Garden Fresh Organic Produce

The house I grew up in had a huge backyard, complete with apple trees, a cherry tree, a plum tree, raspberry and strawberry bushes, and my dad grew a small vegetable garden.  Now that I’m living in Seattle proper, I live in a condo with a deck so tiny I can’t even grow a tomato plant on it.

This week, I got to make up for that when my coworker, who grows an amazing backyard garden, generously invited me, my sister, another of my coworkers and her 5-year-old son to ravage pick the blueberries from his six plants.

I picked a gallon of blueberries – but that’s not all!  While we were picking, he kept showing us new things he’s growing, how large his squash grew this summer, and handing over more loot.  At the end of the day, I came home with a zucchini, a sunburst squash, a (small) head of elephant garlic, as well as sage and a few sprigs of rosemary.

With an assist from the Whole Foods meat counter, I made this delicious, garden-fresh and organic meal: elephant garlic and lamb cooked in ghee with the herbs, zucchini and sunburst squash doused in blood orange olive oil from Seattle Olive Oil and melted butter.

Someday, I want my own backyard garden.  Oh well – at least I’ve got a freezer full of blueberries!