[gardeners] Saturday in the garden and the kitchen
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sat, 22 Jul 2000 10:34:09 -0500
Went out this morning and picked 9 more eggplant, makes 82 for the year so far
and the plants are still blooming and producing. Decided I needed to do
something with the 6 or 7 lbs of eggplant I had on hand so made a big pot of
caponata. Pot is an 8 quart capacity one and it is full to the top. Used a
couple of bags of tomatoes out of the freezer in the recipe, leaf lettuce from
the herb garden, and store bought onions, garlic, capers, and green olives, not
to mention the honey and red wine vinegar that went into it. This is about a
triple recipe from the original one and it builds up nicely.
We like the caponata because it freezes well, about the only way I have
successfully frozen anything with eggplant in it. It is also a tasty side dish
or a nice lunch dish. We like it either cold from the fridge or heated up,
probably leaning more to the taste of the cold. We also like gazpacho so that
may explain it.
Since I already have 10 quarts of the stuff in the freezer I'm giving most of
this pot away to neighbors and friends. Trying to induce them into trying
something new. Next door neighbor was in her small garden and came over with a
container. She tried a spoonful or two first and then wanted her container
filled. No problem there and there is still plenty to go around.
Arborist is supposed to come today and look at two of my oak trees to see if
they need cutting, trimming, or whatever. They were both heavily damaged in the
ice storm of January 1997 and still have some large dead limbs in them. Many of
the other trees in the neighborhood have had to come down due to damage from
that storm and from subsequent infestations of Formosa termites. Both these big
boys lean over the house so I think they may have to come out. I'm dreading the
cost but it may just need to be done regardless. The arborist has a truck
mounted crane and I watched him take down six other trees in the neighborhood
yesterday. He and his crew do very good work and are bonded and insured.
Other than it's very hot out today I don't have anything else to report. Allen
Merten, you still out there crawling around in the garden or has your garden
burned up too?
George