My husband Grant and I decided to try a summer CSA last year.  We would pick up weekly boxes of fresh vegetables every Sunday from the Dog Mountain Farms’ stall at the Capitol Hill Farmer’s Market.  To end the summer, we attended a farm dinner at Dog Mountain Farms in Carnation, WA.  We sat in the field amongst fruit trees and rows of vegetables and enjoyed a delicious five course meal.  The most memorable dish was the dessert, a berry panna cotta. 

The panna cotta was wonderful but what was most surprising was the basil infused whipped cream that was served with the dish.  The whipped cream had a clean sweet flavor that was so refreshing on a hot summer day.  So when we had leftover basil after making pesto this weekend, Grant decided we should make a basil ice cream.  It would be the perfect accompaniment to the apricot, cherry and blueberry galettes I was making for a dinner party Sunday night.

We were inspired by a recipe in Gourmet magazine however the recipe calls for pureeing the basil into the cream.  I didn’t think a green ice cream would look ideal with the galettes so we opted to strain the basil leaves out of the cream before putting the mixture in the ice cream machine.  The result was a crisp take on a vanilla ice cream with a surprising bite that would be perfect for any fruit or shortbread dessert. 

Basil Ice Cream

What you will need…

2 cups whole milk

1 cup basil leaves

½ cup sugar

Pinch of Salt

4 large egg yolks

½ cup well-chilled heavy cream 

Heat milk, basil and ¼ cup sugar, with a pinch of salt, in a heavy saucepan.  Bring to a boil stirring constantly.  Once the mixture comes to a boil, remove from the heat and let steep for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes, pour the mixture through a strainer to remove the basil leaves.

With a hand-held mixer, beat the yolks and remaining ¼ cup sugar in a bowl until thick and pale (about 1 minute).  Add the milk mixture in a slow stream and beat until combined.  Pour mixture into a clean saucepan and cook over moderate heat.  Be sure to stir constantly.  The mixture will begin to thicken and is ready when it coats the back of a wooden spoon – this will take around 6 minutes of stirring.  Do not let the mixture come to a boil. 

Remove from the heat and poor in to a small bowl.  Place the bowl in a larger bowl of ice water and stir until cold, around 12 minutes.  (I recommend making the ice bath before you cook the custard over the stove – the custard will cook quickly and, if you don’t cool it down immediately, you risk curdling the mixture).

Stir in the cream and freeze in the ice cream maker.  Once frozen, place the ice cream in an airtight container and put in the freezer to harden for at least 2 hours before serving.  Enjoy! 

I bake a lot of bread at home and after lots of trial and error baking in our electric oven I feel like I can turn out some pretty good loaves. But I’ve always dreamed of having a wood-fired earthen oven like those that have traditionally been used to bake bread. A few years ago I read a book on how to build them and learned that it really wasn’t that hard to do. So, being the die-hard DIY guy that I am, I resolved to build one in our backyard.

It took another year or so for the project to come together. Justine deserves a lot of credit for enduring the growing stockpiles of broken concrete, sand, brick, etc. that occupied the end of our driveway during that time! Finally, last spring I found I had on hand most of the materials needed and was able to get hold of the rest for cheap or free. Over a few weeks of on and off work we built a working oven for less than $100.

We built ours out of urbanite (broken up concrete), sand, bricks, and potter’s clay. The urbanite came from another DIY project in our front yard where we replaced the old cement walkway with a flagstone path and patio. The clay was waste clay that came from a potter friend’s studio. If the soil in your yard has enough clay content you can even use it. The needed materials can often be found for free if you look around a bit.

The oven was the most satisfying building experience I’ve ever had! There’s just something about working with clay that feels good. Baking with it has been equally a pleasure. The golden crusty loaves of bread it produces are delicious. I bake them in large batches and freeze them or give them to friends. And the pizza it produces is amazing too! There’s nothing quite like having a pizza party in your backyard with friends around a glowing oven on a summer evening.

