The produce in my garden is coming along and I am starting to think about eating it. This is meaningful. I have tried to grow salad greens for a couple of years. The rabbits ate the ones in the ground immediately, so I tried them in pots, too much shade. I put up a rabbit fence, something tore it down in the middle of the night, the jury is still out on what varmint to blame that on – whatever it is, they are big enough to knock over 7 gallon containers!
The arugula is the current focus of my fancy. I bought a planter on 24″ legs and placed it in full sun and voila, arugula – enough to make a favorite dish. Homemade pasta with corn and arugula. Fresh corn is usually available in South Florida in the winter, however, this January was so cold the corn was stunted and has finally become available. Here is the pasta:
The mangoes are forming fruit. They are pea-sized now and I should have a lot of fruit in a couple of months. This is a Pickering Mango.
It’s future destination – a Mango Pie. This is a Mango Papaya pie. It has lime and coconut in it. I also like Mango pie with blackberries.
I have been watching these Yellow Pear tomatoes for months. Planted in November, from seed in August. I have had a few tomatoes – they are really setting some fruit now that the weather warmed. It has been in the high 70s (F) for the past week or so.
The plans for these? Tomato jam with fresh herbs for my Tuscan bread experiment from yesterday. I spent a summer in Italy in college and you just can’t get this bread in the U.S. It is made without sugar or salt and I wasn’t convinced the recipe would work. It did, one bite and I was back in the Convent having breakfast with nuns nearby. (It was a Studies Abroad program housed in a Convent, I wasn’t a nun)
That is my Six for this Saturday. To see more posts, visit Jon at http://www.thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com. I will be in the garden dreaming up dinner.
Happy Gardening..
The Shrub Queen 
You are making me hungry with all that lovely food! I haven’t made bread for awhile and that loaf looks YUMMY! I have trouble in my garden with rabbits, deer and moles…..they nibble my plants to the ground and I keep digging them up and moving them to another spot…..the plants not the animals! Ha ha! The animals probably watch me and laugh hysterically……not a nutty woman she is!
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Tha animals think the same of me I am sure. Bake some bread, you’ll love it. The rabbits eat my basil on the front porch, so aggravating, drives my dogs crazy.
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Pies are funny. To me, pies should be made with the sort of fruit that is familiar, so pies with mango, papaya or coconut seem strange. However, I suspect that a long time ago, people made pies with fruit that happened to be available. You know, when I was a kid, we got pies made with sweet cherries, just because that was what grew in the orchards. They were bland, but we did not know any different. I had never seen a tart cherry. Tart cherry orchards had been removed decades earlier.
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I agree, pies are funny. My husband loves pies, so we both make them. He is somewhat famous for apple pies. I prefer the mango.. Think you are right, whatever was around or going bad was made into a pie.
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Everything looks so good. I also had to raise my salad beds and now that we are not frozen, it is time to plant for spring. Have you watched Stanley Tucci Searching for Italy on CNN? Lots of food and veggies.
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Thanks, I binged Stanley last night..loved it! thanks. Is it too late for more salad there? it is here, though I am enjoying spinach and arugula.
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I should get another round of lettuce. I probably could have started it earlier, but I’m glad I didn’t as it would have been frozen.
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Sometimes procrastination pays off! I decided to try some late tomatoes, I think they will work out better..
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You make me hungry with these beautiful dishes … good idea to have shared the fruit and the meal.
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Thanks, Fred..you made me realize I posted a meal?!
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Gosh, what a mouthwatering post! I’m impressed you make your own pasta and bread. Feel like sharing the recipe for the bread??
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Thanks, Eliza. I will email the bread recipe..I printed it out in 2000 and just tried it! it is a bit conceptual – my husband told me it was my best bread ever. It lasts for almost 2 days before getting stale..no salt!
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Your six has made me very hungry. How wonderful to have such abundance in your garden to cook with already!
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Tasty! Mango pie sounds delicious and your pasta salad looks very good too. 😃 Glad you found a way to grow salad leaves… luckily my arugula (we call it rocket or rucola) grows in the soil undisturbed by pests but it spreads like wildfire too so has to be kept in check!
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Thanks..the pasta is not quite vegan but could be made that way easily. How amazing rocket goes wild in your yard. I would eat it all! The hares don’t like it?
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They haven’t discovered it yet, or it is too near to the house for them! Maybe too peppery? 😉
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There is a weed here called peppergrass it is spicy, I had to pull it out because one of my dogs loved it too much…the hares may like bland lettuce better??
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Well, I do know that they love willow, hellebores and carex… 🙃
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They eat Hellebore??
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Not sure if they actually eat it or just bite off the leaves.. I know it is poisonous, but hope they do too! They chew at things quite often and I find the broken stalks and stems lying around…..
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Something here chews the Bromeliad leaves and leaves them
. strange?
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We get a lot of mangoes, of course, although not in my garden. I never thought of putting them in a pie, but yours looks scrumptious.
The tomatoes are amazing…they’ll be ripe in no time by the look of them.
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Australia has some magnificent Mango info and trees! My husband is a pie fanatic and I doubt I would have thought of it otherwise. A friend makes Key lime mango pie, which I am going to try this summer.
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