In the Garden Update – Already June

(Grandma's creamed spinach, anyone?)

Peppers and basil in the cold frame.

The grape and roma tomatoes are in the ground, the zucchini, patty pan squash and pole bean seeds have come up, the pepper seedlings were planted in the garden this weekend. I've got sixteen Genovese basil plants still in the cold frame. They'll probably end up in large pots on the deck this week, minus the few I'll give to a basil-loving neighbor. And I've used the first of the leaf lettuce I planted as seedlings a month ago for tacos and salad. Despite the prolonged winter, the summer garden season has arrived on time...

I planted peas and spinach much later than usual because of the late snow and frozen ground. The snow peas haven't bloomed yet, and I fear that a June hot spell will kill off any chance of a good crop this year. Peas, like this gardener, just hate the heat. The spinach, however, another lover of cooler weather, has produced one of the best crops in years. (I have no idea why...) We've been eating spinach salad, spinach ravioli, spinach salad, spinach pizza toppings, AND...spinach salad...

Spinach crop to the left, lettuce crop to the right...

I found I had so much spinach at my disposal that I even tried to duplicate my grandmother's creamed spinach recipe, a staple dish of my childhood. Grandma made it simply, mixing up a sauce using milk instead of cream, with an undetermined amount of garlic. She had a large wooden bowl and a hand-held chopping tool she used to finely mince the cooked spinach before combining it with the cream sauce and garlic. My version of Grandma's spinach dish is not chopped nearly as fine, but the taste is close enough to conjure up memories of my five-year-old self sitting at the dinner table and discovering I actually loved the taste of that yucky looking creamed spinach...

Rosemary (flowering), marjoram, parsley and lemon verbena waiting for pots of basil to join them on the deck...

A memory is a treasure that survives. - Amish Proverb