Lazy summer days in the garden

It has been a lazy summer, we are staying mostly home and we are enjoying our garden as much as we can. I try to find a little time to work on the garden in the evening after work and after the little one goes to bed.

We are harvesting beautiful and delicious tomatoes. For lunch I made myself a fresh tomato salad with basil just a little bit of olive oil. It was perfect. 

Let me show you in pictures how days are here in our Philadelphia backyard. 

Tomatoes

Pretty zinnias

Giant sunflowers

We had a lot of concord grapes

A mix in our planters

Hollihocks

Bird bath and a garden fairy

Garden fairy 

The last of our peaches. We had so much I wasn't ready. I mostly ate them fresh and baked a couple crumbles ( mixed with blackberries ... delicious )

What about you ?

What is happening in your gardens ?

Summer Berries - cheesecake popsicle recipe !

I am glad to sit and take the time to write here. Life has been busy as it should be, but I was missing sharing my garden with you. In July I love to see the different berries maturing, we have black currants, raspberries and blackberries. Every day I can pick some for Chloe ( my 18 month old baby girl) and I collect extra to prepare some yummy treats like these popsicles for which I am about to share the recipe with you. 

It's really quick to prepare, just think that it has to sit in your freezer a minimum of 5 hours.

I harvested a bunch of different berries for this recipe but feel free to adjust quantities if you want to make more.

Summer Berries Cheesecake Popsicles

You will need: 

- 1 1/2  package of regular cream cheese

- 3/4 cup milk ( I used whole milk )

- 1/2 cup powdered sugar

- 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

- 2 cups fresh or frozen berries ( I used a mix of blackberries, raspberries and blackcurrants from my garden)

In a food processor mix the berries together to obtain a thick juice, leave some chunks if you like, it could also be very smooth. 

Reserve the berry juice in the fridge and in a food processor or blender mix the cream cheese, milk, sugar and vanilla extract. 

Then you can start to fill your popsicle molds, I used Solo shot glass cups and mini popsicle sticks so I could make so many of them...

First fill it with the berries and then add the cream. You can also add some graham crackers like in this recipe.

Fresh blackberries and raspberries 

I like that the berries and cream are mixing together, these popsicles are so cute and so yummy !

I like to share these tiny treats with friends...

Enjoy !

A little tour in the garden and a mint syrup recipe

 The garden is growing so much, we had our first eggplants, tomatoes, raspberries, and black currants. The plants grow fast and every week there is a new plant we could use in our cooking or to preserve. 

It's a question of good timing and make time for it. 

I wanted to give you a little tour of the garden. The flowers, it's such a delight to smell the roses, honeysuckle, and lilies. I feel I am becoming more and more of a flower collector. 

I like that we grow vegetables and fruits and have flowers in such a small space. It is a challenge to make space for all of the plants, we need to be creative. 

The hollihocks are doing so good, I brought the seeds from France, they come from my parents yard. 

The honeysuckle. ( See I am really in the city ) 

Lilies.

Some kale, we do eat a lot of it...

First beets are almost ready !

A potted tomato on top of the chicken coop.

Roses

And so much mint !

We dry some of the mint but this year I made some mint syrup !

Here is the recipe.

Mint Syrup Recipe 

- 4 big bowls of mint leaves washed 

- 4 cups of water

- 4 cups of sugar 

In a large bowl add the fresh mint leaves, add the boiling water over the leaves and cover for 24 hours.

Filter the liquid you obtained, add the sugar and cook in a large sauce pan for an hour. ( on high first then on low )

Let the syrup cool and store in a bottle.

Keep it in your fridge. 

Enjoy your syrup in a cocktail, or just with sparkling water ( or not ) and a lot of ice. 

It's very sweet so you really just need a little bit, it's fresh and delicious on a hot summer day! 

Borage pesto

Our borage is doing so well, our friends Kelly and Austin gave us a couple plants and they came back spreading a lot of mini ones around... We keep only a couple plants. I love the true blue flowers and the plant (leaves and flowers) is edible. 

