Have you been to a farmer's market recently?  They really don't get any better than they
are right now, all the way through the fall.  Even the supermarkets are overflowing with
fresh local vegetables in addition to the usual imports. Summer means seasonal vegetables
and fruits and every culture has ways of turning them into simple, yet very flavorful dishes.
Growing up in my home on Staten Island meant frequent visits to the Farmer's Markets
back in the 60's.  Staten Island was once home to New York City's largest aggregate of
truck farms, some farmed by ancestors of the original Dutch settlers on land grants from the
1600's (see, the USA has history going back that far!), some farmed by French Huguenots
who escaped to America looking for religious freedom in the 1700's; some farmed by
Italian immigrants in the early 1900's..but the largest group that settled along Richmond
Ave from Graniteville through New Springville were the Greek families.  We were steady
customers of the Markos and Chrampanis farmer's markets.  Little by little these farms
were sold off to developers who built hundreds of homes on them.  My father, being the
enterprising man that he was started his own little vegetable garden on some undeveloped
property behind the garage.  As the years went on, this small few rows of tomatoes, egg-
plants, all types of peppers, basil, parsley, green beans, zucchini...turned into over an acre
including the adjacent neighbor's backyard.  He allowed my Dad to expand his garden on
it!!
Here's a shot of Dad's garden (why does it look like it's 100 years old??) in July of 1972.
I can hear the swarm of mosquitos in my ears and feel the dog ticks crawling on my arms.
Ahhh..Memories.  But it always smelled good, as long as you weren't weeding or picking
on the hot humid days after we had a crab dinner and the claws and shells were placed
around the plants as fertilizer. 
For my High School graduation my parents gave me my first good camera, a Honeywell
Pentax..this was one of the first pictures I took with it..a ripe San Marzano type Plum
Tomato in the garden..there were hundreds of them in that yard.  This was taken in June
of 1976.  We had bags and bags of tomatoes and eggplants and zucchinis....In addition
to the sauces and raw salads Mom made with all of these vegetables the Summer meant
a GIAMBOTTA (proper Italian, Ciambotta) with whatever was available.  A Ciambotta
is an Italian vegetable stew..there is no recipe, you use what's fresh, seasonal, available..
you use what you like and what looks best.  Anyone out there who tells me that they have
THE Giambotta recipe, I will have to quietly lol.  So to be perfectly seasonal, here is the
Giambotta I made tonight.  Use 1 eggplant, 4 tomatoes, 4 medium zucchini, 2 onions, fresh
flat leaf parsley, fresh basil, olive oil, garlic, 6 cremini mushrooms.  Simply chop everything
separately.  Saute' each different vegetable on it's own till almost done in olive oil in a large
wide pan.  Remember, this is just a guide.  My method is to saute' each of the components
then mix them all together.  Salt and pepper each batch as you saute' the vegetables.
What I do when it's time to saute the tomatoes, is too add 2 sliced cloves of garlic
to the olive oil, and a 1/2 tsp of dried oregano, then the diced tomatoes..let them
soften (takes about 5 minutes) then add 1 cup of crushed San Marzanos and let
this bubble away for 10 minutes.  Then everything is added to a large bowl and
gently mixed.  Did I forget to tell you to small dice everything? slice the mushrooms?
Did I forget?  To this mix tear up 4 fresh basil leaves and gently fold them in.
Now gently empty this mix into a pot and add 1 cup of white wine.  Bring to a
boil then let it simmer (keep stirring) for 40 minutes.  Slowly stir so you don't
crush all of the vegetables.  Serve this over pasta, in a big bowl as an entree, or
as a side dish.  Are you asking why I didn't add peppers???  My wife doesn't like
them, so..since this dish is for my youngest daughter's birthday dinner tomorrow I
kept the peppers out.  By the way, a good grating of pecorino over the top and some
pepperoncino is awesome on this!  And a big hunk of seeded Sicilian or Italian bread.
Don't let the summer escape you without cooking and eating our bounty of fresh farm
vegetables!  Whether you call is stewed vegetables, or Gvetch, or Ratatouille, or
Ciambotta, call your family and friends and make them a big pot of this Summer in a bowl!