Summer

The other day at Sprouts, a local grocery store, a woman saw me selecting baby eggplant.

She asked, "Do you like those?"

"Oh, I adore them," I said. "They're much sweeter and more tender than large eggplants."

"How do you cook them?" she asked.

"Lots of ways," I replied. "You can saute them, stuff them, broil them."

She screwed up her mouth, looked perplexed. "Mmmm... I don't know," she mumbled.

I scanned her shopping cart and noticed she had a bag full of baby eggplants in it. I said, "Well, you must like them too."

"Me? No, I don't really like eggplant," she said. "I only bought these cause they're just too cute to pass up."

Blame it on the cute factor — you know, when you buy something not because you love or need it but because it's too cute to pass up.

Barley is a wonderfully versatile grain with a rich nutty flavor and a nice chewy, pasta-like consistency. According to the Whole Grains Council, “barley is highest in fiber of all the whole grains, with common varieties clocking in at about 17% fiber.”

It’s a great addition to hearty soups, but it’s also nice in summer salads and makes a perfect alternative to pasta.

This recipe is easy to throw together early in the day and stored in the refrigerator, giving the ingredients and chance to blend and become more flavorful. You can add other favorite summer ingredients like cucumbers, zucchini, or cherry tomatoes.

We wait and we wait and we wait and we wait for the tomatoes to ripen. Not just because, like everyone else, we want to eat them. But because we run a farm stand and every visitor to Martha’s Vineyard in August wants tomatoes, right off the vine (and right now!). Finally our Sungolds and Sweet 100s and Black Cherries are ripening by the hundreds so we can sell some and eat some too. (Of course I am eating a lot of droppers and splitters in the morning when we’re harvesting. Soon we’ll have to start feeding the splitters to the “baby” chickens who actually are now almost four months old and just started laying eggs!)

The farm stand customers are even more eager to get a hold of bigger tomatoes. Fortunately, we have lots of Early Girls ripening now, too, but alas they are not nearly as tasty as the beefsteaks and heirlooms that are still green. (The first Cherokee Purples are coloring up.) Still, I’m harvesting as many Early Girls as I can, often two or three times a day since the late morning and early afternoon sun does wonders. But when we run out, there are some disappointed looks on customers’ faces.

In the meantime, since I will roast anything I can get my hands on, I am already making this delicious and easy recipe from The Fresh and Green Table that features roasted cherry tomatoes. Thought I’d pass it on to you in case you are similarly obsessed.

I can't imagine summer without fresh vegetables, especially corn and tomatoes. Every year I eagerly wait for them to come into season. Just think of crunchy sweet corn and lusciously juicy tomatoes. This year my tomatoes have been very late, but finally just yesterday I picked four of my special heirlooms. I was more than excited to eat them. But I had to honor them properly by using them in a way that would show off their freshness and beauty. I couldn't think of a better recipe than a much-loved and often enjoyed Italian bread salad.

Panzanella is often thought of as a leftover salad made to use up day-old bread. But in Tuscany, from where the salad originates, it is considered a summer specialty and not simply a leftover strategy. Typically the bread used in panzanella is hearty Tuscan bread, which is traditionally made without salt. Dry bread is moistened in water and then mixed with the typical ingredeints of tomatoes, onions, garlic, basil, olive oil, and vinegar. It makes for a lively appetizer or side dish. But I make this panzanella a bit differently.