Welcome to the Kitchen Garden in June

2013 was a very cool and cloudy spring, it is only the last two weeks that have been warm and sunny, so the garden got off to a very slow start.  I am finally seeing some significant growth this week and we harvested our first salad from the garden, lettuce, spinach, radishes, and chives.  There are a lot of blossoms on the strawberries and the raspberries are full, so soon there will be berries at our table.

The peas look good for the first time in three years so I am hopeful that I will be able to freeze some for winter use.  I planted lots of carrots, but they have been especially slow so they are only three or four inches high, hopefully we will see enough produce to fill the bins in our refrigerator.

Chive Blossom Vinegar

Perhaps you noticed, I took a long, unscheduled break from the website.  Future posts may be sporadic, I am focusing my time where it is more important, however this vinegar is so good, and chives are blooming (up north anyway) so I thought I would share some chive blossom vinegar today.

Costa Rica

This is a ridiculous amount of photos, but there is just so much to love about Costa Rica, we had an absolutely marvelous time.  The flowers were gorgeous, not sure what this flower is, but we saw a lot of them.  Some of the trees were blooming with bright orange flowers and there were azaleas blooming everywhere.

Jicama-Ginger Slaw

Sense of Home Kitchen

A desire for fresh vegetables as the thermometer dipped below zero coupled by a desire to look presentable in a bathing suit mid-winter prompted a barrage of salads.  Thus the jicama-ginger slaw was adapted to include a few more fresh ingredients than the original recipe called for, but I believe it is better for the change.  Of course the real reason for all these salads is a trip to Costa Rica, a little summer in the middle of our winter.  We are in for a HUGH climate adjustment as we fly south; the current temperature of Samara, Costa Rica is 87° F. and our current temperature is 24° F., that, along with the change from our currently very dry air to high humidity, ought to set our thermoreceptors reeling.