Summer Solstice to Autumnal Equinox - Photos of Abundance

Oooooooooooooooooh boy was this a good summer.  And faaaaaaaaaast!  Oh, SO fast!  We traveled so gosh darn much (because despite what I said about my home-travel-social balance I retained nothing).  It is sort of miraculous that our garden has been so beautiful and bountiful.  Matt said the same thing of his own accord as we were digging potatoes and picking apples the other night.  Indeed!  Given how much we left it to fend for itself...the garden was incredibly fruitful.  

After revisiting some photos this week I decided a seasonal garden round-up was in order.  Especially since I wrote so little about the garden this summer.  I wrote little about anything--full stop.  Only four posts were published between Solstice and Equinox.  

Homegrown strawberries with Oreo cookie crumbles in puff pastry cups.  We grow "everbearing" strawberries so we get a big crop in June and then a smaller crop later in the summer.  6/21/2023

The Ginger Baby rolling around on the back patio in the sunshine.  She loves it out back SO much.  There are no words.  She's a garden kitty.  6/22/2023

A nifty-looking jalapeno.  It has a crown! We grow lots and lots of jalapenos.  They're very versatile in cooking, can be frozen for winter use, and are the primary ingredient in my favorite salsa recipe.  I'm actually freezing peppers this week--blends of hot and sweet peppers which will be amazing in fajitas and stir-fries for months to come. 6/23/2023

We've added one new lily each summer for the past three years.  This one is my favorite--so bright and bold.  Plus it makes me think of my friend, Val.  6/26/2023

The clematis on the west fence--the one we share with Pam and Jack.  6/29/2023

A borage blossom.  Borage is a new plant in our garden this year. We never got around to any culinary uses of it, but we enjoyed the flowers.  We were slow to adopt flower gardening, but are very enthusiastic about it these days.  I love watching all the bees buzzing around.  The flowers are so pretty.  What's not to like?!?  7/3/2023

Matt added the Wildflower Walkway out front this year.  It makes the sidewalk so much cooler and has been a lovely way to interact with the neighbors.  We've talked to so many people out there!  Matt plans to expand the Wildflower Walkway next year.  It exceeded our expectations by a long shot.  7/4/2023

Zinnia from the Wildflower Walkway.  7/11/2023

My Grandma Grapes while still green and unripe.  The squirrels and I are in a race every year now to see who gets to them first as they blush into their purple-red sweetness!  I actually ate most of them this year for a change.  Woohoo!  7/18/2023

A back garden overview.  The MiniDip pool, blue sky, clothes on the line, and cosmos blooming in the "Flower Bed" (it has a headboard).  7/23/2023

A pile of itty-bitty sweet peppers.  Peppers are my favorite vegetable.  Fresh or cooked, I think they're fabulous. 7/27/2023

As the summer progresses we incorporate more and more homegrown produce into our meals.  I LOVE it.  It is cool to consider how the cucumbers, onions, sweet peppers, hot peppers, herbs, and zucchini all came from our own agricultural efforts. The types and quantities shift with the passing weeks and it is so cool to feel the seasonal rhythms.  7/30/2023

A garden overview.  Because of all the rain in June, we had the best onion crop we've ever had.  I guess we haven't been giving them enough water.  Good to know!  7/31/2023

French Onion Soup with homegrown onions and herbs.  8/1/2023

The beans this year have been off the charts.  We've had boatloads to eat, freeze for winter, and share with Matt's mom (who adores them and doesn't have a garden at home this year).  8/2/2023

The onion harvest curing in the garage prior to being trimmed, bagged, and stored in the basement.  Like I said, it was the best crop yet.  They were big!  8/3/2023

We've had more basil--Italian and Thai--than we can possibly use.  Which is a problem I am totally okay with!  They're growing in the greenhouse and, apparently, loving every minute of it.  8/5/2023

