After a long long time I am participating in Inspiration Avenue's weekly challenge again - I remember a time when I used to do that almost every week! It kept my creative juices flowing even though sometimes it was quite a stretch for me.
This week's theme is "harvest" - so true for my garden at the moment. We pretty much "live off the land" right now. I harvest something almost every day and our meals are so much more richer and tastier with our own veggies and fruits.
For a good harvest you need the right basket to put your hands' labor in - like this one that I saw at a local nursery:
It's an old grape basket, and at its steep price I decided to leave it untouched. I'm still using my old metal colander that I found a few years ago in a thrift store for a couple bucks.
I have had peppers, tomatoes, zucchini and eggplant growing in my garden. It was the first year that the harvest of the zucchini was rather meager, whereas there were many peppers, especially the orange "Tequila Sunrise", my favorite. Great flavor!!! I'm happy with my tomatoes this year and already made tomato sauce that sits in the freezer now, waiting for cooler days when we will taste the flavors of summer again.
For the first time I grew melons - Charentais melons. The fruits weren't very big, but oh! the flavors of Provence were in each of them. I hope I can get them again next year - this was the first time that I found them in a local nursery.
As I said - our meals have been super fresh recently. Be it Caprese (the best food on a hot summer's day),
or oven roasted veggies with tzatziki made from scratch (very easy).
What are you doing with your home grown veggies and fruits?
Hi Carola. Awesome garden! We do our own as well and there is nothing like having your own veggies. On your melons, save the seeds. Dry them on paper plates and this will take a little while, then when dry, label them and put them in little bags. You'll have your melon seeds for next year. I also save my butternut squash seeds and when some of the chili's turn brown from the sun, I pull them off and set them on paper plates to finish drying and then save those seeds. Seeds are getting expensive, but there's ways around that. Thanks so much for sharing your bounty of love, do enjoy. Take care, have a great weekend.
ReplyDeletegloria
Hi Carola. Awesome garden! We do our own as well and there is nothing like having your own veggies. On your melons, save the seeds. Dry them on paper plates and this will take a little while, then when dry, label them and put them in little bags. You'll have your melon seeds for next year. I also save my butternut squash seeds and when some of the chili's turn brown from the sun, I pull them off and set them on paper plates to finish drying and then save those seeds. Seeds are getting expensive, but there's ways around that. Thanks so much for sharing your bounty of love, do enjoy. Take care, have a great weekend.
ReplyDeletegloria
Your garden must be a sight to see...gorgeous photos of its wonderful and varied colors;
ReplyDeleteJust at the moment I am drooling over your harvest, and planning my own vegetable patch. Tomatoes are a given. Herbs. Zuchinni. Corn. Snow peas, beans and spinach....
ReplyDeleteSince I live in a forest there is not enough sunshine for a garden. Your veggies look amazing. I grew up on a small farm and my father grew everything. I don't ever remember buying vegetables at the grocery store. My mother taught me how to can veggies when I was 8 years old. We also used to freeze alot of veggies and fruits and berries. I do miss those days of going out to the gardens and pulling a radish , wipe it off on your shirt and eat right there. We weren't afraid of dirt and germs back then. Thank you for the memories. Sorry for the long comment.
ReplyDeleteVery nice photos! Thanks for stopping by my blog too!
ReplyDeleteWhat a bounty! You really had a wonderful outcome with your garden. It all looks perfectly delectable. Will you be planting a winter garden?
ReplyDeleteI think I am coming over to your house for dinner! LOL!
ReplyDeleteYou are making me SO jealous! Your harvest is incredible. Such variety, such beauty, and I'm sure it tastes amazing! Up here at 8200', there are only a few things that I can grow without a greenhouse so my bounty is nothing like yours. But, we appreciate that the majority of our salads come from the garden during August. Our first frost will be soon, and then it will be all over!
ReplyDeleteKeep enjoying that amazing food!
Your photography is delicious...well done.
ReplyDeleteYour harvest looks wonderful! It's nice to be able to can or freeze some of summer's bounty for the cool days ahead. It's great to see you back at Inspiration Avenue! We missed you! I hope you're enjoying the holiday weekend.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! you really do have an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables. They all look so yummy!
ReplyDeleteOfengemuese!
ReplyDeleteI cook it in winter with root vegetable and in summer with mediterranean veg. It’s delicious. Cooking veg in the oven, slowly, gives them a much more intense flavour than plain simmering or steaming.
You have a lovely selection of home grown vegetables, they must make cooking a pleasure every day.
Ah, the garden's bounty! What beautiful images of your produce. i adore caprese salad, now I will have to make some. :)
ReplyDeleteThere is no beating home grown produce. Like you we had a bumper crop of tomatoes and a small output from the zucchini. Usually it is the other way around.
ReplyDeleteDarla
Beautiful veggies ...
ReplyDeletemaking me hungry :)