Home Grown

Last night’s dinner included:

·         Sweet and flavorful baked potatoes freshly dug from the garden

·         Fresh, sweet, and tender edible-podded peas freshly picked from the garden

·        Squash Creole - summer squash, green peppers, onions, tomatoes - all freshly harvested except for the tomatoes which are the product of our 2011 canning season

 

·         Mouth-watering, tender, home-raised beef rib eye steak

Every mouthful was exquisite; distinct flavors and oh, so tasty!   The home grown aspect was a bonus.

As Gladys Taber wrote in Stillmeadow Kitchen (1947), “We had eight vegetables from our own garden this noon for dinner, counting the three greens in the salad.”  We, too, frequently count the number of bounty from our garden; seven at this meal. Eight if I had tossed fresh chopped parsley on the potatoes.  Nine if I added a spring of basil or tarragon or thyme to the creole.  Darn…I forgot the herbs.

 It is so gratifying to be able to grow and relish an entire meal offered by our own hands.

And, as the summer progresses, the meals only get better as vine-ripened tomatoes and cucumbers, and sweet corn are added to the mix.

And, I better not forget the herbs.