Summer Bounty Hunter

Well people, went to the farmers stand today and brought home more goodies. I picked up garlic scapes, top onion, fresh green beans, field cucumber, juicy ripe tomatoes, early yellow plums and Ontario peaches. Not pictured is the bag of fragrant freshly cut basil I also picked up.

Spoils of the Bounty Hunter

Can't ya just smell it?

Wondering what garlic scapes are? Here is one definition for the scholarly types and for the rest of us it is the stem of the garlic flower that must be removed for the bulbs to grow properly into the garlic we know and love. It should be a vibrant green, firm and smell divine. I was actually caught out with my head buried in the scapes by the employee. Fortunately she laughed and said she does the same thing with freshly cut dill! Oh my, dill......

For those of us following the seasonal guide in purchasing produce(if you're not, why not?), this is a wonderful opportunity to have that garlic in our meals that will tide us over until August when the bulbs are in. They have a delicious taste something like if garlic and scallions had a baby....You can use it where you would chives or scallions(young top onions) or if you find garlic bulbs too strong,(I love it but my GERD doesn't. Traitorous body!) this is a great fresh substitute. It is not an overly popular veg mainly because people don't know what to do with it but I look forward to them every year. I will be experimenting on a few recipes that are simple and yummy to prepare, like a relish maybe, and I will post them in Kitchen Journal Two. I'm staring at the picture looking from the plums and peaches over to the scapes and an idea has occurred: my mango galette tweaked... hmmm. Something to think about. I do know there is a recipe online for garlic scape pesto but I have never tried it or even looked at the recipe but google it. Let me know what you think.

Couldn't make up my mind which picture I like the best so....

Early plums and peaches

I have put up some berries already (freezer) but I will not be doing any canning this year, of fruit anyway. I am saving my energy for the millions of tomatoes I will be canning and freezing soon! It is such a fun and wonderful thing for the whole family to do and a great thing to teach your kids, so I hope you are doing a few preserving projects with them this year. I will be snapping pics through the whole process (pardon the pun) so you will be able to see what's up if you have never done this type of food preparation before. It's easy peasy, lemon squeasy as a Brit friend once said to me.

What is fresh in your neighbourhood right now? I'd love to hear from you in regards to how you prepare your fresh garden goods, especially those readers from Europe and Asia. It may not make fiscal sense for us here in NA to utilize your in-season veg (according to the philosophy of 'buy local, buy in-season' which is primarily what this blog is about) but it would still be interesting and fun to learn about it. Please feel free to share.

Have a great day today, my friends, and a terrific tomorrow!