brunosdream

There’s an abundance of basil in my garden right now. Wow, what a problem :-)! What’s a person to do?

 In order to resolve this problem, I cooked up something light and summery. I wanted something different than pesto, yet w/ that same basil forward flavor. What I came up w/ was kind of a deconstructed pesto w/ other tasty ingredients that are basil friendly: rigatoni w/ pork, grape tomatoes, garlic, serrano peppers, oregano, basil, and parmesan. My veggie was string beans w/ butter and red onion.

May your garden be filled w/ an abundance of deliciousness too!

Happy summer!

Bruno

It’s been a while since I’ve put in a veggie garden. What a pleasure to be playing in the dirt again! This year, I decided to purchase my tomato and pepper plants, rather than growing from seeds. So far, I’m very pleased w/ this decision. The plants are healthy, thriving, and look better than when I’ve grown plants from seed. The only thing I grew from seeds this year are the basil and zinnias. The zinnias seeds went in on February 27th (the day before I had mulch delivered), and the basil was seeded on April 15th, just after the last frost. It warmed up early this year in St. Louis.

The plants I selected to grow for 2024 are: Cherokee Purple, San Marzano, Big Beef, and Kangaroo Paw (green/amber) tomatoes; Jalafuego and Serrano (Impala) peppers; and, as in the past, Genovese and Thai basil. Below are a few photos of how things looked on Monday, June 10th.

Here’s to a productive gardening season!

Bruno

Another summer of just taking it easy while getting my legs fixed up so I can start traveling again, and put a nice veggie garden in next year. Just herbs and flowers this year.

The flowers are beginning to pop open for some of nature’s pre-4th of July fireworks, and the herbs are adding depth to my weekly cooking projects.

My summer oasis…

Cheers!

Bruno

There was a frost warning here last night, so I figured it was best to pick some basil leaves just in case. I picked what I needed yesterday for my dinner pizza, and what was left over I chopped up to put in some mango salsa. The oregano was harvested today to be dried for upcoming recipes this fall and winter. 

It was good year for basil. I was able to make 3 medium jars of pesto, and a bowl of pistou in addition to picking some leaves occasionally for various dished I needed it for. 

The zinnias and other flowers loved the wet summer we had here in St. Louis. I love it that they’re continuing to bloom and providing some nice color to the browning scenery in my yard.

That’s it for now. I hope your gardens were bountiful too this year. 

Cheers!

Bruno

Voila, summer is here! Taking it easy in the garden this year. I’m just growing herbs and flowers.

Strangely, the sage died out after flowering beautifully. The oregano and tarragon were harvested a month ago to use in various kitchen projects. I’ve already made pistou and pesto w/ the Genovese basil, and the Thai basil was snipped for a couple of dishes.

We’ve had a good amount of rain on a regular basis, so the flowers are looking really good.

Here are a few photos taken on July 13th:

Stay safe and have a great summer!

Bruno

Well, these beautiful zinnias kind of make up for the crappy tomato season this year!

Better years ahead…

Bruno

We’ve had some major thunderstorms lately in St. Louis which have dumped tons of rain. The excessive water caused damage to the foliage on my tomato plants. If you enlarge the photograph you’ll see I had to trim off quite a lot of leaves. I’ve harvested the chard twice, made a big jar of pesto w/ the Genovese basil and have used some of the ripe jalapenos already too! This morning I picked the ripe tomatoes and more jalapenos to add to a shrimp and scallop pasta w/ pesto that is planned for tonight’s dinner. The oregano has been very productive this year, so I’ve dried some for future recipes. I’ve also snipped some fresh tarragon sprigs and added them to my red wine vinegar for a delicious herbal touch in vinaigrettes (something I learned from my mom).

Photos taken on July 24th:

Until next time…

Bruno

It’s been one month since I transplanted my baby vegetable plants into their new home. Everything is doing well so far. I did have a casualty in my herb patch though. My new sage plant shriveled up and died during the heat wave last week (it hit 101 degrees F in St. Louis!!). Oh well… looks like I’ll be using some dried sage in my cooking this weekend. On the menu are country style ribs, so I’ll add the sage to my dry rub for a little extra flavor. Below are some photos I snapped yesterday morning. 

Daydreaming of good things to come…

Bruno

Well, 2021 is off to a good start. Not only is Covid starting to dwindle in the U.S., mother nature has been kind this spring in St. Louis. No major drowning rainstorms, mostly some days w/ nice steady rain followed by sunny days. The average temperature in May was around 70 degrees F. Perfect weather to transplant my veggie garden. This year I grew 8 Cherokee Purple tomato plants, 4 Swiss Chard (Five Color Silverbeet) and 3 jalapeno pepper plants. All were started on April 4th and transplanted on May 24th. I also started basil (Thai and Genovese) in pots outside on May 1st. My sage plant was getting old and dying out, so I trimmed out all the dead sections and added a new sage plant in the same spot. The new plant is a different variety w/ large oval leaves and purplish stems. Everything is doing well in their new homes. I rotated the garden to the other side of the enclosure and gave the plants more space to spread their leaves and grow! Here are some photos I snapped on May 30th:

 Chard, tomatoes and peppers

 Thai basil in the small pots, Genovese in the larger ones

 Sage, tarragon, chives and oregano

Be well and stay healthy…

Bruno

Here’s a picture snapped over the weekend. The photo is deceiving – the current tomatoes are small, the largest ones are the size of a big apricot. I did however harvest 7 packed cups of basil leaves. Enough for a large jar of pesto! This year has not been a good one for tomatoes. The big rains we’ve had have taken a toll on my tomato plants. Some have died and the remainder are producing less and smaller fruit. Surprisingly, the basil plants have thrived. Probably because they are planted in well drained pots. Oh well, I’ll take what I can get…

Hope you’re enjoying the remains of summer!

Bruno