In the northeast, strawberry season begins in June, and if you’re lucky, lasts through August. I’ve always been envious of those who live in warmer climates and can simply garden year-round and make a recipe like this strawberry chocolate chip sorbet whenever they want. I love having four seasons, but that still sounds like utopia to me!
Do you remember being a kid and hating vegetables? I don’t think any child was exempt from the green bean gag reflex, and canned vegetables were purely to blame. For decades, kids were brought up on mushy watery veggies in cans that might have been on the shelf longer than they were alive. The lie that veggies were gross was carried from generation to generation for most families…except by those with gardens. Trust me, this recipe for cold roasted vegetables is entirely different! The veggies in this recipe are crisp, seasoned, and full of flavor!
In the days before I knew the best way to freeze fruit and berries, I put around five pounds of fresh blueberries in my freezer. We had gone blueberry picking, and they were so perfectly plump and ripe that in seemingly no time, there were more blueberries than I knew what to do with.
The end of summer signals the beginning of tomato season! So many delicious tomato recipes. And consider canning tomatoes if you have an abundance. But for now, celebrate the fruits (yes fruits) of your labor and the fact that you’ve made it to harvest season. You can’t wait to get your hands on some heirloom tomatoes. Or maybe you’re like me and enjoy a post-gardening snack on homegrown cherry tomatoes. But something is wrong with your harvest this year. What are those splotches on the bottom of your tomatoes? Is it a pest? Is it a fungus? No, it’s tomato blossom end rot!
One of the best things you can do for your kids is to help them start a business. Even a simple lemonade stand teaches them leadership skills, social skills, how to manage money, and boosts their self-esteem. This year a good friend of ours launched a kid’s entrepreneur fair. The idea was that kids would come up with a small business idea, and sell at their own booth.
Green beans are such a delight to have in the garden. They don’t require a ton of sun to grow, pole beans can double as decoration on a trellis, and in terms of a side dish for dinner, they’re one of my favorites. Probably because they go so well with my other two favorite ingredients: lemon and garlic. And this roasted lemon-garlic green beans recipe is so easy to make—especially necessary when you have a heaping portion of green beans harvested—that it’ll become a weeknight staple in no time!
Did you ever think you’d be looking at a green juice recipe for kids? What’s wrong with the “purple stuff” we all grew up on, huh? Let’s talk about it.
Picture this. You’re in your shed organizing your garden tools and you come across a few rogue seed packets. Were those from this year? Maybe the year before. Are these the ones that your cousin’s neighbor’s brother passed along during a seed swap? Or the ones you bought from a big box store? If only there was a way to test seed viability. Lucky for us all, there are several ways to test if seeds are still good.
If you ever wanted to play Russian Roulette with peppers, Shishito can be a bit of fun, my fellow daredevil. One in 10 Shishito peppers are hot while the others are barely hotter than bell peppers. They range from 50 – 200 Scoville Heat Units on the Scoville Scale, with 200 being more like pepperoncini, so still not Jalapeno level. They say the peppers that get the most sun are the ones that get the hottest.
There’s nothing better than fresh parsley from the garden. Not only does it taste exquisite, but it also saves you a pretty penny instead of buying it fresh from the grocery store. Garden fresh herbs will always be my preference when cooking, but what happens if you grow them faster than you can use them? There are different ways of preserving parsley and other herbs that allow you to enjoy homegrown herbs days, weeks, and even months after leaving your garden.
