What a difference one month can make!
Compare teh garden this morning with this shot from a June 12 – I was uncertain if the parsley had been a wise choice, Rich was more than a little suspicious of ‘cinnamon basil’, and the tomatoes kind of looked like scraggily afterthoughts.
Well, I’m here to tell you that the parsley is doing fine – I’ve been cutting bits here and there as I need it, though I still buy bunches at the market for bulk use; the cinnamon basil has been mighty fine in several dishes (grilled peppers and onions particularly); and the tomatoes are going kinda crazy. Well – one is – twisting itself around to reach up and look as though it wouldn’t mind taking over the whole darned container. The other tomato plant – an heirloom striated, is more about minding its own bidness and growing downward thick and bushy.
The two regular basil plants and the sage are more than holding their own – I’ve pinched off a bunch of flowers and terminal buds 
from all the basil plants, but wonder if I should go a bit further; I’ll ask Golnaz her opinion when we all gather for FoodFest on Saturday.
What is FoodFest?
It’s a gathering of some of our friends to explore cool food purveyors in the area. Beginning with Bende’s, a Hungarian Sausage and European foods shop located in an industrial park in Vernon Hills, followed by a quick jaunt North on Milwaukee Avenue to the new Mariano’s Fresh Market (Mehran’s newest, most favored place to lunch). After that, a quick hop over the border to Mars’ Cheese Castle’s new digs, and then a quick pop into Tenuta’s before heading back here.
We’ll all have coolers and ice packs to keep stuff fresh, and will gather around the Weber at the end of the day to compare, and most likely, consume, some of the treasures we’ve found on our tour. I have a couple of new salad recipes I plan to toss together as side dishes, and one other that I haven’t made since last summer that I’m dying to serve folk; but THAT’s a subject for tomorrow’s PARFAIT!