Wet Summer Garden
It has been unusually rainy the past two months, which means that the lettuce and spinach in the garden didn’t bolt quite as quickly as most years. All the better to eat salads like the one here: multiple kinds of heirloom lettuce, topped with a nasturtium flower. 
Nasturtiums are edible flowers, with a spicy flavor. I have a large bush of them, meaning I’m not using even half of what’s there, unfortunately. But there are many bounties of the garden that I do get to take full advantage of: sugar snap peas, herbs of all kinds, collard greens, rainbow chard, onions, radishes, tomatoes (the walls of water from the smart and generous gardener Cynthia made a huge difference – we had ripe tomatoes weeks before most people we’ve talked to), and of course the crop that is like pure gold: basil. This recipe is my standby for pesto I can eat for weeks, it’s so good. Luckily, that is exactly what I’ve been doing after the first cutting – and there are probably two more batches out of what is still growing in the garden. This was exactly the plan for this year: 1 1/2 rows of basil, planted a couple weeks apart in both seed and seedlings, ensuring a summer full of pesto. It is that rare occasion where I got exactly what I wanted. And when I carry the bags full of the basil home on my bike, I cackle like a toothless miner, ready to trade in my gold for a good meal and a good time at the saloon.
0 comments Sunday 02 Aug 2009 | m. | Crafty, Recipes