Fall Colors!

 As the season winds down and the days are getting shorter, it takes a little more effort to find the colorful blooms and signs of life among the yellowing leaves and exhausted plants.  During  September and October, I often forget that there are indeed things happening in my garden, veggies are ripening, flowers are re-emerging, enjoying the warm days and cool nights.  It is important to recognize the last efforts made by these plants before the weather gets cold, and skies turn gray.  I have cataloged a few of these blooms in an effort to pay close attention. 

Reblooming Purple Clematis.

Delphinium.

Zinnias planted later in the season allow the colorful blooms to paint the flower beds.

Nasturtium flowers make a colorful and edible addition to salads.

Monk's Hood.

Blue Hydrangeas display a beautiful jewel-like purple color in the fall.


Not only are the fall flowers full of color, but the veggies too!

Purple Stringbeans.

 Bananarama Pepper.

 Fairytale Eggplant.

Sweet Thing Pepper.

Good as Gold Pepper.

 
Tomatoes.

Rainbow Chard.

Re-seeded lettuce mix.

Peppermint Stick Celery.

With these fall colors in mind, and the abundance of fresh grown produce coming in each day, I decided to make a few fun dishes.

The weather has been both warm and chilly, as if it is having trouble making up its mind.  After harvesting from my own garden, and visiting the local farm markets, I settled on a hearty vegetable soup, and gazpacho with a side of fried squash blossoms.  These soups make great dinners, and will last, saved for leftovers.

For the veggie soup I used an abundance of fresh greens as the main ingredients, like Red Russian Kale, Mustard Greens, and Rainbow Chard.  I also added purple dragon carrots, rosemary, thyme, purple sweet potato, butternut squash, celery and onion.  First, I sauteed the ingredients, adding each one gradually, saving the greens for last, until they are browned.  Next I added chicken stock, salt, pepper, and parmigiano cheese rinds for flavor.  I also added some pastina stars to thicken the soup, rice could also work well for this.  Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, freshly ground pepper and grated parmigiano cheese. 

For the gazpacho, I sampled a variety of peppers from my garden, along with heirloom tomatoes, scallions, cucumber, and fresh squeezed lemon juice.  I chopped all of the veggies, along with a clove of garlic, added salt, pepper, tobasco, and tomato juice.  With an immersion blender or standard blender, I pureed the veggies until finely chopped.  Chill soup in refrigerator for an hour and serve with garlic bread and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.   

For the side dish, I made my all time summer favorite, fried squash blossoms.  I found these blossoms at the Union Square Farmer's Market in NYC this week and nearly jumped for joy.

The batter consists of a cup of flour, salt, pepper, an egg, olive oil, and a splash of dry white wine.  Combine Flour, salt, pepper, 5 tablespoons wine, 2 tablespoons olive oil and egg yolk, adding warm water until a smooth batter forms.  Save egg white to use later.  Let batter sit for an hour and then add egg white.  Dip each flower into the batter and fry in olive oil until golden brown.  Sprinkle fried flowers with sea salt and eat.

Yum!

Though the leaves are falling and the days are getting shorter, there are plenty of things going on in the garden during this time of year.  Try not to forget about it just yet!