Summer Time in a salad!

copyright Durhamonthecheap - the rain has certainly helped my garden. This is an average week!

 I love the summer because it means that my garden is actually producing vegetables that I can put on the table and all the removing of weed and mulching the rest of the year actually paid off. The above image shows an average week and this year is definitely better than usual. This is in part due to the ample amounts of rain we have had this year. I have not even once watered the garden, but then we have rain on a regular basis and that certainly helps letting the garden look lush. I have only peppers, tomatoes and herbs in the garden, but at the rate everything is growing that selection seems to be plenty.

copyright Durhamonthecheap - a fresh salad with home-grown veggies and some store-bought extras

One of my favorite ways to use vegetables from the garden is in salads. So tonight, a home-made salad with fresh garden tomatoes and peppers was on the menu. I added some olives out of the jar, cheese and a lettuce base. Since there was some left-over pork schnitzel in the fridge, this got cut into small pieces and added as protein source. There was also some left over cole slaw from the July 4th stock and so each plate got a spoonful of that added. The result was a very filling salad plate that had a variety of textures and flavors. In terms of the salad dressing, I use mostly oil and vinegar since I do not like the salad dressings available in stores. Often they use too much garlic, are too rich or have some other ingredient that creates an off taste.

So if you want to save on organic vegetables, start your own garden. A porch or small balcony is enough for a couple of pots with tomatoes or pepper plants. And an herb garden can be grown on a window sill.