July Garden

 It's end of July and my garden is in it's glory! The mint is riotous, the roses are prolific and the hydrangeas are a blue symphony. I watched a hummingbird aflutter around my feeder. It went from yellow feeding tube to yellow feeding tube, and I realized it thought they were actual flowers with nectar. I was glad I had taken the trouble to keep the feeder filled and clean so that "hummy" could lunch outside my window.

The sunsets over the lake are heartbreaking and we sit and enjoy them bathed in the golden light.

Hydrangeas for my vases.

The boats rest idle by the dock after a hard day's paddle.

Blooms spilling over onto the lawn

 

Enjoy the summers of your life, winter is around the corner

 

Maria

Herbs from the garden

My mom, grandma, aunts, great-aunts they were always busy preserving. One of the wonderful results of those efforts were the dried herbs we enjoyed.

In that spirit, I have been drying my garden oregano, my mint, my lavender, rosemary and sage. This year is no different and with a big garden patch of mint, I've put a lot of it in my mint jar for the winter. Mom always made us sweet mint tea whenever we had tummy aches, and I love it's soothing qualities. Even though today I prefer the tea without sugar and I also make it hot or cold, I still enjoy my cup of mint tea.

I've had some wonderful rose-petal tea at a friend's house and I looked online for edible dried rose petals to make some and also to use in some of the middle-eastern recipes from my new favorite cookbook, Jerusalem. Somehow, I couldn't feel sure that the petals came from pesticide-free plants and that they were indeed edible.

When my fragrant roses had an abundance of blooms, I had an idea! Why not dry my own rose petals? I also could make my own rose petal preserves(which are amazing!)

Drying herbs is easy to do:

Pick the herbs and roses at their peak. Wash under a soft stream of water taking care not to crush them.

Drying oregano

Lay out on the counter or a side board some thick paper towels or kitchen towels.
Shake any water from the herbs and lay out on the towels to dry. This may take several days, especially if it's humid, like it has been around here lately. When they are completely dry, you can put your herbs in small glass jars and save for the winter months when you won't be able to get them fresh from your garden. I love knowing that the herbs I use came from my own back yard, where no pesticides or fertilizers have been used.

Always remember that dried herbs are more potent than fresh. In your recipes, use less of the dried herbs than if they were fresh.

Enjoy!

Maria

Garbanzo Beans over Fresh Mesclun Salad- Bounty from my Garden

I was raised in Cyprus at a time when people grew a lot of their food. My family grew their own olives, oranges, tangerines, lemons, plums, almonds, walnuts, herbs, chickens, my grandma had a donkey and a goat(we never ate the donkey, we rode him and grandma milked the goat). They baked their own breads, made their own halloumi cheese (you haven't lived until you eat freshly made, still warm hallouni cheese.)

They also preserved a lot of their crops. We gathered the olives, loaded them on dad's VW beetle  and took them to the mill for olive oil. Mom made walnut preserves, orange rind preserves, orangeade, lemonade, watermelon rind preserves, cherry preserves. She dried her herbs and kept them in jars for the winter. What can I say? I grew up eating a lot of preserves and olive oil and I love them!

But, I don't live in a Mediterranean climate so I only have a few things growing in my garden. Yet, those formative early years have made me a person who loves to garden and bake.

This week, it's lunch with salad greens from my garden:. I picked them, double washed them, dried them and ate them!

Serves 2
1 can garbanzo(chickpeas)beans drained
1 tablespoon chopped onion
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
juice of one lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups mesclun greens
1 orange  peeled and cut into 8 pieces
4 tablespoons sautéed wild mushrooms
4 anchovy fillets

Place the garbanzo beans in a bowl. Add the onion, parsley, lemon juice and olive oil. Mix.
Divide the mesclun greens between two plates.
Top with half each garbanzo mixture. To that add half each of the sautéed mushrooms. Divide orange pieces between the two plates. Place two anchovies on each plate on top.
Grind some fresh pepper and sea salt, drizzle with good Greek extra virgin olive oil (I use Kalamata from Trader Joe's) and serve with some hearty multigrain bread.

 

Kali Orexi as they say in Greece and Cyprus!
Enjoy!
Maria