So what is an earthen oven – also called a cob or clay oven? It’s basically an above ground hole-in-the-ground built of a hardened mixture of sand and clay. One of the oldest ways of cooking food is to dig a hole, build a fire in it, and then put food to bake in the hole after the fire has died down – think pit barbecue or clambake. The heat from the fire is absorbed into the earth and then radiated back into the food evenly until the cooking is done.

Earthen ovens hold and deliver heat for a long time – mine is still warm the day after firing! One of the best things about cooking in them is the steady, even heat they deliver. There’s no cycling of temperatures like in electric ovens and the heat is delivered to the food from all directions making for more uniform cooking. With the one exception of pizza,  the cooking is done by residual heat with no fire at all burning in the oven.

So what can you cook in an earthen oven? Anything that you can cook in a conventional oven! There’s no temperature control knob but you can still cook at any temperature, it’s just a matter of timing. When I fire our oven it starts out around 750° F - a good temp for pizza. After the coals and ash are removed it begins to cool off and passes slowly through all temperature ranges over a period of about 20 hours. Since I’ve gotten a feel for its temperature curve I’ve been able to cook many different dishes on one firing. A typical lineup might include – from highest to lowest temperature – pizza, bread, a casserole or fruit crisp, and a pot of beans or soup. The next thing I look forward to trying is roasting a chicken!

If you are interested in building one of your own I highly recommend the book Build Your Own Earth Oven by Kiko Denzer. It does a great job of telling you exactly what you need to do. I want to encourage anyone thinking about building their own to go for it. It’s totally doable and it’s fun!

Bread Recipes

Here are two of my favorite bread recipes and you don’t need an earthen oven to make them. It’s a method of bread making that I became aware of a few years ago in which the bread is baked in a cast iron dutch oven or other heavy casserole dish. It basically simulates an earthen oven inside a conventional kitchen oven. The recipe is a little unusual in that there is no real kneading of the dough involved, but it really does make delicious bread! The extra long rise time and small amount of yeast allow for a more complex flavor to develop. Baking inside the dutch oven gives it a golden brown and delicious crust. Try it!

Off-White Bread
A simple variation on a classic. The small amount of whole-wheat flour gives a little more depth of flavor and just a hint of heartiness.

Dry Ingredients:

- 2.75 cups unbleached white flour
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients

- 1.5 cup water
- ¼ teaspoon active dry yeast

•    Combine yeast and water and set aside to let the yeast hydrate
•    In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly
•    Add water/yeast to dry ingredients and mix until it forms a shaggy mass – (it doesn’t need to form a ball)
•    Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 16-18 hours. It will have bubbles visible on the surface when it’s ready.
•    Turn out the dough onto a floured surface
•    Fold over itself 3-4 times and let sit for 5 minutes
•    Shape into a ball working all the seams onto the side that will be the bottom
•    Place ball on a sheet of parchment paper that’s been  dusted with cornmeal. Dust the top of the loaf with cornmeal and cover with a towel to rise for 2 hours
•    Preheat the oven and with dutch oven or ceramic casserole to 450 degrees
•    Just before loading into the oven slash a cross in the top of the dough with a very sharp knife or razor blade
•    If necessary trim the parchment paper so that’s just larger than the risen dough. Then, using the paper to lift, place the dough with the paper still underneath into the pan.  Put on the lid and place in the oven.
•    Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on
•    Remove the lid and carefully pull the parchment paper from under the loaf. It’s hot! Put back in the oven with the lid off for between 5-10 minutes until the crust is well browned
•    Remove bread from pan and let cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing, the inside continues to cook after it comes out of the oven and the bread needs this time to finish.

Whole Wheat Walnut Bread
This is our favorite bread. The extra seeds and grains make it downright hearty and the natural oil in the walnuts make it a more moist bread that also stays fresh longer.

