the harvest of spring

Summer just got here, may be yesterday for real. I am pretty good with heat but when it hits 100 F, I will feel it. Just before it gets too hot in Texas for green beans and tomatoes to survive in the city, I thought I will share with you what we have harvested from our garden. These green beans are growing on our front yard fence. It is so showy to passer bys and I am so proud of my husband for taking care of them. Last year, I grew some bush beans because they take shorter time, about 45 days versus 60 days.I was told though that the pole beans taste better. This year, we have both in because I really want to harvest early but then I also want to see if the pole beans are really better.

One thing I can definitely tell is that the pole beans are easier to harvest. I always missed a bean or two when harvesting bush beans. Since we have our brand new front yard fence that we put in last summer, I thought we could give it a try. I'm not sure if it's the varieties that I got, but my pole beans taste super delicious, sweeter than the bush beans and I don't have to kneel down to harvest them. I'm all about pole beans next year.





The recipe for Som Tam is in the previous post. My son loves to eat vegetables now that he can pick them off the vines from the garden. So, if you have trouble encouraging your kids to eat veggies, grow some. They will love watering, weeding, picking, and of course eating. We grow a lot of green beans, tomatoes and peppers this year and there is no better way to use them all but in this very recipe. I hope you enjoy your garden.

chocolate beet birthday cake

My boy turned three and I had some beets from Tecolote Farm at Austin Farmers' Market I searched and found this recipe and just followed it almost strictly except for the glaze that I added a little agave nectar and threw in some mint leaves to steep in the glaze while it was hot.


And of course, I added Spiderman and the Green Goblin fighting on the cake for some 3-year-old birthday excitement. It was delicious and I would make it again and again. Did I say I love summer? The farmers' markets come alive again and I have so much to work with and so much to experiment. I am searching for a good beet ice cream recipes. I came up with one but I think I just needed more beets in mine. There will be the next beet post.

peach mint ice cream

I have been enjoying the peach season here in Texas. There is no better time than now. I have been buying, picking, eating, cooking with peaches. I love them and I wish I could have them all year round. But then, I won't have anything to look forward to in May. Over the weekend, Leo and I went to pick organically grown peaches at Suzanne Santos' farm, Tierra Antingua Farm in Kyle. We got there a little later than expected but since it's summer, there was plenty of light to see those peaches.




Leo really enjoyed the peaches and the sprinkler and the dogs and the chickens and the horses and the goats. He first got all wet and then went to pick some peaches. We got about 10 pounds of them. While picking, he probably ate 15 of them or so. Between Leo and me, we probably ate half of the peaches. The rest? I made some minty peach ice cream adapting the recipe from David Lebovitz in his book, that I love, the Perfect Scoop. I got some mint from Kate Thornberry of Hungersauce and they make perfect combination. It turned out so creamy and so delicious.The recipe is below



Minty Peach Ice Cream

1 1/3 pounds peach
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 sour cream
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
a few drops of fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup mint leaves, finely chopped

peel the peaches and cut up the meat into chunks. Boil them in water over medium low heat, covered, for ten minutes. Remove from the heat and then stir in sugar and cool to room temp. Combine the peaches and the rest of the ingredients and blend it in food processor or blender. Chill the mixture in the refrigerator and freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer instructions.