Flowers, Corn & Tomatoes

As I sit here composing this weeks musings on gardening in northeast Montana, I’m enjoying my vase full of the last of my gladioli blossoms.

I freely admit I was very late (hello, procrastination) getting the bulbs into the ground last spring.

But, the silver lining in that is that I have these beautiful flowers at the end of September when most others don’t. (I will get the bulbs dug and stored before next week, I swear!)

I’ve been regularly deadheading my small marigolds. Those snapped off blossoms continue their purpose in life even away from the plant, which is to make seeds.

In fact, there are new baby marigolds plants popping up near the drip system hoses even now.

They won’t amount to anything before winter, but it’s proof those deadheads are worth saving. I’ll have oodles of seeds for next summer. (The trick will be remembering to start them.)

I’m also saving seeds from the zinnias as well as several plants that were in the packet of mixed edible flowers I bought through the Opheim FFA.

There were one and a half short rows of corn still standing in the garden last Wednesday when a raccoon (or two) finally found the patch. There weren’t very many ears left for him though, because I’d been bringing in ears, a few at a time, to make corn salads. I do still have some stored in the fridge.

The salad I talked about making last week did get made.

Here’s that recipe, with my modifications noted after:

Corn Salad with Hazelnuts, Pecorino, and Mint

• 1/2 C blanched hazelnuts

• 4 ears corn, husked

• 1 clove garlic, finely grated

• 2 Tbl orange juice

• 2 Tbl rice vinegar

• 1 tsp lemon zest

• Kosher salt

• 2 Tbl vegetable oil, optional

• 2 oz shaved pecorino

• 1/4 C chopped mint

• 1/4 C chopped tarragon

• 1 tsp Aleppo-style pepper

Oven at 350 degrees. Toast nuts, tossing once, 8-10 minutes. Cool and chop coarsely.

Cut corn from 1 cob.

Add garlic, orange juice, vinegar, zest, season with salt to taste.

If grilling, brush remaining ears with oil and grill until charred, OR, cut corn from cobs, cook in a dry skillet over medium-high heat until charred in spots, about 4 minutes.

Cool corn. Mix all ingredients together.

Adjust seasoning, if desired.

For some reason I didn’t have hazelnuts, which I love, but I did have macadamia nuts in the freezer. I toasted them in a dry pan atop the stove.

I’m sure walnuts would also work.

After toasting the nuts, I used that same dry skillet to char the corn off the cob.

I pressed my garlic rather than grate it. I had the raw corn soaking with the garlic, juice, vinegar, and zest mixed together while charring the corn.

I also didn’t have the pecorino, but I did have hard dry salami in the freezer. I chopped up 5 slices to use instead.

Both the mint and tarragon came out of the garden, where I have an abundance of both.

I had to look up Aleppo-style pepper (it’s a hot pepper, dried and then ground to a powder). I thought about using red pepper flakes, but remembered I had grown an orangish hot pepper, so I chopped that into the salad. It really added a bite to the finished dish.

When we went to Billings last week for an early celebration of Dennis’s birthday, I acquired a box of tomatoes from my friend who lives at the Martensdale Colony. (We connected at the Yellowstone Medical Clinic a few years ago - it’s a story in itself.)

She suggested wrapping each individual tomato in Saran wrap, keeping all air out, then storing in a cool basement under a black cloth. They enjoyed their last garden-fresh tomatoes on Feb. 17!

Of course, being the queen of procrastination (as well as averse to that much work), I didn’t get this done.

As all those tomatoes were fully ripe after a week, I roasted them. Half of them (a jellyroll pan’s worth) were roasted at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, then at 500 degrees for another 20.

I’d added several peeled shallots, drizzled all with EVOO, and sprinkled with kosher salt.

They cooled a short while, then I pulled the skins off and simmered them in a deep pot for the rest of the day.

That evening, I blended them, added coconut milk, and enjoyed tomato soup.

The other half of those tomatoes were blended, with the skins left on, and poured into jars, after using this recipe as written:

Roasted Tomatoes

Slice tomatoes.

Place on baking sheet. (I lined it with parchment paper.)

Drizzle with EVOO, add garlic cloves, sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.

Roast at 300 degrees for 2 hours, or until juices have evaporated.

Place in plastic bags and freeze. (I only cut my tomatoes in half, so they roasted for 3-4 hours at 300 degrees, then on the lowest oven setting I have, which is 170 degrees, for several more hours.

They were still juicy. They blended nicely with the garlic.)