serious tomatoes

oh yeah, it's on.  yo, check out my stash for today:

with these tomatoes i made a double batch of the dean and deluca pasta sauce, and will either can the rest as-is, or i just remembered how freakin delish the d&d minestrone is.  might have to go that route after a quick stop to the farm stand for some green beans.

previous to this harvest, i've already made a double batch of the d&d sauce (3 pints in the freezer) and a triple batch of this roasted tomato chipotle salsa (3 + pints canned).  run, don't walk to this recipe from 101 cookbooks.  the only thing i changed was omitting the hot peppers (for mild baby boy palettes), and adding some roasted corn to satisfy my need to add corn to every meal.  for the next batch, i may also add in some cumin and/or marjoram.

of note with the tomatoes, had some hornworm problems for a few weeks, late july and early august.  we were picking off at least a few each day, and man do they go to town!  effers.  lost at least a few dozen toms to them.  interestingly, they much preferred the slicers and cherry varieties, leaving the romas alone for the most part.  they seem to be gone now.  good riddance.

also had what i think was early blight, which makes my plants look pretty bad, but i don't know how harmful it is to tom production.  will have to read up on that for next year.

early blight hit hard late july

hi, i'm cute

took in all the cauliflower.  it didn't look too appetizing to me (why did they all turn purple and get so leggy???), so i decided to just steam it all and make fake mashed potatoes with them.  butter and salt cure all veggie woes...  lots of leftovers, so i may end up putting them into something else.  i think you can use mashed potatoes as a substitute for fats, so we'll see how that goes.

also took in the first "early" cabbage.  it was gnawed by something last night (only the one head), but i think i can salvage most of it for the aforementioned minestrone.  is that gross?

summer's flying by

just wanted to jot down some thoughts, as i am just crap at updating this blog thingy.

broccoli:  (and why can't i ever spell that?)  the "pacman" variety came up early, and i was really excited about that.  but then we went away for a week's vacation at the beginning of july, and all the 6 heads bolted, flowered, and were cut by the little girl tending the veggies for the week.  there are some sideshoots as promised on the tag, but not the crowns i was hoping for.  and perhaps i'm cutting even these too late, as the flavor is not exactly top notch.  the boy who loves broccoli won't eat it.
the "premium crop" variety looks promising.  the heads are slightly bigger, and they are maturing slower.

cabbage:  the "early" variety looks great, forming nice little heads.  "mid season" variety still looks like a pile of leaves.  the pile of leaves variety got attacked by cabbage worm.  i figured this out late, and sprinkled Bt on all the surviving cole crops.  seems to have worked.

note holes from caterpillar chomping.  white stuff is Bt.  hard to see other caterpillar evidence (the green poo pellets)

borage:  loving it, finally.  tho not using it really.  it's beautiful, the bees love it, it's big, it's stalk-y, and apparently will self-seed.  these are all excellent qualities for a planting in the orchard.  maybe not the best choice for directly beside the front door...  so far the bees have all been friendly, and none have tried to come inside.  the boy even "patted" a bumble today, siting that it felt, "tickly".  hmmm.

so pretty and pointy!

brussels sprouts:  teeny tiny buds are forming.  i hope they make it!

cauliflower:  got 6 of the "snow crown" variety.  some of them are turning purple-ish.  is this normal?  one of them is putting out flowers already.  small heads.  i think this is another broccoli story - not worth the space.

cukes:  we've harvested 4 thus far - loving the bush cukes!  i put tomato cages around them, and this is probably good enough.  they were spreading out quite a bit, so i'm glad they're now growing "up" a bit.  lots of flowers, lots of little cuke buds.  so excited about trying pickling!

tomatoes:  they are rocking!  so many tomatoes out there.  we bet the farm on the celebrity variety being our "slicer", and roma plums being our salsa/sauce go-to girl.  i waited too long on figuring out a trellis system, so we settled for quickie "teepees" over 1/2 the box.  don't think i'd do that again, as there has been a lot of tying up with twine to the posts.  but overall, not too much work, and lots of production!

swiss chard:  loving the chard!  i think there's a total of 7 "bright lights" plants out there.  they put out so many leaves, that i am cutting some every few days.  we are loving the chard sauted with pasta, in stir fries, and i stuffed some into veggie burgers.  all good!  i think this is a goodly amount of plants.


thoughts for next year's garden
even though we are in the thick of tending, weeding and harvesting, my mind already races ahead to improvements.

greens:  next year, i think i would like to do more greens.  loving having the fresh chard around for daily snips.  i would like some variety.  hopefully we can get some spinach in early, then add some kale.  i would love to try some salad-y greens, too.  arugula?  mesclun?  radicchio?

cole crops:  forget broccoli.  not worth the space for what they give.  maybe the same story for cauliflower?  i can get lovely heads of both at the farmers' market for cheap and probably spend the same amount as i did for starts.

peas:  would love to add these to the mix.  sugar snap.  is that what they're called?  anyway, the kinds that have the edible pods.  i can see snacking with the boy in the garden while playing outside.  yum!

herbs:  must remember to do more succession planting instead of all at once.  all my cilantro bolted, and i only used it about 5 times.  and i think starting marigolds from seeds was fun, but i will start them early inside, as they are just starting to flower now.

6:00 am weeding with the boy who promptly steals the kneeling pad such that he can wing it around