Turn your summer bounty in to tasty meals (+recipes)

Karena and Kasey with food from the garden. Photo / Michael Craig

In Maketu, everything growing in the summer vege garden is an inspiration.

We have fond memories of our grandmother spending hours in her garden, weeding and pruning her perfectly maintained plants. After a long day surrounded by her flowers, a huge sense of pride always emanated from her.

We think there has been a noticeable return to that era when taking pride in your garden was in vogue - although the trend now is to have gardens filled with fruit, vegetables and fresh herbs.

Our garden is a constant source of culinary inspiration and in Maketu a bounty of home-grown treats are shared and traded between each house.

Our mum, Aunty Mina (who lives across the road) and Aunty Wai (who lives on the next hill over) all compete to have the biggest and best crop of garlic every year.

Aunty Corrin has the biggest spring onions and greenest kale and Lucy down the road always has a wheelbarrow filled with kamokamo going free to a good pot.

Mum's plot overflows with ripe tomatoes every year and one of our favourite summer activities is to go to the local berry farms and fill our icecream containers with sweet sun-kissed fruit.

This time of year is incredibly inspiring for dishes because the produce is so abundant and accessible. It doesn't take much to turn the garden's delicious bounty into tasty meals. It's as though you can taste the sunshine in the food.

Kamokamo are part of the squash family, like a really overgrown courgette. They sprout like weeds in Maketu and are on the table at almost every dinner we have in summer.

We love to stuff the flowers. Here, we filled them with a smooth goats' cheese mousse
and battered them till they were deliciously crisp.

We serve it with a fresh salsa dip to cut through the decadent cheesy filling.

Sweetcorn is another summer treat we can't get enough of (especially when Aunty Aneta is in town).

This one-dish chicken bake has become a family favourite because it is filled with in seasonal ingredients and it only leaves one oven dish to wash.

Summer also calls for a glass of beautiful New Zealand rose. We have taken one of our favourite summertime drinks and turned it into a refreshing jelly filled with fresh berries and a dollop of cream.

It's a perfect refreshing treat at the end of the day and a great dessert if you are entertaining, because you can have them sitting in the fridge ready to go.

Recipes

Try out Kasey and Karena's delicious recipes at bite.co.nz - links below

Photos / Michael Craig

• Chicken, corn, pancetta and tomato bake
• Rose wine jelly with summer fruits
• Tempura kamokamo flowers with goats' cheese and tomato salsa