You can eat the leaves in a salad or dried in herbal teas. 

The feel of the leaves is a little prickly so I don't use it in salads but here is a great way to use it, in pesto !

Borage pesto

You will need :

-2 cups fresh borage leaves, mixed with kale leaves.

-1/2 cup freshly grated grana padano or Parmesan-Reggiano cheese (about 2 ounces)

-1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

-1/3 cup chopped almonds (can sub chopped walnuts)

-3 garlic cloves, minced.

-Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Mix the ingredients in a food processor ( except the cheese ) together until creamy. 

( add more olive oil if needed )  

Add the cheese when the pesto is well mixed. 

Enjoy !

Promising summer fruits, blackberries, peaches and for now strawberries !

Our garden enjoyed the last heavy rain we had here in Philadelphia. The kale is so happy.

The last few weeks we have been struggling with a sick chicken, an eye infection. I had to give all of them some antibiotics. It seems that she is doing good now, but her eye is still closed. I will apply some antibiotic ointment on her eye. Having chickens can seem tempting and fun. It is, but it's also a lot of work. If anyone has suggestion to help my chicken. Thanks !

This week I wanted to share what's happening in our backyard. 

Clematis is in bloom

Some promising blackberries

The first strawberries ! I love strawberries.

I started to add some links in our resources. Check it out !

The strawberry roll looks delicious and amazing...

The peach tree is so happy ! So many peaches ... 

Check the resources I shared a peach salad recipe that I will with no doubt try.

yarrow, cosmos ...

The lilies bloom a little bit like fireworks, first it's all the yellow ones, then I forgot how they come but each color bloom at a different time.

Lettuce and pansies.

What is new in your gardens ? 

Sage flowers omelet

In our backyard a lot of flowers are in bloom. The sage is really spectacular. We do use sage a lot in our cooking but mostly leaves and in the fall we make sage sticks.

We forget that a lot of flowers are edible, and I am always tempted to add a little elegant touch to a meal with fresh flowers.  Always know from where the flowers come from if you want to use them for cooking and check here the list of edible flowers.

This week I share with you a simple idea of a pretty and tasty breakfast, an omelet with sage flowers. 

It's very simple. Beat the eggs together until you see a lot of bubbles on the surface. Add salt and pepper. 

Slice finely sage leaves and add them to the eggs, along with the flowers you washed before hand and mix it together. 

Be mindful of how much sage you put in, it has a strong flavor.

I like to cook an omelet on a not sticking pan, a little bit like a crepe or pancake. I like it brownish on the outside but not too cooked inside. For that I wait the omelet is hard enough to be folded in two and I don't let it cook for too long. Adjust it to the way you like your omelet and enjoy ! 

Dandelions: Part 1

Dandelions are one of the most recognizable plants throughout the world.  A hardy perennial that are well-established growers worldwide, dandelions have deep roots and grow throughout the year in many climates.

I've seen various ways to get rid of dandelions - pouring boiling water at the roots, pouring vinegar at the roots, burning them with a blow torch-  but I have my preferred method.  I've noticed that big, fat earthworms love living around the roots of dandelions, and since I perfer not to harm the worms, I don't use any of the above methods.  When I need to get rid of dandelions, I've learned that hand pulling each one is the best method.  The tricks are to get as much of the root as possible, pull them when they are young, and pull them before they go to seed and spread.

There are lots of tools available specifically for dandelion removal.  I use a sturdy trowel or my trusty Dewit weeding tool.

 After finding the weed you'd like to pull, isolate the top of the taproot, where the root top is flush with the ground. 

Insert your trowel or weeding tool right next to the rood.

Push straight down, or slightly away from the plant.  If you push down in toward the root, you may cut through and break the root, making it harder to remove the entire root system.

Once you're down several inches, start to gently loosen the root system.

Ideally, you will remove the entire taproot, with the veins and all.  And no harm done to the happy worms!

Join me next week while I share a medicinal way to use the roots.