Makeshift Greenhouse..

This AM, from under the tent...

Soggy outside...

It is the 'monsoon season' in Colorado. Cool heavy rains in the afternoons. Apparently, this was the 'normal' weather pattern for decades upon decades in Colorado (centuries, I dare say). The past 10 years have proven to be dry. Meaning, the 'normal' amount of heavy snow during the winters (totally snowed in, from what I have been told), and dry dry dry, hot summers, made the conditions just right for a Waldo Canyon fire, or a Black Forrest fire. A tinder box. So, having lived through both of these devastating and deadly fires, I choose the rain.

To try to keep the raised garden beds from floating away, I made a makeshift greenhouse, if you will. I initially bought the tarp to try to protect the plants from the hail. Much more difficult to predict, as it happens so fast. Really, it is just an 8' tarp. I bolstered it up w/ a couple of bamboo stakes held in large terra cotta planters, along w/ the taller stakes for the growing pants, so the water would run off. The perimeter basil did get soaked, but they will be fine, they are hearty. Once the sun comes back out, (please sun, come back out!), the July/August warmth will pick up where we left off, and the harvest will continue. In the meantime, I am so so glad to have made the makeshift greenhouse ...it may not be pretty, but it did the trick!!!

Amy's Famous Pesto!

Straight from the garden...

Ground salted, roasted pistachio's...

...add the parm and olive oil until the texture is 'right'...

Herb spinach pasta...handmade..

The final product...8oz of heaven..

 It is a present...here you go. I will give it to you in a brown sandwich bag, frozen in a 4 ounce container. It will say, 'Amy's Famous Pesto' on the bag, written w/ a black marker. Once asked, 'What is the shelf life?', I did not hesitate to say, 'It won't get that far, you will eat it!!!'. Totally confident in the product! If you ever saw the movie, 'Baby Boom', w/ Diane Keaton, you will remember how her kitchen was totally taken over w/ the baby food she made by hand. This was the case, last year w/ my freezer. All you could see was frozen pesto when looking for the Gelato.  Everyone has a different way to make it. I was asked to do a pesto making 'demo' @ a friend's house a few weeks back. Everybody was making something Italian. The best compliment I received was from a friend who has lived in Italy for the past 14 years w/ his Family. He said to me, 'I know pesto, and this is pesto!'

So, yesterday, I made the first batch, small for me. Jimmy picked up some handmade pasta @ the Old Colorado City Farmer's Market earlier in the day. Spinach, herb, I believe. (They usually write what you bought on the bag...there was nothing, so this is my educated guess!).

It has such a bright flavor!! W/ the pesto, a little extra parm, a few more leaves of basil, and everyone was pretty happy. Today, the sweet potato pasta, also from the farmer's market, w/ some cooked down cherry tomatoes, and the fresh pesto, again, a little extra parm and more basil from the garden...ahhhhh.
 Ingredients: Basil, roasted salted pistachio nuts, grated parm, olive oil

The satisfied gardener!

'She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard'
Proverbs 31:16