Dry Ingredients:

- 2.5 cups unbleached white flour
- ½ cup whole wheat flour
- 1/3  cup broken up walnut pieces
*¼ bulgur (cracked wheat)
*1/8 cup flax seed
*1/8 cup sunflower seed
- 2 teaspoon salt

*approximate amount and optional

Wet Ingredients

- 1.5 cup water
- ¼ teaspoon active dry yeast

Follow same steps as above recipe

Last May, I got really lucky. Right before college graduation, I was offered “my first real job” with the creative garden team at Terrain in Philadelphia. Since then, I’ve spent my post grad year opening our flagship home and garden shop, immersing myself in the organic beauty business, and planting roots in the city of brotherly love. Terrain isn’t my grandfather’s Chestnut Acre garden center that I grew up with – it’s so much more than that. (See for yourself below!)

Blooming across five acres, at Terrain you’ll discover inspiring plants, a home store filled with artifacts from around the globe, a locavore greenhouse café, a weekly farmer’s market, and a natural wellness space. The next time you’re in Philly – or on the east coast for that matter – I insist you spend an afternoon in our garden or at one of our weekend events.  You’ll surely be inspired to plant a piece of Terrain at your own home!

Instead of a recipe, I’ll leave you a beauty remedy:
One of my favorite perks about my job for Terrain’s wellness space is researching organic beauty trends, talking to eco-savvy entrepreneurs, and testing out their all-natural products.  In the past year, so many green beauty products have made appearances in my bath cabinets, soap dishes, and vanity drawers.  Below see three of my favorite choices for green garden skincare that will keep your tired-from-harvesting-season fingers, nail beds, palms, and face as fresh as they were at start of planting season.

Before you head out to weed, prune, and pick:
Beekman 1802 Bug Repellant Bars

Do a quick rinse with Beekman 1802’s Bug Repellant Bars. Made with pure goat’s milk from the Beekman farm, and naturally scented with citronella, eucalyptus, and other essential oils, this chemical-free soap can be used on your entire body.  Sensitive to the smell of citronella? Instead take one of the small soap squares and press it to just your pulse points to keep bugs at bay all day in the garden!

After a long day of potting and planting:
Saipua Gardener’s Soap

This Saipua bar was made for a true Gardener.  The cornmeal in this handcrafted soap is an effective exfoliate that will scrub away all evidence of a days-hard-work off your hands.  Unlike other soaps, this rosemary-mint scented bar won’t dry out your over-worked hands – the Shea butter replenishes moisture, while the food-grade vegetable oils protect and prepare your hands for another day in the garden.

Year-round care in the garden
Farmaesthetics Gardener To Go Box Set

Farmaesthetics was developed by the daughter of a 7^th generation farming family – all of Farmaesthetics products are 100% natural and are blended with certified organic herbs, flowers, and grains from family farms throughout America.  Inside this starter gardener kit of sustainable beauty you’ll find a Hand To Heal Salve (Made from calendula and beeswax to protect, soften, and restore your hands, elbows, cuticles, and knees), a mint fresh Lip Softener (also made with calendula and vitamin C to treat exposure to dry heat, sun, and chlorine), and lastly a Cool Aloe Mist (The aloe-based treatment will quickly relieve inflamed tissue from sun damage. Stick your bottle in the fridge for an extra burst of refreshment!)

I spent my last summer in high school as an au pair traveling the Italian countryside in a rented Peugot squeezed between two 3 year old twin boys.  Serenaded by the ‘Sesame Street’ soundtrack, we explored hidden villages outside of Italy’s most prestigious cities.  It was the first time I can remember ‘experiencing food’ as opposed to simply eating.  Despite the 3 year olds’ preference for cheerios, we enjoyed pesto outside of Genoa, eggplant parmigana near Sienna, and pasta carbonara on our way to Milan.  The dish I remember most and have been able to recreate often at home is the risotto the twins’ mother would make on the evenings we ate in to enjoy dinner outside at a picnic table surrounded by fruit trees.  

