I'm still in awe over how much is being produced by the garden. We're seriously going to have to think about how to preserve some of this or walk to neighbors' houses and beg them to take some. Actually what I need is more neighbors like the one that came over last night. Her husband was making dinner and he realized he forgot to buy cilantro and cucumbers at the grocery. She walked over and asked if we had any. I'm not growing cilantro, but I had some in the fridge and I gave her three cucumbers we had picked yesterday. I even had enough cucumbers left over for me to have an incredible cucumber sandwich for lunch today and still some to cut up and serve with humus for an appetizer tonight and go in our gyros tomorrow.
The cantaloupe has several female flowers and now that it's running through the watermelon box, wouldn't you know it, the watermelon has decided to start growing. Go figure. The sweet potatoes in the front box by the zucchini bush is putting out runners and rooting itself along them. More beans have sprouted in the other corner yard. We have a ton of large tomatoes growing, but my fear is that they'll all get ripe at the same time. This brings me back to preserving things since I don't have a canner or a pressure cooker or whatever it is you need. I'll have to look into freezing most things which I think will be easier to begin with since even if all the tomatoes ripen at the same time I'd never get 19 pounds out of them to can anything serious. Freezing seems to be more on my scale and I'd better get on learning more, otherwise we'll be eating a lot of zucchini bread in the future. :)
Today we picked more cherry tomatoes, a cucumber, a jalapeno pepper, some more purple beans, three straight neck squash, a zucchini and yet another tick from my leg. I'm still shocked at how much more productive this SFG is in comparison to my pots last year; mind you, it doesn't take much to surpass one zucchini and a handful of small tomatoes, AND how many ticks are out there. I've never had a tick on me that I can remember and this year I've found several. I made the most of today's harvest, sans tick, and sauteed the squash and zucchini with mushrooms to go with the whole chicken I had going in the crock-pot. I've never done a whole carcass in there before and the thing just fell off of the bone. It was very good, but I need to find a way to season it a bit more next time.
I'm headed out for one more bug picking. The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.
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January 27, 2015 - Family update
9 years ago
For a good freezing guide:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/foods/fn403.pdf
You might also want to Google "refrigerator pickles" for ways to use up those cucumbers.
Well, you deserve a bountiful harvest after last year's problems....I freeze all of the squash we can't eat right away, but blanch it first. Of course, cucumbers are used for pickle making, and no special tools are needed. My stuff is right behind yours! Woo Hoo!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on freezing, though my reason is I've never canned, and am intimidated by the whole process. I'm afraid I'd get a bad batch and kill someone-LOL. So, I freeze....
ReplyDeleteI am so glad your garden is producing this year- I remember how frustrating it was last year for you (kinda like all my gardening attempts now). I am gonna try a new crop and wanted to know if you had run into it: Lagos Spinach/Quail Grass. It can take tropical and temperate conditions in the summer (=very hot conditions), grows from seed, seeds are easily saved, and apparently tastes a lot like spinach (but have to boil it for a minute or so), plus it has beautiful flowers. I found out about it on a site talking about veggies you can plant in the tropics. Heard of it?
ReplyDeleteOh, I forgot to tell you my eggplant tip (we get them with our organic buying club): chop & grill them with a bunch of mixed veggies (marinate in balsamic vinegar first) and lots of seasonings. Our neighbor has a wok for his grill that we use- turns out really yummy and the man can do it while grilling (hi man!). I am trying a new recipe for baked sweet potato fries tomorrow night- I'll let you know (another thing from the buying club).
ReplyDeleteAtrox, I've never heard of that kind of spinach...let me know how it works for you. If it does, it may work here in the summer.
ReplyDeleteI'm so in for the fries. Let me know how they turn out.
Mmmmm, I LOVE sweet potato fries. I almost always bake mine.
ReplyDeleteNew Zealand spinach can be grown through the summer.
Your summer or our summer, Granny?
ReplyDelete:)
Things are about to slow down real quick like around here come end of June/July.
Anybody's summer, Ribbit! It's a hot weather alternative to real spinach. Actually, your summer and my summer aren't so different. I watch EG's weather, and it's really close to mine. Sometimes it's even warmer here! We're in the high 80s and low 90s most days now, and it will be "summer" for us until we get one lousy freeze toward the middle of October. Then it can stay warm through to Thanksgiving. I can remember a few years when I was still picking strawberries until the end of November.
ReplyDeleteGranny, temperature is one thing, but the humidity is quite another. You can go outside when it's 86 and not be able to breathe. Actually, I don't know if humidity affects plants or not, but it sure affects me.
ReplyDeleteThe plant I mentioned was from a list of veggies you can grow in the tropics = humidity. I'll let you know Ribbit in a couple months, hopefully!
ReplyDelete