Green Options

Like this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.

Lovin’ Fresh is a series of recipes designed to showcase produce gathered from local farms or grown in my own garden.

It’s almost here and I thought I’d better prepare all of you for it.  It’s the ying to the yang of vegetable gardening.  Those of you that are fortunate enough to have a little piece of ground to grow your own food will be very familiar with it.  And those of you that visit farmers markets and can’t resist the siren song of all those amazing late summer vegetables know it too.  Perhaps you shudder a bit just to think about it.  Or, if you’re like me, you lie in bed, eyes wide open, conjuring up ways to creatively sidestep it.  

“It” is that deluge of fresh produce that starts to haunt every corner of your kitchen, entryway, and basement, taunting you as it slowly deteriorates while you fret over and hunt out ways to use it up.  By late summer, you’ve grown a tad tired of zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, peppers, and even tomatoes.  Actually, I never tire of tomatoes, but I do get full before I can finish each new batch that comes off my prolific vines.  That’s where this recipe, appropriately named Use ‘Em Up Cold Summer Soup, comes into play.  How full of promise is that title?  Question is, does it live up to the hype?

Lovin’ Fresh is a series of recipes designed to showcase produce gathered from local farms or grown in my own garden.

Okay, I have a secret to share.  No, it’s not the formula for calculating the volume of a square container with tapered sides (a recent question in my Math for the Green Industry class), but it’s pretty shocking nonetheless.  Here it is: I’ve never made my own risotto before.  GASP!   Seriously, I haven’t.  I always squirmed at the idea of standing around and stirring the stuff for 20 minutes.  And frankly, no risotto I’d had out somewhere had ever piqued my interest enough to make the effort seem worthwhile.  No risotto, that is, until this Green Bean Risotto.

Lovin’ Fresh is a series of recipes designed to showcase produce gathered from local farms or grown in my own garden.

Gardening brings so much pleasure and beauty to my life.  I’m really pleased with how my little plot has been progressing over the past few months.  A friend who stopped by my garden the other night asked me to explain my broad sweeping goals for [...]

Lovin’ Fresh is a series of recipes designed to showcase produce gathered from local farms or grown in my own garden.

Hurry!  It’s almost over!  Like any good thing, the blueberry season is all too short, and the smart cook embraces it for all its worth while it’s here.  The same could be said about the sour cherry season, but, frankly, I’m really only in this (“this” being the making and eating of Berry Cherry Pie) for the blueberries. 

Lovin’ Fresh is a series of recipes designed to showcase produce gathered from local farms or grown in my own garden.

I bet you and your friends have a few summertime traditions. An annual 4th of July BBQ? Maybe a no-excuses-we’re-going-to-the-beach-the-same-weekend-every-year outing? Or perhaps a camping trip instead? A group of my friends, who have long scattered across several state lines and life stages (singles, newly weds, divorcees, and new parents are all among them), come together one night a summer to sit under the same tree in a big back yard, drink a lot of beer, play horseshoes and pretend for a little while that we’re still carefree and 20.

Quite frankly though, I’ve outgrown what little taste I had for a keg of lager beer. So, this year I decided I’d try a taking along the ingredients for a cocktail. Spurred by my success with the Lavender Lemon Soda recipe, I thought I’d try another simple syrup infused with a fresh herb that would add a little somethin’-somethin’ to my cocktail. The rosemary plants in my garden called out to me immediately.

Lovin’ Fresh is a series of recipes designed to showcase produce gathered from local farms or grown in my own garden.  

No matter how much I enjoy them, I always feel a little strange about eating dandelion greens.  It’s also strange to think about somebody purposely growing dandelions, don’t you think?  But the truth is, they’re mighty tasty, in that slightly bitter way. 

The urban farm I volunteer on is growing dandelions for the first time this year, and the large bunch I brought home with me landed on the counter next to the mesh bag of baby red potatoes I’d just picked up at the store.  Fate would have these two ingredients married together over the course of the next hour into a hearty warm salad, one of those concoctions where I raided the fridge and threw in whatever seemed viable, including some chicory from the farm too.

The roots of the “Life is just a bowl of cherries” proverb go back to a song from the 1930’s of the same name with the opening lyric: ” Life is just a bowl of cherries; Don’t make it serious; Life’s too mysterious.” A good reminder for me during peak cherry season — to remember to stop, savor and enjoy the cherries– especially when they are transformed into pie form.

Cherries, especially during this peak summer season, remind us to step back and relish the moment — something I definitely need reminding of as I continually journey toward eating more consciously and sustainably. Fresh sour cherries are here — then they’re gone till next year. Relax, eat and enjoy. This recipe blends sour cream with the tart bite of sour cherries, resulting in a creamy juxtaposition of flavors. Best eaten cold and within a day of baking.

Lovin’ Fresh is a series of recipes designed to showcase produce gathered from local farms or grown in my own garden.  

I’m really putting my lavender plants to work already this summer.  First a bubbly lavender lemonade, and now lavender scented ice cream!  I’m running to catch up to the bandwagon here, flagging it down like a speeding city bus.   Many folks have long been touting how sublime the marriage of lavender and cream is.  But I hadn’t bought into it until this batch of ice cream.   

Lovin’ Fresh is a series of recipes designed to showcase produce gathered from local farms or grown in my own garden.  

We’re in full swing with the growing season in the mid-Atlantic region.  I certainly enjoy all the fresh produce spilling out of my garden, but none tickle my taste buds quite so much as Swiss chard and sorrel.  For those of you not familiar with these delightful greens, here’s a little primer that should get you well on your way to enjoying both!

Lovin’ Fresh is a series of recipes designed to showcase produce gathered from local farms or grown in my own garden. 

“Hot. So very hot.”  These words, or some variation of them, echo through my head at least a dozen times a day now that summer is officially here.  Interspersed among them are a sundry of other fleeting thoughts, most prevalent among them being, “Is it lunchtime yet?”   You see, laboring as I do outside so much of the day in my horticulture work, I tend to quickly get a little parched and hungry.  Concocting refreshing icy beverages has become a priority.

This desperation for refreshment brings us to a truly revitalizing Lavender Lemon Soda that is the ideal remedy for a sweaty brow.  It is downright cleansing with its effervescent flavors. I have been intrigued by herbal sodas since last summer when I had one at a local café, but I surprised even myself with how tasty this particular combination turned out to be.  

Lovin’ Fresh is a series of recipes
designed to showcase produce gathered
from local farms or grown in my own garden.  

With the rising costs of food (and everything else to boot), I’m sure I’m not the only one who has vowed to be more frugal with menus by using up what’s already in the fridge before heading to the market.  To this I say, “here, here!!”   That was until I started looking around my own fridge and realized I should have taken on this resolution about four months ago - moldy cheese, sad-looking shriveled carrots, and dried out halves of onions that I was sure I’d use up the next day but forgot all about and ended up cutting a fresh onion.   Frugal I am not.

Instead, those bright and shiny new bunch of beets I’d plucked from the farmer’s market immediately caught my attention.  I know I had opened the fridge with the intention of salvaging something that might otherwise go to waste, but as it was, I thought I’d give the beets a chance before they too shriveled up in the crisper drawer.  After all, the spring beet season is fast drawing to a close.