Make the most of bountiful harvests with these favorite recipes – all in one place
Pumpkin chai muffins -- just one of the harvest-inspired baking recipes in Taste Fall! Kathy Morrison
Fall may be our favorite season for cooking. We’re inspired by so much excellent produce – from our own gardens, farmers markets, farm stands and nearby orchards.
And during the five years of garden blog and recipe writing here at Sacramento Dig Gardening, we’ve created quite a few twists on fall favorites. And for the first time, you can find them all in one convenient curated space: Taste Fall!
This is our third e-cookbook, following Taste Spring! and Taste Summer! (Notice a theme?)
Each recipe features something we’ve harvested from our own gardens, or found at the local farmers markets and farm stands. Each recipe is tested, proven in our own kitchens.
Debbie’s bountiful apple, persimmon and pomegranate trees keep her busy. Kathy gravitates towards savory dishes, including soup. They both do plenty of baking – just in time for the holidays. After all, it’s cookie season!
Our fall vegetable menu also features chayote, corn, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, greens, beans and other nutritious and flavorful crops. There are so many delicious options, it’s no wonder we choose fall to celebrate our harvest and give thanks for our local bounty. (Why not celebrate with our French-inspired Provençal salad?)
In autumn, apple may be king, but it’s not the only fresh fruit that celebrates the season. Newly harvested pears, persimmons, pomegranates, figs, grapes, mandarins and limes all deserve to be showcased in fall baking and desserts. They also add juicy flavor to salads and side dishes. (We’ll show you how.)
If apples are your favorite fall fruit, go beyond basic apple pie with roasted apple tart or apple pie-cake. Or try adding those apples to crumble, coffee cake and bar cookies.
Sacramento’s tomato season extends well into October. Make the most of those late-season tomatoes in fresh tomato soup, tomato bread pudding or oven-roasted tomato jam.
Got pumpkin? Use that colorful pulp in muffins, mini-turnovers, creamy soup, hearty stew or pumpkin spice cake (with pumpkin spice latte buttercream frosting). Those other orange fall favorites – butternut squash and sweet potatoes – add flavor, moistness and antioxidants to breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert.
In our Taste Fall! recipe collection, discover more than 65 delicious ways to enjoy our local harvest of fall fruit and vegetables. They’re at their very best right now – in season.
Comments
0 comments have been posted.Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.
Food in My Back Yard Series
June 17: Help pollinators help your garden
June 10: Battling early-season tomato pests
June 3: Make your own compost
May 27: Where are the bees when you need them?
May 20: How to help tomatoes thrive on hot days
May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
Local News
Thanks to Our Sponsor!
Sites We Like
Garden Checklist for week of June 22
Mornings this first week of summer will remain comfortably cool – just right for gardening!
* Water early in the morning to cut down on evaporation. Check soil moisture and deep water trees and shrubs. Keep new transplants and veggies evenly moist. Deep water tomatoes to encourage deep roots.
* 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.
* 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.
* Avoid pot “hot feet.” Place a 1-inch-thick board under container plants sitting on pavement. This little cushion helps insulate them from radiated heat.
* 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.
Powered by California Local
