I admit I gave up on my daily garden photo project before it was finished, but as you can see from my video above, I did not give up easily. It was a tough summer for my little garden. As usual, I started with very high hopes, but then summer started in March and wasn’t pretending. The daily mist dried up and disappeared and the Seattle rain so highly promoted in TV and film spent all its time on the east coast. But, luckily, I do not, at this time, have to live off of my harvest and can celebrate every little bite.

The one cucumber, that stopped developing about half-grown, was juicy and had an extra flavor that I do not know how to describe–a deeper note for the back of the tongue.

The one green bean (flowers on tendrils leave me hope for more), split in half to share, balances perfectly with the flavors of the one lunch of sauteed rainbow chard (makes me look good no matter the weather) with hazelnuts and Parmesan, but screams out with every crisp bite, “I am more flavorful than anything around me.”

Two kinds of kale (I tried blue dinosaur this year), became my favorite kale chips. My adaptation of Pesto Kale Chips from The Everything Raw Food Recipe Book by Mike Snyder with Nancy Faass has  changed kale for my family and friends. As a vegetarian in a family of carnivores, I was teased and taunted, until they tasted these kale chips. I have tried every other kale chip recipe that I have encountered, but this is the best.  As a Harvest gift to all here are my secret changes:

Maria’s take on Pesto Kale Chips:

For four cups of happy, straight out of your garden, kale (I cut out the largest stems in little V cuts, my kale leaves were small so for most of them, I did not need to cut out the central vein):

Ingredients: 1/2 cup pine nuts

1/8 cup lemon juice (one small lemon)

1/8 cup olive oil

1/8 cup Bragg’s Liquid Aminos (or Nama Shoyu)

1/2 Tbs. Onion powder

1/8 cup fresh basil (finely chopped) pulsed in last

Place all ingredients in blender (except basil) and chop, then mince, then liquefy. It will take a while to get the pine nuts to really liquefy. I recommend stopping to take a spatula to the sides and top of your blender a couple of times. When you are happy with your mixture, add your basil and pulse it in a few times.

Put your kale in a medium sized bowl and pour the blend over the kale. Gently massage the mix onto the kale by hand making sure to equally coat both sides of all pieces. At this stage the kale is likely to break into smaller pieces. That’s why I try to start with full pieces of kale with only the largest bits of stem cut out.

I like to make my kale chips in my dehydrator. This recipe fills 4 shelves. Gently lay the pieces of kale out flat on your trays. Dehydrate and 115 degrees Fahrenheit for five hours to get delicious, crisp chips.

[If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can put the coated kale on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and bake in your oven. (Leda Meredith at about.com says 325 for 12-15 min). I have no idea about those results.]

Try this recipe on that special someone who won’t eat their greens. You’re Welcome.