You've likely heard the saying "If you have lemons, make lemonade." Several other lesser known regional sayings fit our growing options better: "If you have Arugula, make arugula pesto" and "If you have fava beans, make fava bean humus", and, with my crop this year, "If you have peaches, make peach salsa."
The point here is twofold. One, use what you have. And two, be creative in both your cooking, and your growing.
Just because everybody else puts their raspberry plants in rows doesn't mean you have to. Our berry patch is designed more like a corn maze and the berries are self supporting. It means the plants aren't confined to wire rows, but instead can roam about in pursuit of the best fertility, sunlight, and growing conditions.
Is that a porch railing, or a bean trellis ? - it's both. My newly self installed cable railing will support the blue lake pole beans like no mere strand of cotton twine ever could, and keep people from falling off the porch, getting hurt, and worse - damaging the bean plants.
Let's get back to our creative cookery class. I don't need to tell you this, but the internet is full of interesting recipes mostly passed on by people who are far more beautiful than me - thank goodness it's radio. Feel free to experiment with their suggestions too.
My arugula pesto uses elephant garlic instead of regular, a bit less oil, and walnuts - not pine nuts. My fava pesto has more lemon juice than garbanzo based recipes. The peach salsa is better with a few tomatoes, and I use sweet onions, not regular.
A final mad cook experiment - zucchini milk. Simply blend the little buggers, and use half zucchini milk in recipes.
When it comes to cooking, try thinking outside the book. I'm John Fischer with KLCC's Good Gardening
