Garden Diaries: August 2017 (Video!)

Late August is my favorite time of year. It’s still summer, but so much more chill. And I mean that literally –  the humidity drops, temperatures hover around 75 degrees and it’s nothing but sunshine and cool breezes. We can finally open up the windows again, and the beaches are practically empty thanks to everyone going back to school. The air always feels and smells the best this time of year, and the garden is absolutely exploding. I wish it could stay like this forever.

This past Sunday we celebrated our 7 year (!!) wedding anniversary at home with a long, lazy dinner and the newest addition to our family, this sweet chocolate labradoodle puppy named Phoebe. She has been nothing but snuggles and laughs since we brought her home a week and a half ago. Okay, she’s also been a bit of a handful, but that’s just how puppies do. I created her own Instagram account @PhoebeDoesTricks so I don’t flood my own feed with puppy pics. Follow along! Chaser and I are both smitten with her, and after 7 years of marriage, we’re still totally smitten with each other. {barf}

I’ve been reveling in these last few weeks of summer, soaking it all in and appreciating each little simple moment. This is life, and it’s totally passing us by while we work and complain and make small talk. I seem to always get sentimental this time of year. You can feel change in the air. Fall is coming. I’ll turn another year older in a few weeks, and soon it will be 2018. This is it! These are the times. Let’s not forget it.

Let’s also not forget the garden. It’s been a wonderful season. The tomatoes are dying off and I don’t care. I’ve gotten plenty and I’ll get plenty more. We’ve eaten a ton, we’ve shared a ton, and everyone is happy. The cucumbers are still coming in like mad and I’ve been making this cucumber cantaloupe salad like it’s going out of style. 

Yesterday I harvested a big bunch of lemon verbena, and hopefully it will continue to grow through the fall so I can get another harvest right before winter. It makes the most amazing tea when dried out. Soon it will be tea weather, sweater weather, cozy up under blankets weather. I can’t wait to hunker down and hibernate with my new puppy. 

Eggplants have been coming in strong and I’ve been cooking up lots of fun stuff with them. I’ve made caponata twice, and it was so tasty I forgot to take pictures and write down the recipe before it was gone. I also made an incredible, lightened up version of the Greek dish moussaka, which I’ll be posting about a little later this week.  

The chile peppers have been kicking ass and taking names. I’ll dry some, pickle some, oil preserve some. I want to smoke the jalapeños to make my own chipotles and perhaps freeze them for winter. I bet smoked tomatoes would be incredible as well.

We have just enough tomatillos right now to make a nice batch of salsa, and it will be plenty spicy thanks to all these chiles. I’ve gotten a decent start on my fall garden, and I look forward to watching it progress as the cooler weather and shorter days set in.

I hope you’re enjoying the (puppy)tail end of summer much as I am. Happy harvesting.

<3 Coley