Cool Rule

Can you remember what cool felt like?  Was it really only a few months ago that we were urging the temperature upwards and looking forward to days of warmth?  I guess we forgot how often the humidity accompanies the rising temperatures.  Funny, we seem to forget that every year.  Well, given how little influence we can wield on daily weather patterns, it’s probably a good thing our memories are so flexible.

It’s August and the farm produce doesn’t need anything except sun and water.  Consequently, Mother Nature and her farmers are operating in overdrive.  Cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini and eggplant are practically leaping from vine to basket.  It is generous of Mother Nature to provide a portable thirst quencher in an edible flask.  Unlike soda, the cucumber produces no plastic waste while it slakes dry throats and taste buds.  Like watermelons at picnics, cucumbers can be tied up in string or cloth bags and sunk into a lake or stream until needed for their cooling crunch.  Or simply plucked from the refrigerator ready to go.  Just looking at photos of cucumbers is reviving to the spirit.

This dark green, oblong fruit is yet another that we treat primarily as a vegetable.  The cucumber is a very adaptable fellow and able to stretch from elegant cucumber sandwiches through canapes and chilled soups to pickles both sweet and sour.  Today’s recipe is Chilled Cucumber Dill Soup which will be available on the market web site along with many cucumber companions including: Gazpacho Blanco, Linguini with Cucumber and Mint and Tzatziki.  The web site offers many other refreshing and easy recipes for the long summer evenings.  You need only enter an ingredient to find ideas for your table.  A simple dinner can be matchless when it’s made up of a chilled bowl of soup, a fresh loaf of crusty bread and a platter of sliced heirloom tomatoes sprinkled with basil, sea salt and perhaps a crumble or two of feta cheese.