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Overripe banana inspires summer breakfast treat

Recipe: Banana blueberry pancakes (with one banana and lots of blueberries)

Banana blueberry pancakes make good use of a too-soft banana.

Banana blueberry pancakes make good use of a too-soft banana. Debbie Arrington

Bananas may be a tropical fruit, but they don’t last long in this heat. It seems just a day or two on the counter, and they go black.

(And I’ve met folks who have successfully grown edible bananas in Sacramento – not the Cavendish variety so familiar in supermarkets, but stubby little finger bananas. The trick: Providing winter protection for the plant from freezing cold.)

What to do with an overripe banana? Banana pancakes, of course. Add summer blueberries and you have a special (and filling) breakfast treat.

Banana blueberry pancakes

Makes 7 to 8 pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 overripe banana, mashed

½ cup milk

1 large egg, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup blueberries, washed

Butter or margarine for the griddle

Into a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a small bowl or large measuring cup, combine mashed banana and milk. Stir in beaten egg, then oil.

Add banana-milk mixture to dry ingredients. Stir until moistened. Fold in blueberries.

Heat griddle to 350 degrees F. Butter griddle, then ladle batter onto hot griddle. Cook until bubbles start to form on top of pancakes; flip pancakes over and cook until done, about 2 to 3 minutes more.

Remove from griddle. Serve hot with butter and maple syrup.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

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Garden Checklist for week of June 15

Make the most of this “average” weather; your garden is growing fast! (So are the weeds!)

* Warm weather brings rapid growth in the vegetable garden, with tomatoes and squash enjoying the heat. Deep-water, then feed with a balanced fertilizer. Bone meal can spur the bloom cycle and help set fruit.

* Generally, tomatoes need deep watering two to three times a week, but don’t let them dry out completely. That can encourage blossom-end rot.

* From seed, plant corn, melons, pumpkins, radishes, squash and sunflowers.

* Plant basil to go with your tomatoes.

* Transplant summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds and zinnias. It’s also a good time to transplant perennial flowers including astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia, salvia and verbena.

* Pull weeds before they go to seed.

* Let the grass grow longer. Set the mower blades high to reduce stress on your lawn during summer heat. To cut down on evaporation, water your lawn deeply during the wee hours of the morning, between 2 and 8 a.m.

* Tie up vines and stake tall plants such as gladiolus and lilies. That gives their heavy flowers some support.

* Dig and divide crowded bulbs after the tops have died down.

* Feed summer flowers with a slow-release fertilizer.

* Mulch, mulch, mulch! This “blanket” keeps moisture in the soil longer and helps your plants cope during hot weather. It also helps smother weeds.

* Thin grapes on the vine for bigger, better clusters later this summer.

* Cut back fruit-bearing canes on berries.

* Feed camellias, azaleas and other acid-loving plants. Mulch to conserve moisture and reduce heat stress.

* Cut back Shasta daisies after flowering to encourage a second bloom in the fall.

* Trim off dead flowers from rose bushes to keep them blooming through the summer. Roses also benefit from deep watering and feeding now. A top dressing of aged compost will keep them happy. It feeds as well as keeps roots moist.

* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushier plants with many more flowers in September.

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