Some things just go together. It's as if they were made to accompany one another. We like to plant things that pair up on the plate. Most of the time it is hard to get the seasons aligned. One example is Pico de Gallo. Pico de Gallo begins with tomatoes. It's definitely a warm weather crop. Then onions and peppers. We can grow those and store them. Lime juice. But then there's cilantro. We grow tons of cilantro. One problem: It is a cooler weather crop. By the time the tomatoes are coming in, the cilantro has all bolted and gone to seed and become coriander! We just can't get it all together for Pico.
But there are other things that work! A couple of days ago, I pulled the digging forks off the wall in the garage and marched out to the garden in the side yard where the potatoes were showing signs of dying back and letting me know it was time to dig them. Last week we got around 5 inches of rain total, and I was worried that if I didn't get them out of the ground, they would begin to rot. I did some digging and put right at 30 pounds of Irish potatoes (LaSoda variety) in the basket. Not a great harvest, but it will suffice.
Right at the same time, I was on my third picking of snap beans - Contender and Blue Lake Bush varieties. Picking beans is a back breaking job. Note to self: Next year plant the rows farther apart so that I can roll my bench on wheels down the row when harvesting. We've gotten several big baskets of beans picked so far, with more coming until the hot weather shuts them down.
If you are thinking like I'm thinking, we have a dynamic duo right there. Fresh snap beans, new potatoes and butter. Is there a better combination? I think not. Okay, the combination of peanut butter and chocolate may give them a run for their money.
In regards to combinations, we've another for consideration: Bacon-wrapped green beans! This is a crowd pleaser. Unfortunately, we didn't raise the pig that donated the bacon.
3 lbs green beans
24 slices bacon
4 TBS extra virgin olive oil
3 teaspoons garlic salt
1/2 cup brown sugar (we mixed regular sugar and molasses)
2 TBS finely chopped rosemary
Get your oven warmed up to 400F. Bake your bacon for 10 minutes. Boil water and blanch beans for 1 minute and quickly cool down in ice water. Put the cooled beans in a big bowl and combine your garlic salt and olive oil, mixing it up good.
Lay out your strips of bacon and roll 10 beans in a strip of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Meanwhile mix your brown sugar and rosemary and put a teaspoon on each green bean bundle. Bake for 20 minutes. Enjoy!
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