Look at how the garden grows

Here is a quick up date on the spring garden progress. We came back from Italy and the garden had exploded.

Zucchini were ready, the cherry tomatoes were starting to ripen,
We have eggplants, cucumber and butternut squash are set and growing.


The potato experiment is coming along nicely.




The Beans are about 8 feet tall and starting to product beans and they have tons of blossoms. The leeks started to bolt show we pulled a few and cooked them with zucchini.















The spring beets are also ready and the corn has about 3 ears per stalks on the older plants.

Easter and Squash blossoms

Fresh from the inspiration of Tuscany I decided to actually using some of the lovely squash blossoms on my zucchini rather than just composting them. I always knew that they were edible I just wasn't too sure what to do with them. So John and Jim Darrah bought some in Italy and were coached on how to prepare them. Since the english in the little town we stayed in wasn't the best I would have loved to have been part of that conversation. Anyway I went to my trusty recipe source - the internet - and found a recipe for stuffed squash blossoms. Basically you make a batter stuff the blossoms with a cheese and vegetable mixture and the fry in oil until golden brown. We had some leftover stir fried zucchini and leeks in the fridge so I used this as my veggies. You could used any stir fried veggie combo though. They were pretty darn tasty!!!


Stuffed Squash Blossoms

Batter
1 cup flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup beer

Mix the dry ingredients and than whisk in the beer. Let the mixture sit in fridge for 30 minutes.

Leek and zucchini stir fry

1 leeks sliced and cleaned ( I usually slice them first and place in a bowl of water to get the dirt all removed - then I used a slotted spoon to remove from the water leaving the dirt residue at the bottom of the bowl.)
1 medium zucchini cutinto strip with a vegetable peeler
2 cloves garlic chopped
2 tables olive oil.
salt and pepper to season.

Heat the oil over med high heat. Add the leek s and cooks a few minutes until tender add the garlic and zucchini and cooks a few minutes more.
This is a great side with a light fish such as sea bass or halibut.

Blossoms
Pick the blossoms fresh if you have them or buy that day at the store as they do not last long.
Rinse and remove the stem.

1/4 cup of ricotta cheese
1/2 cup leek and zucchini stir fry
salt and pepper to taste.

Carefully stuff 1 tables of cheese mixture into the squash blossoms. Heat about 1 inch of oil in a deep pan until a cube of bread turned golden.

Dip the stuffed blossoms into the batter until thickly coated and pop into the hot oil. Brown on all sides until golden and drain on a paper towel to remove excess grease.

This amount of stuffing will make about 6

.