Not sure what the title of this post actually evokes–maybe a slasher film? Rest assured there are only vegetable corpses…

We have an overabundance of vegetables right now. And an overabundance of heat. I know it’s not even-the-kangaroos-are-sweating Australian heat, but you know how when you’re used to cold and then it gets even a little hot and it feels like you’re being broiled alive? I’m not complaining; it’s been a looong time coming, this summer we’ve got. But now we have beans and zucchini and patty pan squash and cucumbers and tomatoes and maybe some eggplant (Who am I kidding. Eggplant doesn’t like our latitude. It laughs at our puny summer, no matter how hot it briefly is. We have some lovely purple eggplant flowers, and I’m going to content myself with those. They’re probably edible.)

The last sugar snap peas

Seductive multicoloured bush beans

Patty pan, meet sugar snaps

Patty pan gets the chop

The beauties below didn’t go into the salad, but they’re so plump and pleasing, they begged for a photo. Our fig tree is giving us a modest harvest this year, after a bumper crop last August. Also last summer, our late, great dog, Pender, was spending afternoons under said tree, waiting to gobble up all the ripe fruit that fell as we picked on our tip toes. This year, little e is proving to be a figlover too (but don’t worry, she doesn’t sit under the tree getting pummelled with fruit). And so the circle of life and death continues. With figs for everyone.

So, about that fennel. Have you seen this cool site dedicated to it? I found some interesting recipes there. But not so many dessert ones. So I found this recipe for ice cream, but it only uses the seeds (which are great; I’m not knocking them). This fennel and apple cake with rose icing sounds amazing, don’t you think? So that might be my next fennel adventure when I have, oh, a few unstructured hours on my hands. Shelve it with ‘get a pedicure’ and ‘go to the dentist’.

On another, but related (tasting) note, I’ve become re-enamoured of the world of liquorice. I was never a huge fan of the cheap black stuff, but on a  recent trip to Saltspring Island I found a guy who imports dozens of kinds of liquorice. And it’s delicious! I’m so sad I won’t be back there for at least a year. I may have to do some online ordering. Have you had the white ‘chalk’ liquorice (funnily enough, called school chalk)? It’s delightful. And they carry Australian liquorice too–whatever that means. Clearly I’m a newbie to the world of fine liquorice producers.

We are off to the Mainland soon for some fun in the City and the Coast Mountains. Also known as eating our way around town. I’ll let you know if anything especially delicious is encountered!