While risotto is not a dish you can prepare in a hurry, the slow stirring and simple ingredients make it a wonderful way to relax and enjoy an elegant yet comforting meal with friends and family.  I have always used butter and parmesan cheese to finish off each risotto dish however, after making Mario Batali’s mascarpone polenta a few weeks ago, I was inspired to use mascarpone cheese.  The creaminess of the cheese adds a wonderfully smooth finish to the risotto.   The meditative stirring of the rice was enough to drown the chaos of 2 twin boys back in Italy – I hope you find the dish just as relaxing and delicious!

What you will need (recipe serves 4)…

1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 White Onion, chopped

1 Cup of Arborio Risotto Rice

1 Cup Dry White Wine

3 Cans of Chicken Broth

¼ Cup of Mascarpone Cheese (this can be replaced with 1 Tablespoon of Butter and ¼ Cup of Parmesan Cheese)

2 cups of fresh cut corn*

Salt and Pepper to taste

6 leaves of basil, chopped 

* When cutting the corn off the cob, be sure to run the back of a butter knife down the bare cobs after cutting the corn into a bowl.  This will release the juices of the cob and help flavor the risotto.  You can add the juices directly to the bowl with the kernels of corn.

In a medium saucepan, pour in all 3 cans of chicken broth and warm on the stove over low heat.  Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium heat on the stove in a large pan with high sides (a Dutch oven works well for this dish).  Add the onion and sauté until translucent – around 10 minutes.  Add the risotto and stir until the risotto starts to turn translucent as well – around 5 minutes.  Be careful not to brown the onion or rice as this will ruin the perfect cream color of the dish. 

Turn the heat to high and add the wine.  Let the wine cook off and then return the heat to medium.  At this point, you will begin to pour in ladles of chicken broth, one ladle at a time.  Allow each ladle of broth to be absorbed before adding more broth.  Stir constantly.  It will take around 30 to 40 minutes for the rice to absorb all the liquid.  Once you have gone through 2/3’s of the broth, start to taste the rice.  Risotto should be served al dente – creamy but with a good bite to the rice.  It may not require all 3 cans of chicken broth.

After all the liquid has been absorbed, cook the rice, stirring constantly, until the risotto is no longer runny.  At this point, remove the risotto from the heat.  Add the mascarpone cheese and corn.  Carefully fold these ingredients in to the risotto – you don’t want to mash the risotto into a gummy paste.  Add the basil as well as salt and pepper to taste. 

Hi, my name is Justine, I was thrilled to meet Willi a few years ago while we served together on the board of Seattle Tilth. Willi is one of the first people I met in Seattle that has a passion for growing vegetables that equals my own and I love reading what she is up to on Diggin’ Food!

My husband John and I live in a small house on an average sized 5000 sq ft lot in Seattle. I mention this because when I talk about my garden people often think it’s really big, when in fact our number one challenge is dealing with limited space! However,  we have been inspired by people like Angelo Pellegrini and the Dervaes family to grow as much of our own food as possible on our little plot of land.  So for the past six years we’ve been working hard to turn our little plot into a productive edible oasis in the city.

John and I share a passion for food, but each in our own way.  I love to grow it, and he loves to create delicious meals, which makes us a good team. Together we  enjoy experimenting with gardening, cooking, foraging, and various DIY projects. Our most exciting recent project is a wood-fired clay oven that John built to bake pizza and bread. Needless to say when Willi asked us to be guest bloggers on Diggin’ Food over the next few weeks we were excited by the opportunity to share what we’re up to on our little urban homestead!

Raspberry Drinkin’ Season!

We grow raspberries in our garden and this years’ crop is particularly abundant! Sometimes we fall behind picking berries and those that were perfectly ripe yesterday are, today, overripe. The sugars in raspberries intensify when they go past their peak making them very sweet. But they begin to develop a bit of an off flavor, a little fermented, which gave us an idea…

Not wanting to waste the berries, and taking inspiration from the Italian liqueur limoncello, we thought we could try making a raspberry infused liqueur. The results have been fantastic and it’s incredibly easy to make! Served chilled with a sprig of mint on a hot summer afternoon its raspberry flavor is intense and refreshing. Or bottle it up and give as a gift!

