Wednesday, June 17, 2009
From Garden to Table


On Monday night we hosted Monica and Alison at our apartment for a mini-dinner party. It's no secret that I love to bake and entertain, so this kind of get together -- and the preparation involved -- makes me giddy.

I ended up baking a lasagna using some fabulous cheeses (fontina, gorgonzola, gruyere, parmesan, and ricotta) and added a layer of artichokes and prosciutto just to make it interesting. That dish and the olive-and-rosemary bread seemed to be enjoyed by all, which of course made me smile. Add two great wines to the mix (supplied by the girls) and some wonderful company, and our mini-dinner party was quite an enjoyable evening.


We also visited our garden earlier in the day. After failing to bring the camera along on the last visit, only to find the plants flourishing, I made sure to bring it this time. I'm still surprised (and pretty proud) of our ability to grow anything, let alone quality veggies. Truthfully, up until that first zucchini came in, I was sort of subconsciously believing that we would just keep watering a patch of dirt with little or no results.

So far that looks to be far from the case:

The zucchinis keep coming in every week and grow until they look like fat cucumbers. I did indeed make zucchini bread with the last giant one but am in need of some creative uses for the upcoming constant stream of produce that the garden has begun to spit out...


From the looks of the tomato plants, which are brimming with tiny green fruits, we'll be up to our eyeballs in tomatoes come July. Some of the little guys are even turning red...


Bell peppers are sprouting, too. These are the sweet red variety but I think they have some time before they start to turn that color...


We grew these radishes from seed and they are already pushing their tops up from the ground...


These green beans started from seed as well, and if you look closely you can see the tiny beans hanging from the bush...


Our neighbors have some pretty enviable crops as well...



Word on the "street" is that there's a ground squirrel problem. We noticed some nibbling on the edges of our cabbage, but for now we're satisfied that they haven't feasted on our other crops. Once more things are ready to be picked, we'll be looking for more ways to get the most from our harvest (making spaghetti sauce is one idea). Either way, local friends should prepare themselves for baskets of veggies. After all, there's only so much two people can consume :)

Posted by Kelley at 9:30 AM | 1 comments