Tag Archives: preserving

Tomatoes & the inevitable salsa

by on September 3, 2008 in Harvesting & Preserving

I really did mess up with the tomatoes :lol They’re all falling all over the place and planted so close together that a lot are falling into the middle of the whole mess and ripening and I can’t see them. There’s hundreds of tomatoes. It’s insanity.

Here’s the first group of tomatoes. About half were on the vines, ready to pick and the other half were on the ground. Most are Romas, but there’s a few Early Girl and a small Beefsteak or two in there. I made salsa and froze it today with the ripest ones :bounce

Drying parsley: a how-to in progress

by on June 30, 2008 in Harvesting & Preserving

Some random images and thoughts on drying parsley for the first time. I’ll put it all into one post at the end if it turns out well!

Started out with the biggest parsley, and grouped them into small bunches. Tied them with the left over twine from the trellis, and hung on a curtain rod in a window that gets a lot of direct sunlight. They are nice and bushy here, yesterday. Today they are wilting and I’m watching carefully to make sure they get good heat and airflow.

I died.

by on June 28, 2008 in General, The Growing Garden

Really. When I saw the thermometer in my van and it said 106F, I died. Thankfully the a/c brought me back. Well, maybe not so much, it’s still 80 degrees inside my house at 11pm and I’m miserable. I’m sure I sound melodramatic, but I tend to get awful migraines with the heat (got one yesterday) and it just makes me feel so horrible. Blech. I’m really not thrilled about this climate change stuff!

The garden is doing marvelous (I felt compelled to use that word, I don’t know why)…I finally have a teeny tiny oh-so-cute little green bean that I will get a picture of tomorrow. I dug up a little russet tater too, so see how they were doing, and it looks excellent. I will be cutting and drying parsley tomorrow, it’s taking over! I wish the basil would do so well. And the oregano and thyme…and chives…I’m getting the distinct impression my herbs don’t like this soil, at all. Time for a container herb garden?

The peas are producing like crazy. So far, no one else likes them much so they are ALL MINE! HA! Their loss! I found I much prefer the sugar snap to the Oregon snap, better flavor and crunch, but the sugar is tasty too. Lots of strawberries, and the kids and Chris report they are awesome. Tiny little things even fully ripe, but very juicy and tasty. The pumpkins, zucchini and crookneck squash are growing very well, getting big and leafy, but no blooms. I’m guessing in the next 2 weeks I’ll see some.

See you soon!

Those pictures I promised

by on June 20, 2008 in Harvesting & Preserving, The Growing Garden

I couldn’t wait to get out and get pictures…I’m like a kid opening presents with this garden :lol

Here’s a pea pod:

One of the ripening strawberries:

And the tomatoes with their new supports (the smaller plants are the early girls that I started from seed much later then the beefsteak and roma)…I wasn’t able to get a decent shot of the flowers, my camera has been having issues focusing:

The biggest corn:

And in other news, I went to Fordyce farms and got a 1/2 flat of strawberries for way more then they are worth and made jam:

I still have enough to do another batch of 4 pints, which I’ll get done today before they go bad:

(sometime…around visiting my dad and working and getting the house cleaned for my brother and his family that is coming Monday :dizzy )…Not gonna be a relaxing weekend!