You don’t have to grow your own raspberries to make this tasty treat. Go out and buy a flat of berries from a local farmer.  We’ve never tried it, but other berries could work too.

Raspberry Liqueur Recipe

Proportions are not super critical; you can use any amount of raspberries. The important thing is to use enough vodka to completely cover the raspberries.

What you need:

1 quart Raspberries (overripe or regular both work fine)
1 – 750ml bottle Vodka
Glass jar with lid large enough to hold berries and vodka
Fine mesh strainer

Put raspberries in the jar, add vodka, and put on the lid. Let steep for about 7 days. That’s it!

Every day or two give the jar a little swish to mix it. After a few days you will notice that the berries begin to turn whitish as their color and flavor is infused into the vodka. When the time is up pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer collecting the raspberry infused vodka in another container. Compost the raspberries.

Store in a bottle in the freezer and you will have your own homemade raspberry liqueur on hand to add to cocktails or sip by itself through the hottest days of summer.  Enjoy!

In New Jersey, we’re serious about our tomatoes. And if you live in the northern half of the great Garden State with a last name like Giannetti, Marangi, or in my family’s case, DiAgostino, the red partner to your plate of rigatoni during Sunday afternoon dinners isn’t called tomato sauce.  We’ve only ever called it red gravy – and my family has been jarring our own special recipe with ripe Jersey tomatoes for over 75 years. 

Hello there! I’m Aimee, your 22-year-old guest writer, cook-in-training, and DIY extraordinaire from New Jersey! During my senior year of college, I had the great pleasure of working for and learning from Willi Galloway and the editors at Organic Gardening as their editorial intern!  Willi helped me earn my very first national magazine byline, so when she called me to see if I wanted to share my Italian family’s garden fresh recipes, current work experience at an inspiring and unconventional garden center in Philadelphia, and traditions from growing up as the granddaughter of a landscaper I was so excited! I couldn’t think of a better post that would help introduce myself to the DigginFood community, and a post that I hope will help you get excited for your own tomato crop this season than sharing my family’s yearly September “Tomato Fest” tradition.

Everyone, no matter how old or young you are, gets assigned an important tomato job. (See photo above, 1999: My grandfather, Sonny DiAgostino, shows my brother, Justin and cousin, Jack how to stir the pot. The boys were 8 years old in that picture.  Now they’re both 17!)

This truly is an all day extravaganza. We start at my uncle’s house at 6:30 AM, and after 12 hours of slicing bushels of tomatoes, stirring extra-large pots, processing the tomatoes through the electric passer, and filling over 250 mason jars we all sit down to savor the new year’s batch of red gravy.  To an onlooker, this barebones meal of fresh cut pasta and homemade gravy may seem like nothing extraordinary, but it really is unlike any other dinner we share.  This meal marks the start to another year. Like our parents and grandparents, my cousins and I plan to teach our own children all about our Italian heritage and the DiAgostino red gravy tradition. We even promised each other not to lose our patience when our future kids want “more exciting” jobs than picking the basil leaves off of the stems, or washing the tomatoes! (The responsibilities we thought we were too grown up for). 

I realize that having a pickup truck of Jersey tomatoes delivered to your door (Especially those of you in Seattle) is unrealistic! So instead, I had my mom Patti (a truly masterful Italian cook), help translate our important tradition to the convenience of your kitchen!  I hope this red gravy recipe gives you a new exciting reason to talk to your tomato crops this summer!

If you have any questions for me (or the executive chef) please don’t hesitate to contact me! I’d love to hear how it all works out! Until next time, Mangia!

