Summer Garden Party Ideas

Step one in preparing for a garden party is harvesting the food—head out to your garden and fill your baskets with all of the ripe yummies. We gathered lots of figs and mint from our garden, then supplemented with other herbs, fruits and veggies including tomatoes, purslane, parsley, squash and melon. Use what you have to personalize your own dishes.

If you have a couple of crops you are using to build your party around, try to include at least one of them in your salad. We topped off our spring mix with fresh purslane from our garden and figs from our tree. The figs add a unique, sweet flavor and its pink flesh looks stunning on a bed of greens.

Looking for a fast and easy fruit salad recipe? Dice half a cantaloupe, half a honeydew and half a small watermelon along with any other fruit of your choice. Gently mix the fruit together with the juice of two limes, 3 tablespoons of honey and 2 tablespoons of chopped mint. You can adjust to taste by adding more lime, honey or mint if you like. This salad is wonderfully refreshing and kids and adults both love it.

Slices of fruit are perfect treats for the little ones, just be sure to have lots of napkins handy to clean up the juice! If you know you will have picky eaters coming over, consider making a smaller fruit salad with no dressing just for them. No one can say no to watermelon!