It’s the height of summer, a few weeks after the astronomical solstice, or longest day of the year, and the time of many midsummer festivals around the world. Here, with so many long days of pure sunshine, our community garden is just bursting. We’ve got cucumbers as big as a forearm to harvest, and zucchini and squash one could use as a baseball bat.
The green peppers are ready to pick and we noticed a few small tomatoes begging to come off the vine. The herb and flower gardens are also in their full regalia. So, what did we do on our Independence Day off with all of this beautiful midsummer bounty?
We made zucchini bread using a recipe from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything.
We added walnuts to the recipe because we had some on hand. If we had had chocolate, we’d have tossed in some chips as well.
On a whim, we sprinkled pumpkin seeds on top before baking.
Perfect post-swim snack.
Later in the evening, we made flower crowns using a handful of flowers from the community garden.
Making a slit in the daisy stem, you slide the stem of another daisy in, and then do the same to form a circle with three to five daisies in all.
Then, you slide other flowers that have thinner stems into the slits.
Place on a child’s head, stand back, and admire the fairy in your midst.
Ana made more for the other children.
Who played in the kiddie pool and pranced around in their fairy crowns looking sun-kissed and ethereal.
