Let's take a moment.... to acknowledge that it's not always possible to get everything you may want in one place... and while it's great to be able to forage around and get something fresh out of the garden or in the wild... it's not always available... or other factors might be at play.
Part of the beauty of eating according to the seasons... is that sometimes, you may only be able to pick up, say... berries... at the local farm market... and other times, it's all about the squash.
That's ok... because we live in a glorious time that affords us the abilities to store and preserve these fresh and local finds...
for times of the year when they wouldn't normally be as abundant... or even available at all.

My daughter was fortunate to be gifted with a food dehydrator one year as a Christmas present; and we have been putting it to good use ever since... and this summer is no exception.
So this last week or so; when I was contacted by a local, organic farm family and asked if I wanted to purchase some extra herbs and such...
I jumped at the opportunity.

This is what I was able to get from The Metzger Heritage Farm (they also have a Facebook page here):

So, the salad greens and chard (of course) were gobbled up in various salads.
The beans, gorgeous 'hericots verts', ... are thinner, delicate French filet beans that can be green, yellow, purple or mottled.
Because I happened to have quite a bit of fresh veggies at the time in my fridge, I decided to blanch them and freeze them for another time.
They will make a super dish later on... perhaps this.
The cucumbers, we treated ourselves to right away... you can just cut them, and add some coarse salt... and you are good to go.

Then there were the herbs... parsley, cilantro, 2 kinds of basil... and I had some fresh chives and such from my own herb pots that needed taken care of... and so... out came, and into the dehydrator they went. A few days later, they were done; and are now happily stored for future use.

See you all tomorrow...