Veggie Tale
Friday night I hopped in the car with every intention of going peach picking with a friend of mine. We’d planned on taking the kids, but not knowing what to expect at this orchard, we decided to go it alone the first time. Well we got sorta lost but we made it. Turns out the peaches were gone–over. The guy told me this, and I think my eyes bugged out. OVER?? I’ve barely had a good peach yet (they were California), and here they’re already over? Evidently they started mid-May. Who knew.
So no peaches and no blackberry picking Friday night, and the cantalopes weren’t ready yet. That left vegetables.
My friend was thrilled; me, not so much. Now I personally love vegetables, but I’m the only one in my family. So basically, once I get the coveted fresh veggies, I’m not so sure what to do with them. How many vine-ripened tomatoes can I actually eat??? I don’t have a spaghetti sauce recipe, and I’ve never made my own sauce (guess what–my family’s favorite is Ragu Traditional). Then there’s the bell peppers, the jalepenos, the tomatillos and yellow summer squash. While I loved seeing all those beautiful vegetables growing in carefully tended rows, I barely came home with any of them. Although, admittedly, the ones I did bring home have been delicious–tasting warmly of summer.
The pick-your-own herb garden was a lovely stop as well. The usual suspects were available, as well as some plants I’d never seen, cooked with, or even heard of…there was a whole section of the garden for scented geraniums: pineapple, passion fruit, and chocolate mint. There was lemon grass and bay leaves, spearment, and cilantro.
A bit of my haul…
And we enjoyed it all at twilight on a beautiful, breezy Texas evening, kid-free.
Simply lovely.
06/23/2009 at 3:22 am
Ah, an evening away from the kids. Every now and then, it's a nice break.
I hope your exploration into organic and exotic fruits and veggies is fruitful (ha ha, see that? Fruit pun). I want to start doing that when I'm out of college. As it is, my cooking is very limited, as we're not even allowed hot plates at our dorm, but maybe I can work my magic in the community kitchen a time or two.
06/23/2009 at 6:42 am
Are you into freezing?
06/23/2009 at 12:05 pm
I'm like you – if they're not from the store, I kind of stare at the veggies..
Sounds like a nice time.
06/23/2009 at 3:34 pm
I've been looking everywhere for tomatillos so I can make tomatillo cause but it's counterproductive because I don't know what it looks like. This is also why I've never cooked with chickpeas.
07/14/2009 at 2:03 pm
jason's mom has a HUGE veggie garden–i've picked everything from cucumbers to asparagus to squash to corn!