RED RASPBERRIES
Nothing says summer like fresh-picked, warmed-by-the-sun raspberries. In Bozeman, several farms and independent growers bring their berries to market, but it will probably be late July or August before we see them. When the berries pop there are several U-pick options including 4 Daughters Farm, Bear Canyon Farm (which had raspberries into October last year!), Gallatin Valley Botanical at Rocky Creek Farm, and relative newcomer Bridger Berries Farm.
GREEN BEANS
It’s easy to forget but green beans do have a season, and it’s summer! I planted bean seeds for the first time last year and was astounded by the beauty of the plants. Each pretty pink blossom turned into a little bean with the flower hanging on to the tail end and drying as the bean matured. It was a beautiful sight. Bloom color depends on the bean variety, but plant a green bean that you like to eat—the key to home gardening all around.
Green beans taste best when they are quickly blanched in boiling salted water and shocked in ice water, which stops the cooking and preserves the bright color. From there you can dry them off and make a salad, sauté in butter or olive oil, or toss them in a dry wok with a pinch of salt to blacken. I like to make a green bean salad with minced shallots, a vinaigrette, crumbles of Amaltheia Organic Dairy feta or goat cheese, and Kalamata or oil-cured black olives. You really can’t go wrong, but if a recipe would help there is one on my site, ripefoodandwine.com.
BORAGE BLOSSOMS
Bees love borage and having some around is a great way to attract pollinators to the rest of your garden. Just keep in mind that once you plant borage, you will always have borage. More happy than invasive, you can easily pull them if they spring up somewhere you don’t like.
Stalks stand tall if a bit gangly, and the crown becomes a mass of gorgeous blue blossoms tinged with pink that hang down like little stars—in fact, starflower is the plant’s common name. The blossoms are edible: Sprinkle in salads, press them into soft goat cheese, and freeze them into ice cubes or popsicles. Don’t worry about gathering the seeds unless you want to give some to a friend or get some going in the alley; borage self-seeds and the birds eat them too.
