Garlic Scape Pesto.

Garlic scapes at the farmers’ market in Boulder.

 

Farmers’ market season has begun in Colorado, thank goodness. It’s wonderful to spend time picking out fresh items for dinner again. One day we’ll have our own garden, but for now we depend on visiting our favorite markets for the bulk of our food during the summer and early fall. I love garlic and it’s always exciting to see garlic scapes, so green and curly. Soon enough we’ll be able to buy garlic bulbs again to store through the winter. The season has just started, so there are many wonderful things that will start showing up at market.

Another thing I love is pesto. For this particular one, I referred to a Washington Post recipe. Instead of using walnuts, I used toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and I don’t add cheese unless I’m going to use the pesto right away. I also like adding a little preserved lemon sometimes to balance the garlicky flavor.

 

Basil lemonade & pesto.

Lemonade in the summertime is a must! Add some basil to that and you have a really tasty & refreshing beverage. Here is a great recipe for lemonade by Simply Recipes. After the simple syrup is made, I take it off the heat and put in a large handful of basil leaves and let it steep until it gets to room temperature. Then I just mix the cooled basil-simple syrup mixture into a pitcher and add water. You can also add extra slices of lemon & some small basil leaves along with ice.

Of course a very popular and great way to use up some basil is to make pesto! I like walnuts in mine and don’t add cheese unless I want to later on before serving. Simply Recipes also has a wonderful recipe for pesto.

For those of you that don’t know, here’s my first little bit of fun news: I’m going to be blogging for Edible Front Range on Wednesdays. My “area of specialty” will be taking photo essays and shoots of food sources. So that means I’ll be visiting farms, ranches, farmers’ markets in Colorado Springs, Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Pueblo, etc! There are so many that I haven’t explored yet! I love the Edible publications and I’m so excited!