Grow Your Own #3 Round-up

Summer is finally over here in Northern Virginia. We had a few free extra weeks in October with temperatures in the 90s F/30s C, but we got more peppers and tomatoes as a bonus! Fortunately we also got three days of rain last week, which was a welcome change from the drought, though we’re still in a water shortage emergency condition with outside watering forbidden except using a three gallon can.

The more northerly regions are reaching the end of the outdoor gardening season, but folks living in areas further south have summer coming, and the lucky gardeners living in the tropics and other moderate climes are still going strong. I’m working on my winter indoor herb garden, which means I’m basically starting over. I did not have good luck with growing my herbs in containers this summer, and the only thing that has survived is my mint. Even my oregano, which is usually very hardy, was overtaken by spider mites. Hopefully my luck is about to change…

For October, Grow Your Own had 13 entries from Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, India, UK, and the U.S., and we used homegrown tomatoes, apples, raspberries, peppers, basil, bitter greens, zucchini, pumpkin, and lemon balm in our dishes. That is quite a variety! Thanks again for sharing your tasty creations with Grow Your Own.

If you wanted to participate but missed the submission deadline, you can add a comment below with all the required information and a link to your post. If you want to participate for November, take note! Grow Your Own #4 starts on November 1. Submissions are due on November 28, and I’ll post the round-up on December 1.

And now for the round-up, in no particular order:

Tomatoes were still coming in some parts of the U.S., and Abby of Confabulation in the Kitchen (North Carolina, United States) got a nice gift of fresh, homegrown tomatoes from her Dad. She roasted them with garlic and turned them into a beautiful pasta dish!

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Bee and Jai of Jugalbandi (Idaho, United States) were very lucky with their tomato harvest this year. They took their homemade tomato pulp concentrate and mixed it with dates, ginger, tamarind, and a few other spices and made a beautiful Tomato-Date Chutney. While you are there, make sure you check out their food photography event, Click!

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In Lisa’s Kitchen (London, Ontario), she grows her own tomatoes and paired them with a gift of local peppers to make this delicious soup spiced with garlic, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, cumin, coriander, cayenne, and ginger. Talk about a lot of flavor in a little bowl!

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With a seemingly limitless supply of pears, which can quickly go bad, Andreea of Glorious Food and Wine (Brussels, Belgium) had to get creative so that she wouldn’t lose any of them. She paired them with a gift of apples from a friend’s tree and created a beautiful pie made with layers of puff pastry.

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Another lucky gal with bushels and bushels of tomatoes this summer, Michelle of Greedy Gourmet (Essex, UK) actually neglected her garden for a bit due to a new arrival in the family. Still, she was able to harvest kilos of them every week and she made simmered tomatoes into a sweet but tangy thick sauce.

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Oats for breakfast is a favorite around the world, whether you call it porridge or oatmeal, and Inge of Vanielje Kitchen (Somerset, UK) made a beautiful hot breakfast for herself and topped it off with some fresh raspberries from her garden.

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Using Portugese Peppers and basil from her garden, Denise of Chez Denise et Laudalino (San Francisco, United States) put together a delightful evening meal of Linguine and Clams, warm crusty bread, white wine, and some homemade roasted pumpkin ice cream. Now that’s a great way to start off the crisp fall weather!

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Using fresh zucchini from her parents’ backyard garden, Sanja of Fresh Adriatic Fish (Spilt/Zagreb, Croatia) made a tasty risotto with toasted brown rice and fresh sweet corn. The zucchini blossom photo is beautiful!

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Becke, the Columbus Foodie (Columbus, Ohio, United States) made a great pico de gallo using the last of her summer garden tomatoes mixed with a lot of fresh, local ingredients. The colors are gorgeous!

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Quellia of All Things Edible (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) grew the family’s Halloween pumpkin in her back yard, and of course they roasted the seeds after the carving ceremony. Her family favors a simple preparation, with just olive oil, salt, and pepper.

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Lassi is a traditional Indian beverage made with yogurt, water, salt, and spices, but a few continents away, Cris of From Our Home to Yours (São Paolo, Brazil) put a spin on the classic by using avocado, honey, and lemon balm. Nicely sweet!

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Though she and her husband have homes in both Greece and Alaska, Laurie of Tastes Like Home (Anchorage, Alaska, United States) blogs from Alaska and focuses on Mediterranean foods. She wrote a very interesting post on a Greek home style dish that seems to be known by many different names. Her Plasto was made with bitter greens from her garden and greens from her CSA box. She mixed the greens with goat cheese, then spread it between two layers of a type of cornbread.

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Deeba of Passionate About Baking (Gurgaon, India) roasted some fresh vegetables, then tossed them with a fresh pasta sauce made with her homegrown basil, layered it all with cooked penne, and topped it with a fresh white sauce and breadcrumbs and created a delicious baked pasta dish that her whole family would love.

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Using the last of the bell peppers from our summer container garden and my favorite Chinese black bean sauce, I (Virginia, United States) made a beef stir fry with scallions, garlic, and ginger, which brought back some fond memories of my first shopping excursion to an Asian grocery store eighteen years ago in Saipan.