Harvest Recipe: Salade Nicoise

Salade Nicoise is a great option when you're faced with a ton of veggies and just a few cans of tuna in the pantry. The vegetables listed below are traditional but small boiled new potatoes, tender boston or romaine lettuce leaves and sliced red bell peppers can also be added to the mix. This recipe serves four, but can be easily halved for two.

Dressing:
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Salad:
1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 medium tomatoes, cut into thin wedges
1/2 cup pitted ripe olives
1 can anchovy fillets (entirely optional!)
2 cans albacore tuna, drained and broken into chunks
2 hardboiled eggs, sliced

Make the dressing first: In a jar combine olive oil, vinegar and seasonings and shake well. Set aside.

Cook the green beans whole in a small amount of boiling, salted water until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain them well and turn them into a shallow dish. Add 1/2 cup of the dressing and toss until the beans are well-coated. Refrigerate beans, covered, until well-chilled, at least 2 hours. At this point you can also refrigerate the remaining salad dressing and ingredients.

To serve, turn the marinated beans into a salad bowl. Add all but a few onion slices, tomato wedges, olives and toss gently. Then add the tuna chunks, anchovies, if desired, and egg slices and toss again. Garnish the salad with the reserved onion slices, tomato and olives. Drizzle the remaining dressing over salad and serve immediately.

Deadheaders Unite!

Nah, it's not some hippie thing. "Deadheading" - removing faded flowers - is the best way to keep your plants blooming all summer long. Once seeds begin to form on a flowering plant, the plant stops forming new flower buds. Deadheading prevents seeds from developing and extends the flowering season so you can enjoy your annuals and perennials longer.



As soon as a flower's petals have fallen off, or once it has withered or browned, remove the entire bloom, from the base of the flower stalk. The flower stalk itself will eventually die off so if there are no new flower buds on it, remove it as well. Use scissors or hand pruners to remove tough stalks without damaging your plants. Some flowers are clustered on large scapes or long spikes - remove the entire spike once the uppermost flowers have finished blooming.



Some plants shed off their old flowers every day while other flowers last on the plant for 3 or 4 days before fading. To keep deadheading from becoming overwhelming, take a daily tour of your garden and remove any spent blooms you come across. If you have little time for maintenance, try using`Wave' Petunias, Impatiens, Annual Vinca or Periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) and Wax Begonias. They are all annuals that don't require any deadheading whatsoever.