Fall garden harvest & bruschetta recipe.

It is that time of year again when there is an abundance of wonderful local grown fresh vegetables.

These super red hot chilli peppers are the crown jewels of my garden.

Red potatoes are simply delicious roasted, baked, mashed, scalloped or fried.  Nothing beats fresh potatoes dug up from the garden the same day they're cooked and eaten.

Roma tomatoes are most excellent for making bruschetta.  This is my recipe:

• one dozen ripe finely chopped roma tomatoes
• a big handful of fresh curley parsley also finely chopped
• one tablespoon of crushed fresh black peppercorns
• five cloves of fresh minced or finely chopped garlic
• one teaspoon seasoning salt
• two tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• one quarter cup pure virgin olive oil

Combine all ingredients in large bowl.  Refrigerate for  at least one hour to blend the flavours.  Serve with baguettes, freshly baked multi-grain bread or your favourite crackers.  In a pinch, this bruchetta makes a great salad dressing or condiment on scrambled eggs!  Enjoy.

The mini pottery bowl was made by Gabi who lives in Portage la Prairie Manitoba.

These tiny peppers are so hot that when I foolishly took a bite out of one, my mouth and nose were on fire.  My eyes were watering.. holy smokes.. they are hot! Hot! Hot!  

I have to wear latex gloves or coat my fingers in canola oil to chop them up.  The pepper oil burns the skin and is very difficult to wash off with soap and water. 

I am drying these peppers out to make crushed chilli peppers for spicing up pasta and chilli dishes.

These are purple pole beans, they turn green when cooked.

Group photo, I love to photograph vegetables, no one makes faces or closes their eyes.

I ate so many fresh green cucumbers this summer that I got a stomach ache.

 

 

 Fresh vegetables are so colourful.

Zucchini cake anyone?  Perhaps a lovely zucchini stir fry?  I didn't grow any in my garden, I bought it from the Deerboine Hutterite Colony's bake and yard sale yesterday.

Aside from a poor showing of peas because Lily (our dog) would pick and eat the pea pods taking most of the plant with her.  My garden was fabulous!  I planted beet and carrot seed strips which did not germinate well.  The carrots and beets that grew are delicious, but less  than 50% of the seed came up.

We eat beets with butter, black pepper and a splash of red wine vinegar.

 Or borcht, pickled beets and beets with horseradish relish.

 

 

 

It is a good thing we have a dog and fenced back yard, otherwise the  urban rabbits would be eating these carrots instead of us.

 Roma tomatoes ripening on the vine.

 

 Super chilli peppers

 

 Super chilli pepper disease? 

Sweet red bell peppers, mostly green but starting to ripen.  I planted four red bell pepper plants and four super chilli plants.

 

 Rosemary, enough said.

 Curly parsley.

 Flat leaf Italian parsley.

 Purple pole beans.

 

This is another red bell pepper plant, the peppers are still green on this one.

 

 

This is dill weed, I planted it in my garden once 25 years ago, it has been volunteering itself ever since.

 

 

Readers, do you grow a vegetable garden?  If yes, what do you plant?  What is your favourite fresh homegrown veggie?