A trio of zucchini and thyme

I haven't posted food recently, mainly because I have been away so much that I haven't really been gathering or cooking - the two days I was at home this week I did enjoy the garden though planting out beans, pumpkins and some spaghetti squash among other things. The thing that is really growing out of control is the zucchini - we have three types growing, yellow, green and a light green variety that I am not sure what it is. We also have the gorgeous patty pan squash coming up and they are a real treat when they are small and fresh with a bit of butter and cracked black pepper!

In order to counter the stock pile of zucchinis, I made a delightful three zucchini, leek and fetta tart ...

the raw ingredients picked fresh from the garden

I made a spelt pastry for the base, blind baking it to ensure it was nice and crispy (it was actually the same pastry that I used for the mulberry tarts recently shown!).

Chopped and ready!

The leeks and zucchini were sauteed in a little olive oil, salt and pepper until they were softened. I also added in a big bunch of three types of thyme (to keep with the THREE THEME) which I removed after the veggies were softened. They added a delightful hint of thymeness to the finished tart, wtihout the 'bits' they leave!

Three Thymes for Three Zucchinis

I layered the cooked zucchini in the tart case and poured 5 beaten eggs over the top (the number of eggs will depend on the size of the eggs and how much veg you have in it), I could have added cream to the eggs to make it more velvety and luscious, but as it doesn't work with my body, I left it out! I sprinkled the last of my fetta over the top and a bit more cracked black pepper and a few thyme leaves.

It baked in a moderate oven until the eggs were set - again depends, between 30 and 45 minutes and let it rest for a few minutes before devouring!

The finished tart

Served with some lightly steamed snow peas tossed in a little olive oil and thyme and a chilled semillion...

Served and ready for consuming

Delightful!

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Possum

We awoke this morning to discover a possum had been helping itself to a huge parsley plant in the back corner of our garden, it has stripped the poor plant bare! We are in a huge dilemma about this as not only does the possum have the potential to wreak havoc on our harvest, but it has decided, for the second year in a row, to make its nest in the wall behind our bed...so we have an early morning wake up call about 4am every morning as it slips and slides around looking for a comfy place!
Last year we put up with it, but we didn't have a garden that looks like an organic supermarket for possum and friends!
ARGH!
The hauls from the garden recently have been crazy. Because I have been away so much and my husband doesn't consume as many veg when I am away, everything was a bit out of control.
We have pulled out the snow pea plants, we got probably 20kgs off them this year...incredible!
The beans (climbing and dwarf) are all coming along and we thoroughly enjoyed our first feed of beans in a raw cabbage salad last night (Thai!).
We have three kinds of zucchini and a few squash plants growing crazy, so much so that I simply cannot keep up with picking them!
The cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli are still being harvested and taste sensational as are the beetroot (I have very cleverly planted about 20 plants every 6-8 weeks (that I raise from organic seed) so we have a ready supply rather than a huge glut!
Actually, I pickled some beetroot the other day *you will never eat beetroot from a can again!*
I used a mixture of verjuice, water, fructose and black pepper...it is delightful!
The spinach is great for the chooks (who incidentally are being fed sooo much with the pulling out of the tail end of the autumn veg!) and the asparagus is looking happy as are the carrots.
I have lots of new zucchini, squash and pumpkin plants in and some that have just come up from seed, so we should have an abundant summer.
The tomatoes are going off and provided we can keep the bugs out of them - we will have a bumper crop of gnarly old breeds, heirlooms and some romas! YUM!
I have to admit that I am having trouble getting my herbs to grow from seed, not sure what is going on with the basil, coriander etc...they just won't come up!
The only thing we are really missing now is fruit, olives and a vineyard...all to happen next spring!
Gotta love the GOOD LIFE!!!