Picking, Making and Baking

You know how much I love gardening, and I am far from complaining. But everything is reaching its prime at the same time. The peaches, apricots, tomatoes, figs, artichokes, fennel, sorrel and soon to be apples are being harvested now.

Tomatoes

But unlike store bought produce, my homegrown fruits and vegetables don’t last days on end. They need to be utilized immediately or they decay. The windowsills are full of tomatoes and there are bowls and bowls of apricots….coupled with a recent grocery store run where someone purchased several pounds of fresh strawberries!

I don’t like wasting anything so I have been making and baking all week. I prefer to space out my food blog posts because not everyone likes to bake or cook, but this task of produce management is dominating my week. It is food triage~~the items that spoil first get the attention.

Keeping up on the picking of the cherry tomatoes is nearly impossible. The neighbors are getting bowls of them but there are still so many of these ruby gems on the plants!

We just made a huge cookie sheet of roasted cherry tomatoes with mint and garlic. It is hard to describe what the mint does to the roasted tomatoes, but it tastes nothing like mint. I did post this recipe quite some time ago and it is still one of my favorite easy appetizer recipes using cherry tomatoes.

Spread a crostini with goat cheese and top with these warm (or cold) roasted tomatoes, and it is heaven! To get the recipe and see the original post, click here. Truly, if you have cherry tomatoes, you will love this!

Apricots

The best way to consume fresh apricots is eating them right from the tree, still warm from the sun. With the others, I made an Almond Apricot Tart with Whipped Cream last night. To see this Martha Stewart recipe, click here.

The crust is made with ground almonds and the custard layer has Amaretto as one of the ingredients. I love the combination of flavors coupled with the sweet, juicy apricots.

Though the recipe does call for whipped cream, we enjoyed it sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar. Today I will need to research more apricot recipes as we still have another whole tree to pick!

Strawberries

Now onto the strawberries! So far the recipes include Strawberry Rhubarb crisp and Strawberry Rhubarb pie! I like to experiment with different pie crusts, but my latest find is the All Butter pie crust from the book, Bravetart. If your kitchen is 74 degrees or more, the pie crust becomes more challenging and is difficult to manipulate. My basketweave pattern is a little wonky because the dough became so soft. But it is delicious anyway!

If anyone has another rhubarb recipe, please share as there is still several stalks in my refrigerator.

Peaches

The peaches are winding down and as I breathe a peach sigh of relief, I want to share another recipe that I previously posted. I hadn’t made this salad in quite sometime and forgot how good it is (and easy to make). It is a combination of the wonderful flavors of peaches, tomatoes, fresh corn, feta cheese, cilantro and a honey vinaigrette. Just perfect for the summer months.

Today, I hope to make tomato sauce and pico de Gallo. I can now see why farmers need to rest over the winter.

If you are visiting from the Charming Homes & Gardens link party, welcome! There are so many talented people sharing their lovely homes, gardens and inspirational ideas. I am so happy to be a part of it!

I hope you have a day filled with hope and promise! Just a reminder, if you are not following me on Instagram, please check me out @lifeatbellaterra. I am finally learning how to do Instagram Stories! Wonders never cease!

This post shared with Pretty Things and Thursday Favorite Things