eating homegrown a.k.a gardening 2011 – part 4
Our balcony is overflowing with green and it changes so rapidly all the time that I barely get a chance to photograph it all!
The peas and beans and strawberries are done for the year but the melons and zucchini and cucumbers fill every available space with pretty yellow flowers.
The big surprise success have been the sugar snap peas. Boy, were those delicious! I have never been a big fan of peas but there really is nothing comparable to the taste of a freshly picked sugar snap pea, their sweetness is out of this world!
We will definitely be growing 3 times as many next year.
A big motivation for growing a balcony garden this year has been that we want to eat better and fresher. And we find that we do which is a bit of a surprise to us. We don’t so much try fancy new recipes but we tweak the simple dishes we know with homegrown produce. The snap peas we ate raw or cooked with pasta and parmesan cheese. Topped with fresh italian parsley it makes a simple dish a delight.
The addition of fresh herbs makes a lot of difference I find and we are trying out lots of new things this year. My favourite to look at and smell is this real italian peppermint plant, brought all the way from southern Italy by a friend whose family is from there. Even just brushing against it the scent is intense and wonderful. It’s a perennial too so we will have lots of peppermint in the years to come :)
The zucchini plant has all but succeeded in taking over the whole balcony, it’s that huge!
We ate the first giant zucchini last weekend, putting it in the oven with some tomatoes, onion, garlic and topped with cheese…yum!
And last but not least, all the tomatoes are carrying fruits and while it will be a couple of weeks still until they are ready they are just gorgeous to look at!
I’ll try to get a full balcony shot in the next couple of days, after I get it cleaned up a bit. Right now it’s a bit of a mess, due to having been sick followed by a couple of pretty hectic days at work. But another long weekend has just started over here and I have next week off, so plenty of time for gardening and other stuff.
Wishing you all a great weekend!
tidytipsy.photography 
what a bountiful balcony garden! there is nothing like fresh herbs. Lovely photos.
Thank you! Yep, fresh herbs can make all the difference to a dish!
wow, it also looks like balcony gardening means your garden is way ahead! we don’t have any real produce yet from the garden, aside from strawberries, herbs and a bit of salad. but tonight, the first broccoli! :-)
Julie, I guess a balcony is a little more sheltered than a ground garden. Also you are a good bit farther north than us! How was the broccoli? I bet once your garden gets going mine is not going to hold up well in comparison :))
Great! So glad to see your garden doing great. It is hard to capture in pictures. So much going on and before long it’s on to the next veggie or fruit. Love that zuke dish! Yum! We had some zucchini last night – sliced real thin covered with garlic oil (hubby made from our garlic) and put on the grill. Yum!
Thanks Lynda! I know, it changes so so quickly. That zucchini dish the way you prepared it sounds so good, I think we’ll try that with the next one (it’s already growing fast, should be ready in a couple of days).
Looks great!! Now I’m hungry :)
Haha, I’d say off to the next farmer’s market :)