For me, there is no greater time of the year in Minnesota than this fleeting height of summer. When the days start early and the sun shines long. The sun is our heartbeat, keeping us strong and well. Warm on our shoulders, twinkling in our hair, growing kid freckles and garden fruits. OH the garden fruits!
This time of year is made all the more rich because we eat from the garden.
There aren’t words for the contentment that sinks deep into my veins when we enter our veggie plot and fill our baskets with a beautiful harvest. We thank the earth, we thank God, we thank our pollinating friends (and our chicken pooping friends), we thank each other.
With a little slice, season, mix and cook, we have a meal. A meal! Right from our backyard. From those tiny seeds we put in the dirt, we have a meal. So fresh, so nourishing.
Gardening from year to year is never the same. Some prized crop will disappoint, and others will abundantly produce. I was going to say that gardening keeps our culinary creativity alive, but I realized instead, gardening forces us to have culinary creativity! Whether it be scouring your beds for a substitute in that recipe, or coming up with a new way to serve the 20th eggplant of the month.
Bon Appétit!
What are you eating from your garden?
We got started with our garden a little late and have been gone for the last 10 days. We left just as our tomatoes were going from green to yellow and our cucumbers were 2 inches long. I can’t wait to see what we have ready for harvest when we get back!
I always enjoy returning home after a few days away during the growing season. Everything grows so fast in a short time, it amazes us every time!
And the color the garden gives you helps you make it through the drab and colorless Winters here in MN? beautiful photos!
Indeed! That is one of my favorite things about preserving food – the color, smell and taste of summer in the middle of that long winter!