Garden to Table. Hand to Mouth.

I’ve been inspired recently by cookbooks, collections of essays, and YouTube videos that serenely demonstrate a farm-to-table, or garden-to-table lifestyle. I’m talking about the media that seems to show people wandering out into the garden or field, coming into the kitchen with lovely produce, and that’s dinner. I love it. I’d love to live it!

I’ve been gardening in my backyard with varying degrees of success for years. Even when I lived in an apartment with no yard of my own, I accumulated a collection of pots filled with dirt that at least produced fresh herbs. I come from a family of hardcore vegetable gardeners, and I just cannot escape my genetically imposed compulsion to give plants, be they be fruits, vegetables, or flowers, a good home.

This year, I’m finding myself rediscovering what it means to have enough time to manage and appreciate my outdoor spaces, and, while things may not be perfect, they are reasonably productive so far. I’m getting more and more comfortable with the possibility of saying, “Let’s go see what’s in the garden,” as a means of figuring out what’s for dinner.

 

I had quite a nice crop of radishes that also produced prodigious greens that went into a batch of a pesto like this one, and a bowl of soupy noodles like this one. The lettuces are still coming, although I’m trying to eat them before they bolt. Needless to say, we are having a bowl of salad once or twice a day, and sandwiches are getting an extra punch of green crunch. Cilantro is easy to grow, and my first planting is flowering, but I harvested more than enough to make chunky salsas like this one and garnish bowls of soup beans.

 

Up-and-comers include the peas I feel like I planted so long ago, and are finally almost ready to pick. I don’t know if I’ll have enough of them at once to make this pea and mint salad, or to add to a risotto like this one, but no matter. I’m happy to eat them straight out of the pod on my way in from the garden. I’ve also got what is fast becoming a boatload of kale – Lacinato and Red Russian varieties. I better get creative about kale in a hurry!

 

The squash plants are growing, and I’m collecting zucchini recipes like I do every year. I still love most of the recipes in this list, though, so the research is easy. Tomatoes are the hardest to wait for, and, aside from winter squash, they are the most patient with themselves. I keep an eye on them nonetheless, torturing myself with thoughts of ripe tomatoes.

Of course, there are even more seasonal wonders outside my own garden. My local farmers market and stores that focus on seasonal produce are just getting into the summer swing. Berries and stone fruits are the stars right now, and some of those berries featured well in this galette last week. The little local strawberries I found, however, did not join the blueberries and rhubarb I put in the pie. After a very wet end of winter, we had an achingly dry time the rest of the spring, so the berries were small and maybe a bit homely. Their flavors were so concentrated by the dearth of water, however, that they may have been the sweetest strawberries I’ve ever had. They were so delicious, so surprisingly overabundant with flavor that I declared them too good for the rustic mixed-up pie. We ate them all hand to mouth, one by one, with no regrets.