Fresh From the Garden
Is there anything better than veggies and fruits picked fresh from the garden?
I absolutely love summer because all my flowers are in full bloom and our garden is bursting with delicious fruits and vegetables. It feels wonderful to step down our stone steps and pick some fresh strawberries, gather some rhubarb, or pluck some plump tomatoes from the many we have growing.
Over the years I’ve written many posts about recipes and gardening. Our yard filled with fruiting trees, potted herbs, and loads of bees and butterflies inspires me and my kids. Besides it all tastes better when you grow it yourself. The below photo was taken a few years ago…
Our garden is looking a bit different this year because we opted to only grow rhubarb in raised beds and I’m doing mostly containers on the patio of tomatoes and herbs. We have apple trees, a cherry tree (although we didn’t get any cherries – the birds did), an Elderflower bush, gooseberry and blackberry bushes plus strawberries and rhubarb.
Fresh From the Garden
I thought it would be fun to share some of our favorites to grow and recipes we enjoy. Many of these are very simple.
Here’s some of our favorites to grow and to eat! Just click on the button to be taken to the specific recipe.
Rhubarb
Rhubarb is one of my absolute favorites! It’s so easy to grow and it’s the first thing we see pop up in the garden in the spring. It’s great to grow in your yard because it’s really so expensive to buy at the market. I actually have many rhubarb recipes because I LOVE it so much!
One favorite that I can’t take credit for is Erin French’s Rhubarb Spooncake. She serves it with whipped cream but I highly recommend it with Hornstra’s Vanilla Ice Cream. It’s in The Lost Kitchen Cookbook.
Okay, here are more rhubarb recipes I CAN take credit for…
Fresh cut mint and rhubarb make this amazing cocktail so yummy!
An easy cake that looks harder than it is!
This crumble calls for strawberry and rhubarb but you can use whatever is growing in your garden – apples, pears, or other fruits. I love this for an easy summer recipe! Also perfect with ice cream!
Elderflower
Elder flowers have the prettiest flowers and they make a wonderful cordial. If you wait you can also use the berries, but I always end up using the flowers.
This is a great one for kids to help with!
Can you believe how little Conor was in this photo? He now towers over me at 5’7″ (he’s 13 now) and he’s still growing!!!!
When steeped with lemons, sugar, and water the flowers make a delicious cordial. It’s a process but so delicious.
The cordial is a lovely non-alcoholic mixer that can be used with sparkling water or lemonade to make pressés.
I love using the cordial to make cocktails for summer too!
Tomatoes
Our son, Conor, has always LOVED tomatoes we usually have loads of tomato plants in our garden from cherry tomatoes, to heirloom, and husk cherries, but this year we’re just doing patio planters with big tomatoes.
To me, the smell of tomatoes, fresh picked, with torn basil smells like summer. For that reason, I love making Caprese salad. It’s such a quick and easy salad to throw together after the beach and pair it with something on the grill.
We love making our own salsa, too!
Potatoes
Our other son, John, absolutely loves potatoes and potato salad. We’ve grown potatoes a number of times and they really have so much more flavor than store bought. We usually harvest potatoes toward the end of the summer and grow them in buckets.
Potato salad is certainly a go-to for picnics & BBQs.
Carrots
Carrots are really fun to grow and did you know you can eat the tops, too? They make a delicious pesto.
Blueberries
We don’t actually have blueberries growing in our yard because we have a wonderful blueberry farm really close to our house — Tree Berry Farm.
We’ve taken our boys blueberry picking since they were little and it’s always so much. Last year I shared these delicious frothy blueberry coconut cocktails.
These parfaits are so fun for the beach or picnic.
Gooseberries
Finally, the gooseberry. I’d actually never had one before we planted some in our yard. I think it might be an English thing. Anyway, we found our plant at a plant sale and it’s really thorny so you never have to fight the birds for these berries. Can you see how spiky they are?
These berries make a wonderful jam and you only need a few ingredients for it!
The other week we enjoy this jam on homemade scones with homemade clotted cream. If you missed it I’ll share the recipe below.
I hope you enjoyed seeing bits of our garden and also got some fun ideas for your garden and recipes to try. I’d love you to share your favorite veggies or fruits that your growing and would love to try your favorite “fresh from the garden” recipes! Please leave them in the comments below.
You Might Enjoy These Posts
If you enjoyed this post. Read more about our garden:
- How to Plan a Cut Flower Garden
- How to Build Raised Garden Beds
- Our Garden Shed
- Garden Markers
- In Our Garden
Let’s Keep in Touch
Did you try any recipes? Let me know! Why not pin this later for reference?
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