Pesto and Tomatoes and Collard Greens

Our garden is doing well, despite just emerging from the driest May on record. This weekend, I pulled out the peas, broccoli and romaine lettuce, since they had all finished producing and were just providing food for bugs. The broccoli and romaine remains went into the compost bin to enrich the mix for next year. Removing them also gives us some space to plant ... well, something else. I haven't yet figured out what exactly. Maybe lettuce for fall. Anyway, the rest of the garden is still doing well. For the first time, our carrots are actually growing and are edible. The tomatoes are starting to ripen - there have been 4 ripe Early Girls so far - one eaten by a worm or something, one stolen from the deck, and two eaten by us. The Arkansas Traveler heirlooms are doing nicely, and we should have a couple of those ready by the weekend. We should have tomatoes for at least a month, hopefully two or three (a girl can hope, anyway).

Last night for dinner, we had one of our favorite wraps - Caribbean Beans and Greens, which is basically black beans and Collard Greens with rice, in a tortilla. The greens all came from the garden, and we left plenty for later. While we were harvesting the greens, I noticed that most of the basil was starting to set flowers, so I trimmed all the plants back. When I got it inside, I realized I had enough basil in hand to make a batch of pesto. So I did. We'll probably have that for dinner Friday or Saturday. Yum.

In addition to all the berries - strawberries (which are just about finished for the year), blueberries, and blackberries, our farmer's market has had peaches available for the last couple of weeks, so I have been eating quite a few of those as well. They are not freestone peaches, alas, since those come later in the summer, so I can't dehydrate them or can them, but I can definitely eat them. Plain, or with yogurt, or in a smoothie, or in a fruit salad, or baked up with blackberries into a lovely cobbler... I don't know if I will get any peaches dried or canned this year, since the freestones come ready about the same time I will be adjusting to motherhood and sleeplessness, but you never know. I hope I do, since peaches in the winter are a wonderful way to break the gloom of a December day.