Thursday, August 4, 2011

Beautiful Eggplants and Drunken Bees

It's the time of year when the annuals in our edible forest garden really take center stage.  The perennial vegetables that provided succulent spring shoots, buds, and leaves have matured into full-flowering (and somewhat bitter) plants.  We're in a bit of a lull in berry production.  And the fall crops of leaves, roots and tree fruits are yet to make an appearance on the dinner plate (or in the snack hand). 

But our annual beds are really glorious.  Deep purple eggplants, ruby red beets, green tomatoes beginning to tinge yellow and red, summer squash, garlic...  August is a beautiful month.

The passion fruit is flowering and we've started to enjoy our summer host of drunken bees.  Did you know that when a bee is in the passion flower it gets so sedated that you can pet it?  We like to pet the bees, because really, how cool is that?

So, most of the edible forest garden cookery these days is centered around the standard annuals.  Maybe now would be a good time to prepare for the fall season of recipe planning and tasting.  I want to spend some quality time with the fall plants so I can get some recipes set and then be ready to focus on the spring ones next year.

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