Mustard green pesto with mushrooms and orecchiette. Other times, I’ve made this pesto with raw greens, but tonight I tried blanching them in water for a few seconds and pureeing with almonds, parmesan, and a trickle of olive oil. Cooking the mustard greens seemed to take away a certain spicy or spicy-sour kick from the sauce, which now seemed to require chile flakes. This was the first proper harvest from my garden, where tiny peppers are beginning to appear and I removed a tomato plant that was falling over and replaced it with winter squash. I bought two hydrangeas (always blue, we were told, in the acidic soil around here), and in one of the two the flowers immediately fell earthward and shriveled. It may have been that I cut off the roots when I took it out of the container, but Viet believes the plant misses its other hydrangea friends from the nursery.

(Photo: The better hydrangea, front yard.)

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