Harvest Monday, August 16 2010

It's Harvest Monday! Hop on over to Daphne's place and see what everybody has harvested for the past week.

My tomatoes slowed down a little this week, although I still gave lots away. I didn’t can any tomatoes this week, although I tried the Zucchini Relish that The Frugal Gardener makes. What a great use for those zucchini that I somehow miss on the vines! I ended up with 6 pints of relish, plus a little smidgeon I put in a small container in the frig. I tried it with a pepper jack cheese sandwich, and it was very good. I’m sure the next time I make this recipe, it won’t take me near as long as this first one did!

I’m enjoying the first of my cucumbers this week. It’s so nice to walk outside and grab a few to go with the tomatoes I slice for dinner. I even took some in a salad I made for a potluck on Friday. This week was also the very beginning of our apples. I can see the applesauce coming already! And I’m running out of pint jars! Geoff bought more while he was in town, so I wouldn’t have to make a special trip when I start making the stuff. Michael (our oldest) really likes applesauce, so I think I’ll can a bunch in quarts to send home with him. The quarts are much faster, and I have tons of them in the garage just waiting to be filled. I selectively picked a basketful of Fuji’s to make a cranberry apple pie, and have a few on the counter for some tart eating. Of course, we have to be a little careful, checking for a few bugs, but it’s not really a big problem.

The total for this week is: 44.125 pounds

Tomatoes; 22.625 lbs

Squash; 5.5 lbs

Peppers; .5 lbs

Herbs; .625 lbs

Chard; 4.375 lbs

Cucumbers; 4.5 lbs

Apples! 6.75 lbs

Harvest Monday, August 9

Well, I'm here at my dad's, using his computer and internet connection. (Thanks, Dad!) Ours is down. Won't upload pics, and I can't access my email. Ugh! We have an appointment to get it fixed the end of next week. Wahoo! But, you didn't really want to know all that, right? Right. So, on with the harvest for the past week. Want to see more harvests? Check out Daphne's Harvest Monday. Thanks, Daphne, for hosting this. I really enjoy looking at what other folks are up to.

I got my first cucumber! Only one, but more are coming. It was really good with cut up tomatoes with dinner that night. I didn't even think to get a picture of it before I hauled it inside for dinner. Aside from my first cucumber of the year, this week was all about the tomatoes. Boy, did we have tomatoes. Good thing I'm off work for a few more weeks, because I was able to can a boatload of tomato things. I canned 6 quarts of tomato juice yesterday. Here's the before:


And here's the after! I just love looking at my filled jars!


10 quarts of chunky pasta sauce (new recipe.) This brings my total pasta sauce up to 19 quarts. That ought to be enough for the year!


And enchilada sauce! Ok, it started out as salsa, but then I was multi-tasking, and trying out two new recipes, and not really following either one, and talking on the phone, and it didn't really want to be salsa anyway, but enchilada sauce instead. So I canned the second batch in quarts instead of pints. Here it is in my pantry, just waiting for the middle of winter for me to come home from work and have some for dinner. I can just hear them saying, "Pick me! Pick me!" Aren't they pretty? I think I might look for some new, more modern shelf paper for my pantry, though! What do you think?


Oh, and the sunflowers are all starting to flower! I was able to pick 2 bouquets to bring inside this week. I have a volunteer in with the tomatoes in one of my beds, and I picked a few from that plant, along with some in a new area not planted before.


I'm happy to report that my chard is coming back from the dead. I messed up on the watering, and I thought it was being watered automatically, only to find that it was, in fact, trying it's darnedest to live on nothing! I revamped my drip system in that bed (long story, even longer bed!) and my chard can now live happily ever after. The End!


Total this week: 67.25 lbs
tomatoes 54 lbs
squash 9.25 lbs
chard 3.25 lbs
cucumber .75 lbs

Harvest Monday, August 2

It's Harvest Monday at Daphne's place! Another week has gone by, and I've picked the veggies, and watered, and pulled weeds, and enjoyed my garden every day. I love this time of year. This week the tomatoes have been the stars of the garden. They've produced enough for me to have tomatoes with every dinner, sometimes just cut up and eaten as is, and sometimes mixed with cucumbers and rice vinegar with a little salt and pepper. There were also enough tomatoes to try out a new chunky garden pasta sauce and can 9 quarts of that. I had just a little extra, and turned it into a quickie dinner with biscuits, pasta sauce, and cheese.

Pics for the week: Saturday morning, I was talking to my aunt on the phone picking grape tomatoes ... multi tasking! Here they are with just a few of the full sized Tye Dye tomatoes and a Steak Sandwich, along with the ever present zucchini.


Here's a few of the quart jars of pasta sauce I made. Pretty, aren't they??


I made a quick batch of salsa to have with dinner tonight. It was yummy!


