I was afraid I’d missed the whole thing. A family emergency took me to California this summer for longer than I’d planned, and I fretted that I wouldn’t get back to Maine in time to enjoy the bounty of my garden. But I lucked out; in fact, there was an unexpected edible bonus waiting for me.

The cilantro, lettuce and bush beans have gone by, but the basil, thyme and parsley are still abundant. Two rows of green peppers look healthy, and a dozen fat cucumbers are begging to be picked. And the tomatoes! Oh, the tomatoes. There are thousands of sweet, golden-yellow cherry tomatoes just waiting to be plucked, and bulbous Brandywines hang heavy on the vine.

The surprise bonus? A misshapen, moss-covered peach tree in the front
yard that had produced exactly one rock-hard peach last year decided to
make nice this year and is now loaded with yellow peaches. Like kids
grabbing for their Christmas stockings, Jim and I brought out the
stepladder and started picking the ripest fruits, grinning with delight
as each perfect peach was dropped into a basket.

And there’s more: the wild raspberry and blackberry bushes in the
back are laden with succulent berries, and what I didn’t gobble on the
spot, I picked for later.

There’s nothing like a surprise harvest to make the mouth water, so
I took stock of what I could put together quickly for that night’s
dinner. I sliced and layered the basil, peppers, and tomatoes on a
pizza shell, supplemented by pepperoni, mushrooms, onion and cheese
from the store, and a zucchini from a neighbor’s garden.

Then I made a quick cobbler with the peaches and berries that we ate with a scoop of Dorman’s vanilla ice cream.

Our simple dinner, made with just-picked vegetables and fruits,
burst with fresh flavor in every bite, and most of it came from our own
backyard. I didn’t miss the whole thing after all.

Merrill Williams is the publisher of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.