DiAgostino’s Red Gravy (Stovetop edition)
Serves 4, Pour over 1lb of fresh cut pasta

You’ll need
12 plum tomatoes
2 tablespoons of olive oil (Preferably first pressed olive oil)
1 medium onion (Diced)
5-8 garlic cloves (Chopped)
½ cup fresh basil (Whole leaves)
Salt to taste
Fresh Italian parsley to sprinkle over pasta before serving

To make our red gravy, first bring a large pot of water to a boil and add 12 plum tomatoes. Let tomatoes cook for 2 minutes or until the skin visibly starts to peel off.  Next, drain the hot tomatoes in a strainer, and use your hands to peel off all tomato skins. Put these tomatoes into a blender, and run on “high” for about 20 seconds.  In a separate deep pot, heat oil on medium heat and cook onions until they become clear.  Add the chopped garlic to the pot, and sauté for about 2 or 3 minutes more. Pour the puree tomatoes from the blender into the pot.  Add salt (to your own taste) to gravy mix.  Cook covered for 2 hours on low, or until smooth and thick.  Add whole basil leaves (from your own garden if you have it in stock!) to the simmering gravy during the last ½ hour.  Adding the basil at the end will ensure the fresh flavor of the herb doesn’t get cooked out. That’s it! Pour gravy over 1 lb of freshly cut pasta. Garnish with parsley and sprinkle with grated cheese. Serve and enjoy!

When Willi emailed my sister, Dinah, and me about the opportunity to be guest bloggers on DigginFood while she was on vacation, neither of us hesitated to say yes.  Dinah and I grew up in San Francisco and have spent time on the East Coast and in France before both settling in Seattle.  We love to cook and have been known to travel far distances in search of the perfect baked good.  

It seemed fitting, since our first entry falls on Bastille Day, to start our posts with a French recipe.   I have a bad habit of buying as many cookbooks as I do shoes which mean both my closet and kitchen shelves are overflowing.  There is a fabulous French bakery in San Francisco called Tartine.  I have made several trips there when visiting my parents and, after having dreams about their morning buns, decided to buy their cookbook.  The cookbook, which is filled with sweet and savory creations, was a natural place to start when looking for a French dessert to bake.  From there, it was an easy decision to make a clafoutis.

Clafoutis is a traditional French baked custard that you can find in almost any boulangerie in France.  The dessert uses fresh fruit and is quick and simple to make. I first discovered the dessert when I was living in Paris.  There was a neighborhood restaurant around the corner from my shoebox studio in the 7^th arrondissment.  It was run by an older couple; the husband cooked in the back room and would pass all the food through a tiny window into the restaurant where the wife would serve everyone.  The restaurant sat no more than 15 people and there were only 2 desserts on the menu – a fruit salad and a seasonal clafoutis.  Anytime I felt homesick, I would walk around the corner to the restaurant, which you could easily miss if you weren’t looking for it, and order steak frites followed by the clafoutis. 

The recipe below is taken from the Tartine cookbook.  Their recipe calls for cherries, which is traditionally how the dessert is prepared, however you can easily substitute other fruit that is in season (raspberries, apricots, pears…).  I decided to make the dish with raspberries – I couldn’t pass them up at the farmer’s market and, short on time, it was easier to use raspberries than have to pit 2 cups of cherries.  A clafoutis is a simple dessert that is easy to make and a great way to enjoy whatever fresh fruit is in season.

Bon Appétit! 

Raspberry Clafoutis (from the Tartine Cookbook)

What you will need:

2 cups whole milk

¾ cup sugar, plus ¼ cup for topping the dessert

Seeds from half a vanilla bean*

Pinch of salt

3 large eggs

1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon flour

2 cups raspberries

*You can save the vanilla pod after scraping out the seeds and put it in an airtight container covered in sugar.  After a few days, the pods will flavor the sugar to create vanilla sugar. You can use vanilla sugar on crepes, in cocktails, coffee, etc.

Preheat the oven to 425° and butter a 10-inch pie dish.

Combine the milk, ¾ cups sugar, vanilla bean, and salt in a small saucepan.  Place over medium heat and whisk until the sugar dissolves and small bubbles appear. 

