In the Garden: Add some homegrown flavor to your gatherings
Fill your crudités platters with vegetables grown in your own garden and containers. Arrange the raw vegetables neatly on a platter or board and add a homemade dip seasoned with fresh herbs. Your family and guests are sure to enjoy the selection and fresh flavor.
Look for opportunities to grow and share your favorite vegetables at gatherings with friends and families. Many vegetables work well in containers and small compact varieties make it easy to include them in just about any size garden.
Create an attractive display with seasonal bite-sized vegetables that are easy for guests to enjoy. Snap peas, radishes and carrots are most readily available during the cooler months of spring and fall.
As the season progresses, include broccoli and cauliflower florets. Try growing some purple varieties like purple magic broccoli, purple crush and amethyst purple cauliflower. Blanch them in cold water to bring out the color.
By mid to late summer, you’ll have tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers to include. Grow some colorful cherry tomatoes like sunset torch with excellent flavor and unique yellow with orange striped fruit. The compact patio choice yellow and fantastico red cherry tomatoes are the perfect size for containers and fit in any size garden.
Plan to grow a few small peppers like pick-n-pop, lunchbox, just sweet and yum yums, or include slices of your favorite sweet peppers. Make room in your garden to grow a few miniature cucumbers like Persian and green light with thin skins and crispy mild flavor.
Fill the voids in your platter with seasonal and colorful fruit like grapes, raspberries and strawberries. Add a little crunchy, flavorful food confetti to the mix with homegrown microgreens. Sunflower microgreens remain firm and have a nutty flavor that is similar to the seeds. Spice things up a bit with radish greens and add welcome color with red cabbage and bull’s blood beet greens. Your microgreens are ready to harvest in just 10 to 14 days after planting. Also use them to add some of your own homegrown flavor when you have to purchase vegetables at the farmer’s market or grocery store.
Anchor the platter with a bowl of dip. Even a simple dip of sour cream, mayonnaise and chives will work. Add more complex flavor by adding additional homegrown herbs like basil, dill and oregano to your favorite dip base. Experiment with various combinations of what’s available from your container and in-ground gardens.
Be flexible. As a gardener you know plants do not always follow the descriptions on the seed packet or label. Cooler than normal weather can delay the harvest while hotter than normal weather can speed things up. Just enjoy what is ready and supplement with what you purchase at the farmer’s market or grocery store.
Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including the recently released Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” instant video and DVD series and the nationally-syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine, and her website is MelindaMyers.com, which features gardening videos, free webinars, monthly gardening tips, and more. She was commissioned by Wild Valley Farms for her expertise to write this article.
