Friday, June 24, 2011

Thank Garden It's Friday


When I look at our lavender bushes I pretend that I'm in Provence. A little bit of goat cheese, a glass of white wine, some olives, bread...how easy it is to create an entirely different world in your head with a few key ingredients!

The month of June has yielded a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but as soon as July's heat kicks in, I expect to have more photos for TGIF. The first few weeks of the month were cloudy with steady bouts of rain, averaging 55-60°F temps at midday. Not good for the buzzing pollination team so if I am certain that a female flower hasn't been pollinated (there were only females at one point), I cut off the young zukes and use them in a saute. I haven't even harvested a kilo of zucchini yet although the markets have been flooded with them.


Striped zucchini, snowpeas, shiso and peppermint.

4 comments:

Julie said...

Love the post title; ) Is that just regular ole shiso Rowena or a special variety? The leaves look huge, big enough to wrap with!

K and S said...

The zukes in Japan were plentiful and huge too. Most times they are scrawny. Looks like great gardening!

Faith said...

Mmm. Shiso in spring rolls. No zukes here in AK yet.

Rowena said...

Julie - those came from the lone volunteer plants that are scattered about the garden. They definitely love the space. The big shiso "forest" in the tulip box produce much smaller leaves.

Kat - oh wait til you see the update on the zukes! It is full-on war against those stupid field mice!

Faith - now that idea I've never heard of. Kat (above) does a shiso-pork roll with thin pork cutlet, shiso leaf then a dab of umeboshi paste. Perfect little bites. Now I want to try them in spring rolls!