Garden Update: The Salad Days

It turns out that idiom is the name of a blog about Swedish Hip Hop. Click Here for link

I am merely intending to refer to the days when things are fresh and new, wonderful, and you know, you have salad. The harvest from our little garden, and the berry bushes that were here when we moved in are coming in. So of course I am going to blog about it!

June 10th

July 2nd July 15th

July 31st

I picked kilos and kilos of red and black currants, and red and green gooseberries from our yard. I am embarassed to say I let some good berries go to waste, wit hall this sight seeing we have been doing all the currants were not picked in time. The upside, the ones i got last are the ripest, sweetest yummiest they can be. the bad side, there are a number on the ground and I hate to waste a good berry. I mostly stuck them in the freezer, to deal with when Swedegirl is in school. No time for learning all about canning now! Maybe we will just use small batches if jelly straight from the freezer that do not need canning. Our favorite use of the berries so far? We invented "Svengria"- sangria with Swedish yard fruits. White wine, elder flower saft (juice), and whatever berries you have growing in your yard- red currants, black currants, gooseberries, raspberries....I have been using the frozen ones so they add the bonus of making it nice and cold. I also add a splash of pomegranate juice from the middle eastern aisle, because that stuff makes everything divine. YUM. Good with out the wine, too, says SwedeDaddy, the kids,and the pregnant ones. As far as the Zukes go, well, Zuke Alors!! We are getting this many every few days from our three plants. The yellow squash are just taking hold now, no idea why. That's fine, more summer squash to come.

Our favorite use of the zukes- make them match sticks in this nifty Williams Sonoma veggie chopper my mom got me. Add a dash of salt, olive oil, lemon, and fresh basil. Lovely. Second favorite use, we cut them in spears, and put them in the Santa Maria grill oil, which is an all purpose chili oil marinade and BBQ them. Also yum. We got about three berries off the strawberries, since the plants were eaten twice by the deer before we got the deer fence up. But they are making a bunch of runners so they will make up for it next year, I hope.

We also have tons of wild blackberries I am looking forward to eating. The first ones just came in, and they are always the biggest and sweetest! Sweet sun warmed blackberries with a bit of brie cheese is heaven.

Feed 'em right and they grow like weeds.