While heating the milk mixture, mix one egg with the flour in a heatproof bowl.  Once mixed, add the other two eggs and whisk until smooth.  This will be a workout for your arm but it is important to whisk the mixture until it is smooth otherwise the custard will be lumpy when baked.

Once small bubbles appear around the edges of the milk mixture, take the saucepan off the heat and slowly ladle spoonfuls of the hot liquid into the egg and flour mixture.  Whisk constantly while adding the hot liquid – it is important to whisk the mixture so the eggs don’t curdle in the heat. 

Once you have mixed in all the liquid, pour the custard into the prepared baking dish and evenly distribute the raspberries throughout.  Put the baking dish in to the oven and cook for 30 to 35 minutes until the center is just set and the edges are lightly browned. 

Take the custard out of the oven and increase the oven temperature to 500°.  Sprinkle the custard evenly with the remaining ¼ cup of sugar and return the dish to the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes until the sugar caramelizes.  Watch the dish carefully at this point as the sugar will burn quickly.

Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes before enjoying.

This summer I’ve been eating lots of strawberries and soaking up the unusual amount of sunshine Mother Nature has bestowed upon Seattle. It’s been fantastic, but silly me decided I need to take a month long break. You see, I have a travel opportunity that is just too good to pass up. So even though my tomatoes are starting to ripen and my bush beans are flowering, I’m packing my bags and heading out.

But not to worry! I have recruited a cracker jack team of guest bloggers who will be posting recipes, gardening tips, and DIY projects while I’m away. You won’t even miss me, I promise.

As a send off, I’m including my recipe for Strawberry Lavender Lemonade, which tastes fantastic boozy or viriginal. You can decide what kind of mood your in when you make it:

Strawberry Lavender Lemonade
Serves 4

This recipe was inspired by the delicious strawberry lemonade that Herban Feast serves up at the West Seattle Farmer’s Market. It’s delicious and at only a dollar a cup, quite a deal. I buy some every weekend to sip while I stroll around the market.

You’ll need:
2 pints strawberries, washed, cored, and quartered (about 2  1/2 cups)
1/2 teaspoon fresh lavender blossoms
5 cups water
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (4 large lemons)

In a quart sized saucepan, stir together 1/2 cup of the sugar with 2 cups of water over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. When the sugar syrup just begins to boil, add in the strawberries and the lavender and cook, stirring often, until the strawberries soften (2 to 3 minutes). Pull from the heat and puree with an immersion blender. Place in the refrigerator to chill.

Then, mix the lemon juice with 1/2 cup sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Add 3 cups of ice cold water and give it all a good swirl with a spoon. Chill the lemonade. When you’re ready to serve, fill a large glass half way with ice, pour in 1 1/2 cups of lemonade, then stir in 1/2 cup of the strawberry puree. Garnish with sliced strawberries and a sprig of lavender.

If you want to turn the lemonade into a cocktail, pour a small shot of good vodka into the lemonade before you add the strawberry puree. The recipe also makes extra puree. I like to eat it swirled in yogurt or spooned over ice cream.

I don’t like to think of myself as a jealous person, but more than my thumb turned green when I first saw my friend Robin’s new greenhouse. I wanted to shout, “Hello, Beautiful!” when I stepped inside. She’s got watermelons, passionfruit and ripe tomatoes growing within the confines of its lovely translucent walls. And she’s started trays of kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage seedlings for fall.

My birthday is coming up next Tuesday. I don’t think I’m going to find one of these puppies in my backyard. But, hey, a girl can always dream, right?

To read more about Robin’s greenhouse and her other gardening escapades, you should definitely check out her blog GardenHelp.

This is my 150th DigginFood post! To celebrate I’m sharing two garlic scape pesto recipes. Scapes are the lovely, curvaceous flower buds that garlic plants send up in early summer. With the exception of a few lucky farmers market shoppers, practically the only people with access to these ephemeral, delicious vegetables are gardeners.

