Harvest Time And A Bonus Recipe!!!

I'm back in Edmonton, now, and I'm finally starting to accept summer's end and the coming of fall and winter in the far, far North. This may not be Iqaluit but it's as far North as I ever go. My return to Edmonton brought a return to gardening in the Campus Community Garden, which is of course coming rapidly to an end for the season. (There's a frost warning tonight that should spell the end.) Perhaps because I know it's about to end, I've really been enjoying the last of the garden's bounty. In the last week or so, I've enjoyed cucumbers, summer squash, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, Swiss chard, and herbs from the garden. I've also participated in a massive planting that will turn into a virtual garlic farm next summer.

The summer squash and cucumbers are gone now and I will miss those sweet, fresh veggies. I don't know why, but I really like summer squash.

Swiss chard was something I tried for the first time from the garden last summer. I really enjoy the unique flavour and the virtuous knowledge that I'm eating dark, leafy greens. Last Saturday, a large crop of chard remained to be picked on the garden's farm plot. I couldn't bear to leave it there, so I took a couple of big bags home, mostly for freezing as fellow gardeners suggested. I'm not sure how that worked out, but I blanched and froze 4 good-sized packets of chard that I plan to make veggie lasagna and soup with. I also enjoyed some of the chard fresh, sauteed into a veggie mixture to top my favourite smoked chicken tortelloni from Safeway. It actually looks pretty good:

It was good, as I really like my stuffed pastas. The green flavour of the chard went well with the acidity and sweetness of garden fresh tomato and the freshness basil (from the garden of course), onion, and garlic.

Alas, we've torn up all the basil and tomatoes in an effort to avoid losing it to frost. I took a number of green tomatoes home when we ripped out the tomatoes on Saturday that looked like this:

Despite my best efforts to ripen them in my apartment, which is rather lacking in sunlight, only some of these tomatoes have ripened. The ones that have ripened have displayed the dramatic variety of what a tomato can be. With the focus on heirloom varieties in our tomato patch, I've gotten to try some rather unique specimens. The ripe colours range from reddish brown to "tomato" red to yellow. I suppose my taste buds are poorly developed because they all taste like good, sweet, slightly acidic tomatoes to me. Maybe yellow is a little more acidic than red, but I couldn't be sure. The shapes of the tomatoes range from round cherries to long "sausage" tomatoes. Even the tomato skin texture varies with one variety having not the usually smooth skin but peach-like slightly fuzzy skin.

I wanted to share my modest bounty of heirloom tomatoes with my sister, so when we cooked together today, I had her prepare this plate of tomato slices with basil and black pepper as a "salad." She was surprised that all the fruits I gave her to slice were tomatoes and even slightly afraid of the brownish one that I think she found tastiest. Here's a picture of her tomato arranging handy-work:

I think it looks awesome, Leslie has lots of patience for making things look good. I am so thankful for the opportunity to explore heirloom and unusual varieties and just vegetables I wasn't raised eating through the garden. I've met some interesting people and some real food people there too.

Even the carrots at the garden were unusual since we grew some red carrots. I cut into one fat red carrot and was surprised to find its yellow flesh:

The red carrot joined fingerling potatoes from the garden, garlic, mushrooms, and parsnip in a roasted root vegetable side to steak. It was very tasty, so I'm going to share my method.

Root Vegetable Roast

Ingredients

1 large button mushroom cut in quarters

1 medium carrot cut in large chunks

1 small parsnip cut in large chunks

4 fingerling potatoes, larger ones halved (or chunks of ordinary potatoes)

1 large garlic clove, cut in half

a few sprigs of fresh thyme, some with leaves removed, some whole

salt

black pepper

olive oil

Method

Toss the vegetables and garlic with some olive oil and thyme in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Put in an oven safe dish. Here's mine:

Roast uncovered for 50-60 minutes at 400 F, stirring once, until tender. It will serve one with a small steak and look like this:

Obviously, you could make more if you are lucky enough to have an eating companion.

It's delicious because the oven caramelizes the outsides of the vegetables while on the inside the carrots remain crisp while the potatoes get soft, creamy, and starchy inside. Those fingerling potatoes were delicious, too bad I have none left. And the garlic, oooh that soft, mild roasted garlic. It is so good.

Winter is coming, so appreciate the harvest while you can. Although you might have a lot more time than I do in the frigid North.