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What’s Growing in the July Garden?
Sunflowers are native to North America and were taken to Europe in the 16th century; however, they date back to roughly 3,000 B.C. Honeybees love sunflowers.
Towering above the squash and lavender in my garden are rows of green corn stalks bearing ears of sweet, plump kernels. Snaking along the rows at the base of the cornstalks are vines laden with butternut squash and Armenian cucumber.
Heirloom tomatoes are flavorful and sometimes exotic looking in terms of shape and color.
There are ripe tomatoes, too, especially the prolific heirloom–Red Beefsteak. I love cutting up some of these fresh, thin-skin tomatoes and combining them with basil, olive oil, grated cheese, and pine nuts as a topping for pasta. Add some grilled, seasoned chicken and you’ve got a quick and delicious summer lunch.
Zucchini and yellow squash sport large, showy blooms and are producing like crazy this month. While you can harvest and eat the blooms, we prefer the squash. Zucchini is delicious grilled or tossed with rosemary potatoes and onions or made into a French lentil and tomato salad (see recipe from last week’s posting).
Sunflowers planted at the end of the corn rows
Growing on vines trained over a wall and on supports, the green table grapes are beginning to swell. The taste is still a little tart, but will sweeten with the passage of another couple of weeks.
Our grapes are Thompson Seedless and Merlot (the darker purple ones partially obscured)
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If you enjoy reading about farmette topics (including gardening, beekeeping, and delicious recipes), check out my cozy mysteries A BEELINE TO MURDER and also THE MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE in the Henny Penny Farmette series (from Kensington Publishing).
These novels are available through online retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo Books, and Walmart as well as from traditional bookstores everywhere.
Now available in mass market paperback, this debut novel launched the Henny Penny Farmette series of mysteries and sold out its first press run.
COMING SOON: The second cozy mystery in the Henny Penny Farmette series, available Sept. 29, 2016
Tags: basil, cheese, corn, corn stalks, garden, honeybees, lavender, merlot, oilive oil, pasta, pine nuts, rosemary, squash, sunflowers, table grapes, Tomatoes, zucchini