@ Johnny's Garden

I recently made a new friend named Johnny Walker. He told me about his garden and offered to bring me some vegetables, but I couldn't resist inviting myself to forage instead! He kindly offered to let me come and we agreed to meet there today. What a fun time! I should have warned him that I was a glutton, so that he wasn't surprised when the "thirty minute picking" turned into more than two hours. What can I say? I love veggies!

The fun started with a quick tour to get my bearings of where everything was growing. Squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, okra, beans, and fruit trees growing alongside one side! It was like a little Eden and it's so ironic that the garden is right behind one of those huge grocery stores. Wonder how far those veggies travel to be sold in that store...and here I was picking fresh veggies, just a few miles from my house! As we walked along, I taste tested everything. Fresh green beans right off the vine are crisp and tender delicious. By the way, Johnny's a photographer and he documented all of my silliness, taking dozens of pictures of the garden and me (http://www.johnnywalkerphotography.com/). He's an excellent photographer, so you should visit his site and hire him if you need pictures taken!

The "shopping" started by climbing through the twisted vines of the squash. The beautiful bright yellow blooms peaking through the wide leaves and thick stems. Squash blossoms are delicious stuffed with soft cheese, battered, and fried up, but I forgot to pick some in all of my excitement. The picking hadn't been heavy enough, so there were lots of huge yellow crooked neck and straight neck squash. In between, I was able to find some small tender ones too and picked those for some summer squash soup (I had the best at a little restaurant in Forsyth, GA last year and have been trying to recreate it since), squash casserole, or simple steamed squash. Bees and butterflies busily worked alongside me pollinating the flowers for future squash. I also found the biggest zucchini squash that I've ever seen hiding among the vines!

Next, it was on to the cucumbers, which they'd strung the vines along string and posts so that the cucumbers hung like from a tree. Many were twisted and prickly with light green, slightly striped skin. I even found a pair of twins growing side by side like little carbon copies. The cukes ranged in size from thumb size to a foot or more, some were round and some were long and fat. I picked some large and some small ones -- gazpacho and pickles on my mind.

After a water break and some shade, okra was the next item on my "shopping list". I love okra. It's such an odd vegetable, growing upright from the stem of the plants. It has a thick tough stem and I struggled to separate them from the stem of the plant with a pair of rusty, dull scissors. Okra also has beautiful yellow-white blooms with purplish centers and stigma that stick out from the center. They're so pretty and look like hibiscus. They also have huge fuzzy leaves that shade the treasures hiding alongside the stem. Curry roasted okra or stewed okra with tomatoes is definitely on my list for this week! Some people have an idea that okra is slimy, but it's not necessarily. The thick, viscous liquid that okra excretes can be limited by cutting it with a sharp knife and cooking it in dry heat, like roasting, or frying (not as healthy, but yummy just the same).

The next "aisle" yielded two big bags of beans. Two varieties of beans hung like ornaments from the vines trained along string from one end of the garden to the other. The vines were so grown up that they created walls of green to walk between. One of the bean varieties has purplish stripes. I picked thin and thicker beans, some to steam whole and some to shell. (In fact, as I write, I'm noshing on a bowl of blanched beans now. Yum!) Beans freeze beautifully just after a quick blanch, so none will go to waste.

Finally, it was time for tomatoes...the jewels of the garden. Johnny's garden has tomato "trees", some taller than me and full of fruit! Firm yellow and red to add to my cucumber for gazpacho and ripe ones for simple tomato sandwiches with mayo. I picked a couple of big fat green ones for dredging in cornmeal and pan frying up and one smaller green one to add to some ripe for a little zing in my salad.

As we wrapped up, I remembered that there were also fruit trees I almost missed! Grabbing a couple more bags, we picked firm little pears perfect for preserving or pickling. Crisp small to medium apples were added to the booty that I'd collected, minus one sweet tart little guy that got consumed during the looting. The pears look like seckle pears and the apples like little McIntosh, but I don't know their actual varieties.

By the end of my pickin' I had about a dozen grocery bags filled with fresh produce. And hours of work ahead of me for puttin' it up! So far, I've made 10 cups of gazpacho -- cold vegetable soup (tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, onion, garlic, celery, olive oil, vinegar, tomato juice, and whatever herbs and spices you like). It'll be perfect for the week and gets better as it melds the flavors together. I'll serve it alongside a green salad, black bean burger, and/or crusty bread for a delicious and filling meal. I've also blanched 6 cups or so of green beans (less the 2 that I just ate) that I'll separate into small batches and freeze for later. After prepping a batch of quick pickles, I'll be really ready to hit the sack! It'll be dreams of hot pepper vinegar and fresh salsa tonight... thanks again, Johnny!