Summer

A major aspect of the garden living lifestyle is the understanding of each season’s produce. In a culture where summertime fruits are available in winter, I feel that a true garden lifestyle is marked by the gardener’s knowledge of “in season” produce for the freshest garden experience possible. Having an understanding and knowledge of your garden and the land’s timely bounty is a must for garden living, for the rewards of this understanding are delicious. For this Farmer, knowing when peaches, blackberries, and other seasonal delights are at their finest is a memorable stopping point on the garden living journey.

As a Georgia boy, I have grown up under the shade of pecan groves and amidst the rows of peach fields. In fact, the Peach County line is only a stone’s throw from my home. Growing up on a farm lent the opportunity for an education with nature as professor, learning in relation to the seasonal and native crops perennially noting the time of year.

Each season is marked by its produce in my mind, a marking that has imprinted itself into a garden living mindset and thus lifestyle. I know we’ll have blackberries in late spring and summer, followed by peaches, watermelons and wild plums, muscadines and scuppernongs in late summer and into fall and finally pecans in the year’s latter months. From the brambles and briars yielding scores of deep purple blackberries to the fields laden with peaches, I have come to rely and respect nature’s bounty for its simplicity, its flavor, and beauty.

Many projects I work on have a moratorium on sharing. Sometimes by me, other times by the publisher or editor who usually lets me know when I can start blabbing about it. Sometimes the lead times are long (a year or two in advance!), other times I just have to wait a month or two until whatever I photographed has hit the streets.

Of course, most of the time it’s ok to share a little bit via Instagram and Facebook, but I usually err on the side of caution and keep my mouth shut.

Which is painful when there are great recipes I want to talk about. Like this one. Oh my goodness, this one.

I am a peanut butter freak, and combined with an apple or banana it’s my standard sweet snack. I knew I’d love this recipe from Jenny Flake’s The Picky Palate Cookbook when we were reviewing the recipe list, and when Adam and his team began to assemble it I knew that the shape would photograph beautifully, and I knew that the shape would also fit in my stomach perfectly.

I think I ate the whole damn thing.

This is one of those desserts you make when you are in a pinch for time.  It's quick, it's easy...easy, as in...no baking skills required, since it's a no-bake dessert.  It's the dish you make when you get a call Saturday morning to come for a barbecue that evening and you are to bring dessert.  You'll have just enough time to get to the store and get this made.

Better yet, stock all the ingredients at home (with the exception of the kiwis) this summer, get it thrown together when the call comes in, and pick up the kiwis on the way.  You can easily add them at serving time.

The taste of this is really nice and refreshing...I guess I never put lemon and kiwi together as a flavor package but it works really well together.

Give it a try! It's a true time-saver!

Grilling, the most primal cooking method, is revered as summer sport by men everywhere. It's practically religion in one country, Argentina. This multicultural nation with a unique blend of nationalities, traditions, and customs can only have a renowned food culture. Known for tango, football, and Eva Perón among many other things, Argentina consumes the most beef worldwide and is the third largest importer. Argentinians pretty much grill anything to great effect. Steakhouses, called churrascaria, throughout the cities serve up meats straight from their spits and are sliced right at the customer's table. I can't imagine a better way to enjoy steak.

A popular cut of beef in the traditional asado (barbecue) is skirt steak, a grainy cut from the underside of the animal. In the States it's considered a cheap cut, but there is no more flavorful steak than skirt. It's appreciated throughout Latin America, especially in Argentina, Brazil, and in Mexico where it is commonly used in fajitas. Grill it just until medium-rare, it becomes tough past medium. What goes better with steak than a potent sauce? Argentina's answer to steak sauce is chimichurri, a concoction of fresh herbs, garlic, oil, and vinegar. No one really knows how the sauce got its name, but it's the most popular condiment for all things grilled. Use it also as a marinade. I can't think of a better pairing than steak with chimichurri this coming father's day.