Back to the Garden

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

The Garden!

Oh, the poor little garden has been treated like the ugly step kid this summer.

I feel like taking a two week vacation has consumed six weeks of my summer. Not exaggerating.

Between keeping work and the house in order, the garden has been slightly neglected. And, on top of everything, the two weeks we were in Europe Indiana received a record breaking amounts of rain.

Throughout the early part of July the garden was a weed jungle slash mud pit.

Now, since the rain tapered off, we have been able to get into the garden and assess the damage.

Many of our carrots and beet seedlings drowned or washed away. Our zucchini and cucumber plants were literally under water the morning we left for Europe. Today, they are pretty stunted but producing every few days… but, there won’t be a zucc bumper crop like there has been in the past.  The snap pea’s roots didn’t have to dig as deep to find water making them shallow and weak. Our green beans are in similar shape, but seem to be trying to power through.

One thing that didn’t seem to mind the rain and cooler temperatures was the lettuce.

We planted a bit of lettuce in the spring and then got some more in the ground just before we went abroad.

One of the reasons that it has been so successful is that, honestly, it is pretty easy to grow.

So long as the temperature is somewhere between 45-80 degrees, lettuce will grow fast in the sun and can also tolerate shade. You can grow it in small spaces, like containers, or even within traditional landscaping.

What is also neat about lettuce is, that if harvested correctly, it can continue to grow making the season last even longer. If cut at the base or cut around the outer edged leaving the center leaves intact, the plant will grow more leaves.

This year, we sowed a variety of lettuce like mustard, arugula, iceberg, bibb, romaine, red leaf and oak leaf giving us a great, fresh salad mix.

This is awesome because Adam and I love salad. I actually harvest a bit of lettuce almost everyday whether it’s for my lunch or for a side salad at dinner.

One thing we don’t like? Processed salad dressing.

The sugar.

The massive amounts of empty calories.

Artificial flavors and colors.

Preservatives.

Etcetera.

Etcetera.

Etcetera.

Instead, we often just use basic ingredients like red wine or balsamic vinegar with extra virgin olive oil on top of our salad.  Or, sometimes, when I find myself with an extra minute I make dressing from scratch.

Most of the time, making salad dressing is really easy.

… Many thanks to our dear friend, the food processor.

It just requires a bit of planning.

And this salad dressing? It’s worth planning for.

The flavors, reminiscent to a hibachi restaurant’s salad dressing, in this carrot and ginger dressing are bold and sweet. The thicker consistency adds dimension and a bite to this light salad.

Plus, it will make your kitchen smell amazing.

… You can thank me later.