"But do they taste like tomatoes?" Val asked when I mentioned this odd variety--Sart Roloise.  Red may be the classic tomato color, but there are yellow, green, striped, speckled, purple, and so many other neat varieties.  Matt makes his homemade ketchup exclusively with Green Zebra tomatoes.  8/13/2023

Ginger catching a little shade in the cabbage patch.  Oh, how I love her and her cute little pink nose. 8/17/2023

Onion and zucchini bhajis were a regular on the summer menu.  Like most gardeners, we usually have to give away zucchini in order to keep up with the production.  This side dish made good use of the zucchini harvests--not to mention highlighted how fab the homegrown onions were, too.  8/18/2023

We are suckers for purple potatoes.  They're so pretty.  8/19/2023

We returned from vacation to an especially massive harvest.  Eggplant and tomatoes in the foreground, cucumber, zucchini, and red cabbage in the back.  Plus, one basket of corn.  I never cease to be amazed by what a bargain food can be when you grow it yourself.  It makes me feel rich.  8/20/2023

These are the same variety--Sart Roloise--pictured above when still completely purple.  The fruit starts green, rapidly changes to deep purple, and then ripens to a bright yellow.  Isn't that wild?!?!  8/22/2023

A garden fresh Indian Feast featuring homegrown eggplant, potatoes, onion, herbs, garlic, and corn. 8/23/2023

Ginger emerges from one of her many leafy fortresses.  9/3/2023

We bought huckleberries at the Farmer's Market while visiting my dad.  We ate most of them fresh, but there was just enough for a Huckleberry Daiquiri with a fresh mint garnish.   We used A LOT of our homegrown mint this year--garnishes for drinks, fresh mint tea, and as a flavoring in Indian cooking.  I also dried several batches of mint for tea this winter.   9/4/2023

Homegrown peppers and basil make for mighty fine pizza toppings.  9/5/2023

A sweet-and-sour stirfry with tofu and homegrown cabbage, onion, and basil (top).  JoJean's Tibetan Potatoes and Green Beans with all homegrown produce (bottom).  I have to laugh at that green bean post (from 2014) in which I was still teaching myself to love them.  It took some time, but I am solidly there now.  I enjoy homegrown green beans--though I still prefer them rather well cooked so they're tender and not crunchy.  9/7/2023

While prepping beans for dinner we took a sample from our Haralson Apple Tree.  Yummy, yum!  We picked the rest on Tuesday evening.  It was a good haul.  We'll eat some and can the rest as applesauce and pie filling.  9/14/2023

Matt tried a new eggplant recipe from East by Meera Sodha.  It is called Aubergine Pollichattu and is remarkably flavorful and tender.  (If you don't own the cookbook and want to try it yourself the recipe is available here.)  We also made one of our favorite green bean dishes from 660 Curries.  9/15/2023

Reading a book (Bite Me: A Love Story by Christopher Moore) and basking in the sunshine with the Ginger Kitty.  9/16/2023

Ginger supervised the removal of some crumbly, broken brick paths.  Michelle and Sky came over to help and we knocked it out in no time.  9/18/2023

Roasting a batch of homegrown goodness for our amazing tomato sauce--with bonus eggplant in this batch since we had so much of it to preserve and use.  We freeze the sauce instead of canning it when we alter the recipe like that.  We're not sure how the eggplant impacts the acidity levels and we like to play it safe with food preservation.  9/20/2023

Yet another homegrown-heavy Indian Feast.  There we SO many this summer.  The Indian cookbook we adore is organized by vegetable which makes it so simple to cook up whatever produce is available at the moment--in this case green beans, peppers, potatoes, onion, and herbs. 9/21/2023

And now fall is here! Or the season of Ss, as I've been calling it.  Sweaters, soup, Scrabble, sourdough, staycations, snuggling, squash, and so on.  I'm excited, though the morning chill whispers of winter days to come.  We're going to start slowly winding down the garden over the next month.  And so it goes!