to make it a sweet and spicy sauce.
Instant pickled veggies for the fridge have included 1 part cider vinegar to 2 parts water and some to all of the following: olive oil, salt, pepper, cloves, bay leaf, rosemary, oregano, thyme sprigs, garlic, red onion, yellow onion, sliced serranos, sliced jalapenos, sliced poblanos, carrots, and cauliflower.
Lovage salt: 6 tablespoons salt to every ounce of Lovage. Adapted Recipe from Celery Salt (Time Life CookBooks 1981)
Herb Butter Recipes (I've been creating sage & parsley butters for the winter)
Bread Recipes: I've adapted bread and pizza recipes by including sage, rosemary and/or thyme.
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| Bread Recipe that included finely chopped sage. I topped the loaf with whole sage leaves. |
Other recipes that have used harvests from the garden have included:
Pho Bo: Beef Noodle Soup (used Thai Basil, Scallions, Radishes & Jalapenos as Garnish)
Moon-Viewing Noodles in Broth & Spinach steeped in Broth (scallions, collard greens, swiss chard)
Chicken with Roasted Coriander in a Coconut Curry Sauce (adapted to use small halved eggplants instead of chicken, tomatoes, hot peppers)
The state of the garden at the beginning of Fall 2014: A collection of pictures
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| I dug around the sweet potato plants last week to find the roots still too small for eating. These may not be ready until December. |
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| Sweet Potato plants interspersed with Thai Basil & Italian Basil |
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| These eggplants only grow to three inches long |
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| The Honey Yellow Tomatoes grew so large in September that I wrapped them around the vacant cucumber teepee trellis. Now the new cucumber plant is growing up on the tomato vines. It seems to be working well. |
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| Parsley has been growing at the base of the teepee over the season but not as well as in full sun. |
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| Honey Yellow tomatoes growing around the teepee with the cucumber vining it's way around them |
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| Poblano peppers (top), Eggplant (right) and Radish/Cilantro seedlings (lower left) |
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| Radishes and Cilantro |
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| Second attempt at a zucchini plant (top left) with swiss chard that has been growing dependably all season (middle) and poblano peppers (right) and carrots (lower left) |
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| I recently planted collard greens near the carrots in the row with the zucchini plant. The roma tomato plants died away in early September and I planted a container tomato plant to see if it would still give fruit. One more tomato is growing. |