And here's Dozer's Harvest. He's pretending he doesn't see it, because, even though he was snagged red handed, he was still trying to act all innocent-like. Can you tell he's looking at it out of the corner of his eye? Once I figured out it was a walnut and not a tomato, I told him, "Bon appetit!" That's his cue to eat whatever is in front of him. The tomatoes he picked were earlier in the week, and I was not able to get pictures of them.

Totals for the week:

Tomatoes............... 46 lbs
Squash ................. 7 lbs
Basil...................... 1 lbs
Peppers ................. 5 lbs
Chard ................... 2 lbs
Kale ..................... 1 lbs

Harvest Monday, July 26

It's Harvest Monday again! I've had a pretty busy week, and not all of it was in the garden. But, since this is a harvest Monday post, I'll just stick to the garden stuff. The tomatoes have decided it's time to produce. I've been able to give away quite a few, in addition to canning some. There's more out on the vines that need to be picked now, so I'll can more later, when I stay home for a few days! There have been a steady stream of squash, but not so much that I am sick of them. I concocted a new squash recipe that we inhaled. I'm still working on the instructions for that one, so I'll expand on that in another post. Here's just a few of the things I picked:



The last of the plums came off the tree this week. They're so yummy, but we didn't have many on the tree to begin with, so I was sorry to see them go. I was able to can a few more batches.


This week's total was 23.99 lbs., bringing the month's total to just over 90 lbs. Woohoo!

Plums: 4 lbs
Tomatoes: 12.75 lbs
Squash: 3.75 lbs
Basil: 1.5 lbs
Chard: .75 lbs
Kale: 1.12 lbs
3 radishes: .12 lbs

Would you like to see what other gardeners are harvesting in their gardens? Go to Daphne's Dandelions and join in on the fun. Thanks, Daphne, for hosting this. I really enjoy it!

Sunday Ribs with Kale and Tomatoes

Dinner tonight was slow cooked ribs. They were really, really, good. Geoff put a dry rub on them after he marinaded them for a few hours. Then he barbecued them for an hour or so. Oh, they were good. Then I realized I'd better fix something to go with them, because, while ribs are tasty, they need some sort of veggie. So I cut up some tomatoes, and made..... kale chips. Ever had them? Actually, an hour before we ate them, I'd never even heard of them. My father-in-law told me about them, so I ran out (actually, I walked rather slowly) to the garden and picked myself a handful of kale and got to work.



Kale Chips

1 pound kale, rinsed, dried, cut from stem
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon barbecue seasoning

In bowl, gently mix kale with oil and bbq seasoning. Put on parchment lined cookie sheet, bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes. Check after about 10 minutes, every 5 minutes thereafter. You want the kale to be crispy but not a burned crispy.

*I think next time I'll put a wire rack sprayed with Pam on top of the cookie sheet, and put the kale on that. The parchment got wet from the oil and the moisture from the kale.

The Jolly Green Giant and........ Aliens!

Big things happened here while I was gone. Unbeknown to me, it seems that The Jolly Green Giant has an onion patch next door. My neighbor brought these to me yesterday. Look at the size of these things! I weighed the one on the right, and it was over 2 lbs! Now I'm thinking of something special to do with these. Maybe Bloomin' Onions?? About 5 or 6 batches of lasagna?



And, as if a giant next door isn't enough, I think aliens landed in my garden while I was gone. A little hard to believe, I know, but I have proof. They seem to have left some sort of dry, fuzzy, fungussy sort of thing. It's growing in most of my beds.



And it's also growing in the walkways that have chips on them.




What's up with this?? Whatever it is, I don't like it, and when I find it, I pull it up, very, very carefully. Then it turns my fingers a dark brownish color. Ewww! I want the aliens to come take it all back.

Harvest Monday, July 17

I'm putting this one up early because I'm going to be away from my garden, and computer, for a few days. I'm leaving. I'm leaving town. Actually, I'm leaving the whole state! My oldest son and I are going to visit relatives, and cut trees, and stack brush, and wander around the most beautiful country ever. I'll take pictures for you. Anyway, here's the lowdown on my harvest this week:

Plums! I picked more plums than we could eat. They are great canned, and my favorite way to eat them is cold over applesauce. I only had time for two batches, but hopefully I can get more done after I come back.

Basil..... boy, did I pick the basil! Lots and lots of basil. I made a double batch of pesto, and put it in the freezer. If it keeps producing like this, I will need to get one of those 55 gallon drum of olive oil from Sam's!


And tomatoes. This was the week for tomatoes. We had tomatoes just washed and cut up, we had tomatoes in sandwiches, we had tomatoes in omelets, and then I canned tomatoes. Please pretend there's a nice picture of jars of tomatoes on the counter. I thought I took a picture of them, but I guess I didn't. So now it's late, and I'm getting up early, and I don't want to take a picture. Please understand!

Week's total:

Plums, 13 lbs
Tomatoes, 24.75 lbs
Squash, 2 lbs
Basil, 2 lbs.
Peppers, 2 oz.