The summer’s warmth and sunshine, the cucumbers and zucchini, tomatoes, onions and, of course, garlic recall Mediterranean summers from my youth.
This summer has been strongly reminiscent, for me, of two Mediterranean summers from my youthful travelling years — one in France in a small coastal town near Nice, another in a village on Rhodes.
I’ve had a few years practising meal preparation for one and have gradually learned to tame ingredient quantities to manageable levels. Leftovers are lovely, for a few days. I began by filling a little over half the container with peeled, seeded and chopped cucumber and then added one clove minced garlic, lemon juice, a small drizzle of olive oil, salt, two small sprigs of spearmint, and plain Greek yogurt to almost fill the container.
The marigold barrier did not work. Chicken wire does, but its use is limited to easily enclosed spaces. It has worked. The large squash leaves gave the young lettuce plants some respite from the hot summer sun as they also offered protection from bunny munching. The lettuces survived to provide me with several light summer salad dinners.
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