Summer Salad Favorites!

This is the perfect time of year for fresh and creative summer salad ideas.  It is my favorite season to experiment with new recipes and ingredients.  Here are a few good ones! 

 Fresh tomato and basil drizzled with a little olive oil and salt is always tasty. 

Arugula, radicchio, yellow cherry tomatoes, pistachios, shaved truffle cheese, vanilla sea salt crystals, olive oil and red wine vinegar. 

Mesculn salad greens, chopped chives, shaved parmasean, cherry tomatoes, marcona almonds, sea salt, pepper, olive oil, red wine vinegar.

Butter lettuce, radicchio, endive, and yellow cherry tomatoes, topped with roasted pignoli nuts, roasted garlic scapes, olive oil and red wine vinegar. 

Summertime Fruits and Veggies!

It's that time of year again!  Time for farmer's markets, pick your own fruits and veggies, and home grown produce.  It is certainly my favorite time of year, when I can use all of my fresh findings in  delicious recipes!  Here are some of my summertime favorites.

 Garlic Scapes and Fresh Peas are great sauteed in olive oil!

 Strawberries of course.

 Lettuce greens.

 Golden Beets and Bright Lights Swiss Chard.

 Golden and Red Raspberries freshly picked.

 So many Peaches!

 White Corn.

 Red Russian Kale is great sauteed or used in soups, and it is beautiful to look at!

 Giant Blueberries!

 Fairy Tale Eggplant.

 Eggplant and Tomatoes make a perfect pair.

Heirloom Tomatoes are perfect with a just a little coarse sea salt.

And.....Some of the yummy meals....

 Heirloom Tomato, Mozzerella and Basil Panini.

 White Corn, Tomato, and Basil Salad.

Gazpacho with Tomato, Pepper, Cucumber, and Scallions.
mmmmmmm!

So get out there and find your favorite fruits and veggies!

Terrain and The Chanticleer Garden Trip

This week I visited two of my new favorite places on the Main Line in Pennsylvania.  Despite the blazing hot temperatures, there was much to see and explore.

Terrain and Styer's Garden Cafe is a fabulous place to eat, shop, and get great ideas for the home and garden.  The garden shop has an interesting variety of gardening books, cookbooks, planters, furniture, jewelry, and materials to design your own terrariums...and...an amazing selection of soaps and candles!  The nursery plants and furniture are super fun to explore too.

Styer's Garden Cafe, is a great little sun filled restaurant with really interesting menu and drink options.  All of the food it fresh and creative, with yummy desserts and a nice variety of teas.  The highlight is definitely the home made bread baked in a terracotta flower pot, served with lavender honey butter and coarse sea salt!  mmmmmmm!

 

Next was the Chanticleer Gardens.  I didn't know what to expect before I arrived, and found the grounds and plantings beautiful and impressive.  Along the walk around the property I found formal gardens, a Mediterranean garden, and amazing views of the hillside lawn and gardens.  There were beautiful potted containers on the terrace and the shaded rocking chairs made a great place to stop and take a break in the hot afternoon sun.  There were things to discover all around the grounds, including a stone "ruin" built to look like an architectural fragment of the original house, with planted sculptures, a reflecting pool, and chairs built from foundation stone.  A great cut flower and vegetable garden is a perfect ending to the trip.  

 

 

What a great trip!

Hacklebarney State Park and Willowwood Arboretum

Two adventures to share!  Willowwood Arboretum is one of my all time favorite arboretums to visit.  It is located in Morris County, NJ and is a beautiful combination of country and formal gardens, walking trails, and tree groves.  The arboretum is beautiful spring, summer, and fall.  Old barns, architectural elements and unique plant and tree specimens make Willowwood a wonderful place to visit!  The Mediterranean garden is my favorite place to sit and relax.  It always reminds me of the gardens where I used to spend my time in Italy, with citrus trees, an olive, fig tree, and even artichoke!

 

  

Before my visit to Willowwood, I went for a hike in Hacklebarney State Park where I discovered beautiful rock formations, and cascading waterfalls.  Located close to one another, these two trips are a perfect pair!   And luckily I didn't see any bears along the way.

 

Once Upon a Time: A Bunny Saga

Once upon a time there was a bunny family....
Or that's how the story goes.  This happens every year in my garden.  I'm watering my beds, in the late afternoon, and suddenly 3 or 4 of the tiniest little bunnies scatter around the yard.  There is usually some sort of bunny activity before this happens that indicates that there is a nest somewhere (usually taking the form of a giant hole in my lawn), but inevitably the bunnies will scatter.  I usually try to protect them from various threats, the road, neighborhood cats, the lawnmower....but then they disappear, probably coming back to my yard the next year to have more babies.

This year, I noticed a big hole in one of my large flower pots that houses an orange rose that I never got a chance to plant.  After the hole, came a layer of matted grass.  And that's when I knew what was happening.

 The route to the nest....My swiss chard seedlings.

Then....a few weeks ago, there was some suspicious bunny activity....

and then.....

I have named him Hop.  And the saga continues.....