Yes, we are in the thick of it. August is that time of year when it seems all the plants have decided to give you their greatest yield....all at the same time.
Our fennel has done really well. I love slicing fennel and root veggies like sweet potatoes and carrots, drizzling olive oil over the whole happy bunch and roasting them in the oven so the outside of the veggies caramelize. You've never tasted sweeter vegetables than when you roast them. Yum!
And the 4 cherry tomato plants in the potager garden have gone nuts. Seriously. There's just no other way to describe it. The plants are so large that they have toppled one of the cages and spread out over an 8' area of the garden. I had no idea they would get so large and yield so much. Next year I need to build an arbor to attach them to so I can manage them better. And the tomatoes are just delicious.
Every time I lift a branch I find more and more of these luscious tomatoes.
This was the yield we had after picking just one day. And we can pick this many every 3-4 days!
And we also have these wonderful yellow tomatoes out in the main garden. Hmmmm, now what should I do with all of these? Well, how about roasting them?
That's exactly what I did. After cutting the larger yellow tomatoes in half, I placed parchment paper on a sheet pan, put both kinds of tomatoes and several cloves of garlic and a few sprigs of fresh thyme on the paper. All the happy veggies got drizzled with olive oil and roasted in the oven for 45 minutes. You should have been in my kitchen that day.....it smelled like Nona's Tuscan kitchen.....
Giving the veggies a quick whirr in the Cuisinart produced a chunky sauce.
I spooned the sauce into jelly jars and topped them off with a small amount of extra virgin olive oil and put the lids on and popped them into the freezer. Now, deep in the winter I can thaw out a jar, toss it with some freshly cooked pasta and grate Parmesano Reggiano cheese over the top and we'll have a taste of summer in our mouth.
I also used up some tomatoes by making a batch of salsa. Experimenting with different recipes is the theme of the month around here. Well, I had better close for now because the garden is beckoning me back out there.
Keeping my tan going,
Debbie
