Good-bye to summer veggies, that is. We picked the motherlode, including the baby yellow squash seen above, this past weekend in anticipation of planting cool weather crops. A couple of the round green squash that somehow escaped my notice long enough to grow to bowling ball proportions (and with bright orange stripes that make them look quite festive!) are now displayed like renegade pumpkins by the front door. Photos forthcoming a bit closer to Halloween…
There are peppers still on the plants, but I picked and pulled the last of the tomatillos (enough to make a final fresh batch of salsa verde), a gorgeous sweet orange pepper, and a few underripe tomatoes (to keep them from the aforementioned neighborhood rats). Some of the ripe ones wound up sprinkled liberally with fresh basil in this ginormous salad, which we ate with dinner last night. It was soooooo delicious, I took a moment between bites to think about how lucky we are to be able to grow so much of our own produce, and for so much of the year. More than lucky, actually. Privileged.
And of course there was enough rhubarb to make a crisp or two, or maybe a batch of the rhubarb-citrus chutney I like to serve with cheese and crackers for a savory snack or appetizer.
My next big push will be to pull all the basil plants and make a huge batch of pesto to freeze in baggies for the winter. I did that last year, and although I don’t remember making THAT much of it, I am just using up the last of that crop. Jeez, is it any wonder I seldom sit down with my knitting until after dinner?
Comments welcome