Latino Vegetables Gardening: The Sadness of Saying Adios to Summer 

Hola Familia Kitchen homecooks and non-cooking foodie friends from all over the world who love Latino food. It’s Familia Kitchen co-founder Kim, checking in at the start of Labor Day Weekend with an ode to tomatoes, chiles, bell peppers, zucchini and other summertime fruits and vegetables we love to eat and (sometimes) grow.

Labor Day is complicated, isn’t it? On the one hand: Three day weekend! On the other, end-of-summer tristeza. May we all get outside to grill, sink our toes in the scratchy grass, mix happy Latino drinks (Mojito? Pisco sour? Mezcal paloma?), and generally hang afuera as much as we can. 

Personally, I am fighting off the sadness of verano’s end this year by sowing seeds. I know. That sounds so archaic and 18^th century. And for a girl who grew up in the cracked cement-sidewalks of Condado, Puerto Rico, it’s been a shocking development. I blame COVID, when we were all forced to stay home and get resourceful. I took up dirt and seeds. At that same time, my co-founder Lisa and I were pouring our hearts and souls into launching Familia Kitchen for our ever-growing community of homecooks who love comida Latina. Two obsessions came together.

I’ve since fallen in endless love with vegetable gardening. It started with planting Latino-ingredient favorites: tomatoes, calabaza (squash), cilantro, and lots of chiles: serranos, jalapeños, plus green bell and cubanelle peppers for Puerto Rican recipes. Then I got into sowing garlic over the winter (you plant a clove in late October and you get a whole head the next June! It’s crazy.). I went nuts and kept going, planting something like 25 different vegetables. Now I’m adding native flowers and pollinators to help the vegetables grow bigger, healthier, and sweeter. I. Can’t. Stop.

If there was a mistake to make in vegetable gardening, I have made it. I knew nothing, literally, when I started gardening. That first year I stumbled into beginner’s luck and almost everything bloomed. The second year, nothing grew. Literally: nothing. So I mail-ordered and built garden beds (They’re easy, like Legos. It’s fun, I swear.). The third year, the garden did OK. This fourth year, wow. Thanks to mucho rain and those garden beds, almost everything grew. I have enough left over to give away tomatoes, chiles and garlic to friends.

This Labor Day Weekend, when I have to say goodbye to many plant friends, I am fighting back. For the first time, I will keep the cooking-Latino-from-fresh going by starting a fall garden .(Am sowing seeds for hardy things like: radishes to sprinkle on pozole, cilantro, lettuce, scallions, and carrots.) That will get me through October, when it’s time to plant garlic again to overwinter. And then it all begins again next spring. The obsesión lives on.

In the meantime, I’ve assigned myself a Labor Day Weekend cooking challenge. How do I use up every last fresh tomato, chile, pepper, garlic clove, zucchini, and cilantro sprig? With Familia Kitchen recipes, of course. Below are the dishes I’m eyeing, all delicioso family faves from our talented Familia Kitchen homecooks. What about you? I’d love to hear what you are cooking up this long weekend!—[email protected]  ⬇️

Find more family-famous Latino recipes at FamiliaKitchen.com!