Scapes taste intensely garlicky, but their flavor is tempered with an exceptional sweet, grassy taste. They emerge in late spring—usually just before the solstice—and the flavor of both the flower bud and its curlicue stem intensifies with time. For the best flavor, and most tender stems, harvest the scapes within a few weeks of their emergence. This timing also encourages the plant to redirect its energy to enlarging the garlic bulb below ground. To harvest, I cut off the bud and about 8 to 10 inches of the stem with a sharp paring knife.

To appreciate scapes all on their own, sauté them in a little butter until they are tender and browned in a few spots. With a little more effort, you can turn them into a pesto that works beautifully when tossed with potatoes, grilled zucchini, or pasta.

Lemony Garlic Scape Pesto with Pasta and Fresh Peas
I used my grandmother’s basil pesto recipe as a jumping off  point for this pesto. My friend Mary Ann (who blogs at Idaho Gardener) also suggested adding squeeze of lime juice. I didn’t have a lime, so I used a lemon and some lemon zest instead. Oh my. The lemon’s bright citrusy flavor complements the scape’s pungent taste and the resulting pesto pairs up perfectly with English peas and pasta for a quick summertime meal.

You’ll need:
½ cup garlic scapes, finely chopped (about 8 to 10 scapes)
½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
½ cup shelled walnuts
1/3 to ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Zest and juice of ½ lemon
1 1/2 cups freshly shelled peas
Salt
8 ounces pasta (I prefer bucatini or spaghetti)

Instructions:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until it is tender but has just a bit of bite.

Meanwhile, in a food processor blend the garlic scapes, cheese, walnuts, lemon zest and juice into a smooth paste. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Then, with the blade running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Process until the olive oil is thoroughly incorporated and the pesto is smooth. Give the pesto a taste and add salt if necessary.

Place the peas in the bottom of a colander. When the pasta is ready, reserve ¼ cup of the cooking water and then drain the pasta into the colander. The heat of the water and the pasta serves to quickly blanch the peas. Pour the pasta, the peas, and about ½ cup of the pesto into a large serving bowl. Add a few tablespoons of the pasta water (it helps distribute the pesto evenly) and toss to combine.

Garlic Scape (and basil if you want it) Pesto
I was going to make a batch of plain garlic scape pesto—just scapes, cheese, a few nuts, and olive oil—but while I was out harvesting the scapes, I noticed that my basil needed to be pinched back. So, I threw it into the mix. The result? A classic basil pesto with a big garlic punch.

You’ll need:
½ cup garlic scapes, finely chopped (about 8 to 10 scapes)
½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
½ cup shelled walnuts
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon basil, finely chopped (optional)
Salt

Directions:
In a food processor blend the garlic scapes, cheese, and walnuts, into a smooth paste. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Then, with the blade running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Process until the olive oil is thoroughly incorporated and the pesto is smooth. Give the pesto a taste and add salt if necessary.

Jon makes the world’s best sandwiches. He drizzles olive oil on mini baguettes, warms them up in the oven and then stuffs the little loaves with provolone, cheddar, spicy pickled peppers and vegetables from the garden. We like to take them on picnics and to the Fremont Outdoor Movie.

He usually wraps the sandwiches up in parchment or plastic wrap, but I love the ideas of using these reusable sandwich bags from Lil’ Adi instead. The super cute cotton bags are lined with water and stain-resistant nylon and are machine washable. Brilliant!

I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July weekend. We’re headed to the beach (with a few of Jon’s sandwiches stowed in the cooler), but I’ll be back next week with recipes for garlic scape pesto and strawberry lavender lemondade.

I’ve got tomatoes! Hooray! I just noticed them while I was watering this morning. So far ‘White Currant’, ‘Black Cherry’, ‘Green Grape’, ‘Urbikany’, and ‘Principe Borghese’ have set fruit. Apparently I’m not the only one who has been enjoying all this sunshine!

I’m especially excited for ‘Green Grape’, ‘White Currant’ and ‘Black Cherry’ to ripen so I can make Pasta with Citrusy Tomatoes. It’s so good!