Raw Garden Salad

The best thing about growing your own food is eating it! With this warm weather I swear I can see my zucchini grow. Wanting to stay ahead of the squash downpour about to happen I made Mr. Ramon a raw garden salad for work this week. It was really cool to be able to pull a few of our vegetables together to make this tasty salad. This salad is easy and fresh and crunchy. You can add almost any vegetable you have growing in your garden. 

Open, drain and rinse 2 cans of Cannellini Beans - place in medium bowl

Slice 2 small zucchinis lengthways into 4 pieces then chop into thin bites - place in bowl with beans

Slice three handfuls of green beans on the diagonal - add to bowl 

In a small separate bowl mix well- 

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• salt and pepper to taste 
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

Pour over vegetables and mix until coated. I like to top the salad with crumbled feta cheese. This salad is even better the next day. 

Enjoy!!

Baby Kale

Today we harvested some young kale. Garden is moving slow this year with the lack of consistent sun.

How is your garden? What have you harvested lately? Have you made something delicious with your garden crops? Love to hear from you.

Fava Beans and fresh corn

When I watched Silence of the Lambs years ago I had no idea what Hannibal Lector was talking about when he mentioned eating fava beans. Only last year was I properly introduced to this amazing if slightly difficult bean. 

Fava beans have been around for over 5000 years and a diet staple for much of the rest of the world through the ages. It seems that they are finally catching on here in the US - slowly. 

Fava beans come in these big floppy green pods about 3-5 inches long. They are filled with what looks like cotton batting that the actual beans nestle in. But don't get to excited yet - after opening these thick, stringy pods the beans themselves still need blancehd to loosed then waxy coating on each individual bean. See what I mean by difficult? I find this process to be relaxing in a sort of "turn off your brain" kind of way. 

Once you get the beans loose you have these brilliant green beans with a buttery texture and a slightly bitter, nutty flavor. 

We are growing fava beans in our garden. But that seemed so far away I could not resist them at our local co-op. I filled up a bag and grabbed a fresh ear of corn. Thinking I could throw the two together for an easy side dish for dinner. 

After getting the beans out of their pods, blanched, cooled and peeled I turned to the corn. I shucked it, rinsed it and then sliced it off the cob.

I heated a cast iron skilled to medium heat and threw in the corn. No oil - just on the bottom. Looking to get the grilled effect in the skillet. Don't stir - you will be tempted. We are not stir frying - we want dark bits which will mean sweet pan roasted corn.

With these two amazing ingredients I only needed salt, pepper a dash of olive oil and a sprinkle of red wine vinegar. A perfect summer night side dish.

Garden Part 3

Wishing I had a truck today. I want to fill it with dirt for our garden. Instead I will fill the little mini cooper with bags and bags of compost and garden soil. Poor little car - she is so overloaded. 

This marks the final step in gardern prepardness. We are filling these beds with Sky Nursery's planting mix and lots of local compost. We also picked up some vegetable starts. With these and the few we started in the house we will be on our way to filling up the garden with tasty vegetables!

I wanted to be organized on how we fill up the beds so I marked the first one off with tape in 12"x12" squares. We put in our few plants and some seeds for radishes, carrots and beets. 

Over the next couple of weeks we will add in more plants. So far we have carrots, 2 kinds of beets, radishes, pickling cucumbers, fava beans, crookneck squash, bush beans and bell peppers. Now all we need is sun!

Carrot Pickles

I have always loved the hue of purple carrots. They are so pretty with their contrasting purple skin and orange flesh. I thought they would make some really pretty carrot pickles.


I love to pickle foods. Almost any fresh food can be pickled. I have a couple of brine recipes I like to use. This one is nice and spicy with the addition of the red pepper flakes.

Pickled Carrots 

 
3-4 fat carrots
Slice the carrots into slim stick, thin rounds or any desired shape

1 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 1/2 cups filtered water
3 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
2 tablespoons pickling salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3/4 cup sugar
1 bay leaf per jar

Combine the brine ingredients in a medium-sized, non-reactive pot. Bring to a boil. Taste and adjust spices to please your palate. Add the sliced vegetables. Stir to combine and remove from the heat.

Fill prepared jars. Wipe rims and apply lids. Process in a boiling water bath for ten minutes (starting time after the pot has returned to a boil).

These should rest for a few weeks or months before opening to let them infuse with the flavors of the spices. 

Makes three pints.