Fountain Community Gardens Diary

Let me take you on a culinary tour of my plot.

I am happy with my selection of vegetables mostly tomatoes because I like to make marinara sauce from scratch. In a pan of garlic infused olive oil add sliced tomatoes, throw in a basil leave, salt and pepper, cook and simmer until the tomatoes turn into a thick sauce. You can strain the sauce, or just take the basil leaves out and keep the traces of tomato skins that add essential roughage to one’s diet.

I hardly grow eggplants because I can never get the soil in top-notch condition. But I’ve had a wonderful harvest of Japanese eggplants. I grew up in the kitchen watching my Serbian mother cook for a family of five. Eggplant caviar, one of her signature dishes, incorporated eggplants, green and red bell peppers and a couple of cloves of garlic.

Brush the vegetables with a mixture of oil, salt and pepper. Put them on a cookie sheet into a 450-degree oven until the skin of the vegetables blackens.

In the meantime make a marinade of fresh squeezed lemon, sprigs of rosemary, dill and thyme adding olive oil, sea salt and pepper. When the eggplant, peppers and garlic are done, transport them into a large bowl place a moist towel over them and let them rest until the skins are easily removed. Squeeze out the roasted garlic and incorporate it into the marinade.

Remove the skin of the eggplant and rough chop and remove the skins and seeds from the peppers.

Chop up all of the roasted vegetables and incorporate the marinade and refrigerate for a couple of hours.

Radishes housed between the rock paths. Picked sliced in half, lathered in butter and salt, very Russian.

Warm baby potatoes bathed in oil, sea salt and fresh dill bathed with a splash of balsamic vinegar.

Flowers that will bloom in a variety of bold primary colors, Some will keep the birds away but mostly for cutting to put on my little corner altar a blend of icons and Chinese deities, a visual summation of my long-term relationship.

And finally my garden wouldn't be complete without sunflowers.

So now it is up to you guys to figure look at your beds as future recipes to be shared with the rest of us. Enjoy!