Every day we can gather more and more of the sun’s energy. Our solar hot water heater has totally replaced fossil fuels for over two weeks and I expect it will continue to do so throughout the summer and fall.

And the gardens are exploding—flowers and vegetables both luxuriating in the sun. Bees and other insects everywhere and the birds. Pairs of Goldfinches, Blue Jays, Cardinals and White-throated Sparrows. The Ruby-throated Hummingbird and Catbird seem still to be solitary but the season is young.

With a big bunch of basil from Pete’s Greens there was only one option for lunch: tomato-bread soup. So easy! Sauté chopped onions and a head of garlic (nothing less will do and I need to use up last year’s crop!), add broth and a can of tomatoes (fresh later in the summer!) and lots of basil; simmer for a few minutes and then pour over a slice of good rustic bread torn in small pieces. Add more basil, olive oil, grated parmesan and a dollop of yogurt. Oh my!

The soup was so good for lunch, it made the starter for dinner too. Added a pork chop from Tangletown Farm and some lightly grilled asparagus from my garden. Did I mention the butter on the asparagus?!

But wait! There’s more!! The arugula in the garden is perfect right now! Add a few walnuts and some Bayley Hazen Blue Cheese from Jasper Hill Creamery (recently named best Blue in the world!).

Next? Well there are some strawberries in the freezer from last year. Gotta use them up because the plants are full of blossoms all of a sudden.

Thank you sun for all the energy you bring our way. Such abundance!

17 May This entry was published on May 17, 2015 at 8:11 pm. It’s filed under Garden, John Snell, John Snell Photographer, Summer, Vermont and tagged Bayley Hazen Blue, food, garden, Jasper Hill Creamery, John Snell, Pete's Greens, Photography, salad, solar hot water heater, soup, summer, sun, Tangletown Farm, Vermont. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.