Bountiful Harvest

It's that time of year again, when my mailbox is constantly full of zucchini and tomatoes from generous neighbors, and plastic bags full of yellow squash, beans and okra magically appear at our doorstep on an almost daily basis. It seems like all of us along this country road tend to plant more than we can possibly eat ourselves, so we all share with each other throughout the Summer. This year I didn't even bother planting certain things because I knew from past experience, I would have an oversupply of those items from my closest neighbors, and I was right. I don't even have to buy vegetables from the store, and it's nice. My hubby and I plant peppers, tomatoes and some herbs. Our big thing is making salsa, and tons of it, every Summer. The peppers produce all the way up till it frosts and some days we'll sit out there and pick them for hours. When my hubby makes the salsa, I have to ask him to make me a milder batch because my tongue can't withstand the blisters from the hot stuff he makes for himself. I can barely stand to be inside the house when he's making it, it's so strong. My eyes water and I practically collapse from the coughing and sneezing. He grows this one type of pepper that is so hot it could be a weapon of mass destruction with the armed forces! His Grandpa from Texas sent us the seeds from plants he grows in the desert near Mexico, and they light your mouth on fire.

All throughout the season we have an overabundance of other things too, like apples, plums, peaches and berries. I have one particular favorite friend and neighbor up the hill who I call the Martha Stewart of Leiper's Fork. She grows anything and everything and always shares. I picked blueberries at her house one Summer and came home with two huge gallon buckets full. Those were glorious! There's nothing like plump, fresh blueberries in your pancakes or on your oatmeal in the mornings. This same friend grows the most wonderful herbs and brings them to me by the sack full. Fresh basil, oregano and rosemary that smell so good you wish you could bottle the fragrance. She gave me her recipe for homemade pesto for the basil, and her fresh baked bread recipe is heavenly with some of the rosemary added. It's to die for! She's getting chickens soon, so fresh eggs will be right around the corner and she and her husband just recently started beekeeping, so fresh honey and beeswax candles won't be far behind. She has rows and rows of lavendar lining her walkways and she has fresh mint that grows along the side of her house. She's constantly giving us fresh baked items and dishes she makes with things she grows, like yummy cherry pie and jellies.

And in the Fall, we give anyone and everyone pears from the trees in our front yard. We have so many pears every year we could never use them all, and various neighbors come and help themselves. We've been known to cart wheelbarrows full of pears to the pasture for the donkeys. They love them. It's pear cobbler and pear preserves for us.

I need to go online and pull up some new recipes for zucchini, since my next door neighbor brought us an armload last night and I'm running out of ideas for cooking them. I've made casseroles, sauteed them with onions and peppers, fried them up in patties, made bread with them and even cooked some with shredded chicken and salsa for tacos. If it's true what they say that "you are what you eat" then I'll be a giant green zucchini before the Summer is through!