{"id":555,"date":"2013-06-27T18:58:20","date_gmt":"2013-06-27T18:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenfreshveggies.com\/?p=555"},"modified":"2013-06-27T18:58:20","modified_gmt":"2013-06-27T18:58:20","slug":"summer-salads-yes-you-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/?p=555","title":{"rendered":"Summer Salads! Yes, you can!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maybe the weather has been helping us along. \u00a0(It has.) \u00a0 Or maybe the little sprinklers we fitted into the drip irrigation help keep the temps cooler and the bugs at bay. (Which they do.) \u00a0Or maybe the sunflowers we planted here and there for shade are doing their job. \u00a0 Whatever the case, this year’s garden is still bringing us fresh sweet salad fixins.\u00a0I added a little cranberry goat cheese and some fresh berries, topped with just a splash of orange basalmic. \u00a0What a treat!<\/p>\n

\"Beautiful<\/a><\/p>\n

Or maybe we’ve been lucky in finding some lettuce varieties that are more Texas friendly. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

This particular salad has a mix of sweet buttercrunch<\/em><\/strong> and red rubin lettuces,<\/strong><\/em> golden acre cabbage<\/em><\/strong>, sweet pickle peppers<\/strong><\/em>, heirloom tomatoes, four colors of carrots<\/em> <\/strong>and a Flavor Burst bell pepper. \u00a0We’ll put together a few special salad baskets for market this weekend, so you won’t even have to work hard to gather a nice selection . \u00a0But, of course, you could always switch up a little:<\/p>\n

Add some red cabbage<\/strong><\/em> or kohlrabi<\/strong> <\/em>slices, perhaps. Sweet\u00a0salad<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>tur<\/span><\/strong><\/em>nips<\/strong><\/em> or cooked, sliced beets<\/em><\/strong>. \u00a0There are lots of possibilities this week! \u00a0 Some of the spring veggies really are reaching an end, though, and won’t come back until fall weather cools us down again, so this is the time to think ‘variety’.<\/span><\/p>\n

Extra special this week, but in short supply until the plants go into real production, are the first of our heirloom tomatoes<\/em><\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Cherokee Purple, Black Krim and Black from Tula<\/em><\/strong>. \u00a0One taste and you’ll know why we wait so impatiently for these.<\/p>\n

Fresh okra<\/strong><\/em>: \u00a0Texas Hill Country Red, Burgundy and a little green gem: \u00a0Stewart’s Zeebest. Ask for the recipe for Cheese Stuffed Bacon Okra Poppers.<\/p>\n

Japanese Fengyuan Purple Eggplant<\/strong><\/em>. \u00a0This is a long, thin eggplant with mild flavor and a thin, non-bitter skin that does not require peeling. \u00a0Great for grilling and stir-fries, \u00a0as well as\u00a0old standby dishes \u00a0like ratatouille.<\/p>\n

What else?<\/p>\n

Swiss Chard<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Purple Viking Potatoes<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Gourmet Fingerling Potato<\/em><\/strong>, mixed basket (French, LaRatte, Rose Finn & Purple Peruvian)<\/p>\n

Kale<\/em><\/strong> – Red Russian and Dutch Curly Blue<\/p>\n

New Zealand spinach<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bell Peppers<\/em><\/strong> – Flavor Burst, Purple, Green<\/p>\n

Sweet Pickle pepper<\/em><\/strong>s (sweet little gems look like they should be hot, but they’re not.)<\/p>\n

Hatch (type) chili peppers<\/em><\/strong>. \u00a0The same mild variety grown near Hatch, New Mexico. \u00a0Roasting brings out the flavor.<\/p>\n

Texas sweet and red onions<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Butternut squash<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Fresh Herbs<\/em><\/strong> – \u00a0basil (small leaf, purple frill, and vanilla); \u00a0mints (spearmint, chocolate mint); cilantro<\/p>\n

If we’re lucky, a few pints of fresh picked wild blackberries<\/em><\/strong>. \u00a0They’re plump and delicious this year!<\/p>\n

And, I almost forgot! \u00a0The Kaufman family will be here with local (Athens!) PURE RAW HONEY<\/strong><\/em>! \u00a0Cheyenne keeps her hive at Gopher Knoll and I can tell you the bees have been busy this spring!<\/p>\n

The weather may be warm, but the veggies are always fresh! \u00a0 See you Saturday!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maybe the weather has been helping us along. \u00a0(It has.) \u00a0 Or maybe the little sprinklers we fitted into the drip irrigation help keep the temps cooler and the bugs at bay. (Which they do.)…Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gopherknoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}