Harvest Time: Tomato Edition

From my great-aunts amazing vegetable garden, she sent me home with quite a bounty of vine-ripened tomatoes and fresh basil. My solution (and one of my favorite summer time/anytime meals) was my pesto green been salad.

Pesto:

Toast Pine Nuts and Garlic, put through food processor

Add Parmesan, pulse again

Add Basil, pulse one more time

Done.

Par boil and drain beans. Halve the cherry tomatoes. Mix all together with pesto that is conveniently warm from the pine nuts and garlic, and makes it easier to mix. Voila! Tasty garden salad.

Harvest Time: Apples Edition

Handpicked from my stepmother's orchard, these apples were so good right off the tree. At home they were put into a pie and the remainder went to brandied applesauce (canned myself!).  The pie was good but the applesauce was better. I am waiting for that self-indulgent evening to have it warmed over vanilla ice cream.

The applesauce was pretty easy to make. I rinsed, cored and cubed the fruit. I put the apples into a pan over medium high heat. I added equal parts water and brandy (no judging, it was about a cup or more of each) and let it simmer for about 45 minutes, until the apple had broken down. After, I put it through a food mill to get rid of the skins and it was ready to eat. This is definitely not meant to be your morning's applesauce (unless say it is a weekend brunch) but is good as a dessert.

Poppy Weekend

Just a sweet picture of Eschscholzia californica (California Poppy) to send you off for a beautiful weekend.

A Pair of Pots

Just a little something something for a business downtown. The client wanted 'fresh' and architectural' for a morning sun/afternoon shade store front condition. She picked out the pots and made my afternoon when I was given free reign of the nursery.

Plant List:
Juncus effusus (Rush) a nice blue-green one, very straight and structured.
Asplenium bulbiferum (Mother Fern) lacy and bright green, provided much of the body for the planting.
Ipomea batatas (Bronze Sweet Potato Vine) a dark purplish trailer, good foil to the other plants.
Satureja douglasii (Yerba Buena) great shade/part sun loving native to Northern California. Has a minty/medicinal scent and sweet little white flowers. Also a good trailer.
Echeveria 'Afterglow' (Succulent) my focal point. This is a beautiful gray-purple that seems to have a magenta glow, good form and provided the "flower" for the planting.

Moss Lampshades

So the other day I was at work, reorganizing a display for hanging baskets and the only way I could fit them all was to hang some upside down. I loved the shape and suddenly had a fantasy about stringing them with some bare light bulbs (preferably Edison, just to be a bit snooty) and using a collection of them as a chandelier. How cool would it be to sitting at dinner, outside, under the stars and these lamps?  So me, being a bit nerdy, thought it'd be kind of cool to do a mock up in Photoshop... and this is what was produced (for any potential employers, this is a rather crude example of my photoshop skills).

I really want to see this carried out, now I only need a place for installation. 

Fort Mason Garden Creatures

As promised, more of my continuing series of amazing garden creatures. This time from the Fort Mason Community Garden in SF.

Yay for Friday!

Thought this was a perfect image for a Friday. Hope you have a great weekend!