A Mid-Summer's Harvest

A bountiful one-day harvest from the garden, starting at the bottom left and going around to the center:

cucumbers

garlic chives

chives

radish seed pods dried out and ready for saving

sunflowers

zinnias

a huge bowl of okra and a tomato

three ripe figs-yay!

peppers

purslane

I have been harvesting and drying lots of herbs from the garden. Last week I picked, washed and dried lemon verbena and anise hyssop for teas. After today's harvest I will wash, chop, and dry the chives and garlic chives and use them for spreads or dips in the Winter. As the figs begin to ripen more and more we will harvest and dry them as well. I adore the sight of all these things being preserved at their freshest point and I know that when the dark and gloomy days of Winter come we will relish in the bright flavors of our Summer garden.


uses for lemon verbena

info on anise hyssop

Thanks for visiting our digs, 

C

Cucumber Agua Fresca

photo courtesy of www.caroactually.com 


If you've never had the pleasure of sipping an agua fresca on a hot Summer day then you may be missing out. With the abundance of cucumbers in our garden we are always looking for ways to enjoy them so this is one I made today. I did not write down the recipe but here is a link to a recipe you could use. I made a couple of modifications:

1. Instead of water I used coconut water because I had some on hand and coconut water is far better at helping you rehydrate after strenuous work than plain water or worse, a sports drink.

2. Across the board and with few exceptions my top two sweeteners of choice are local raw honey and grade B maple syrup. So with this recipe I used raw honey instead of agave syrup.

Another thing to remember with agua fresca is that since you use the entire fruit it will separate a few minutes after being poured into the glass so drink up!

Hope you are able to enjoy Summer's abundance. Thanks for visiting our digs.

-C