A Moment of Silence for the Tomatoes, Please

Well, I feel like a true pioneer woman today... except that they didn't have a freezer! Technically, you're not supposed to water bath can tomatoes from dead/dying vines, so I have to freeze everything or pressure can it (which I just don't have the energy for).

My tomatoes, for those who haven't heard, have succombed entirely to late tomato blight. I'm about to head out and rip up every last plant, bag it up, and throw it away! I can't even compost them (sigh). But I harvested every last usable tomato and made 7 pints of green tomato salsa, 1 quart of green tomato ketchup, and pureed 10 cups for breads/cakes this week. I'm about to tackle the last bit of red tomatoes for some sauce for the freezer. I'm afraid to just freeze the tomatoes themselves because the few who have blight already on them are succombing. I'm afraid it might still eat the tomatoes in the freezer. So, I'm going to cut out all bad spots and cook those babies with some fresh basil--maybe I'll do some soup. I'm WORN OUT. The green tomato salsa and ketchup all got made today. I'm pooped. I'm actually glad I won't be harvesting any tomatoes next week. And then I'll start to get sad. Maybe my peppers will do even better without the competition for light and nutrients (my tomatoes have grown over everything and are so congested thanks to all the rain--it's no wonder they all got sick).

Here's my tomato count for the season: (no doubt it would be higher if the stupid squirrels hadn't shown such a love for green tomatoes--no telling how many they carried off!) (this includes everything I picked--many of which I've given away)

Romas: 58 (mix of several--some from Parks and some from Lowe's)

All-Purpose: 35 (mix of Rutgers (they do well for me), Fabulous, Early Girls, Celebrity)

Mr. Stripeys: 12 (these are my favorite and this is the healthiest plant... sigh...these babies are HUGE, very cool-looking tomatoes--even the green ones are prettier than other green ones)

Orange Cherries (cups): 8

Yellow Pears--cherry type (cups): 8

Green Tomatoes: 6 pounds miscellaneous plus 30 all-purpose/Mr. Stripeys and 20 Romas

The Harvest Continues....

I'm getting spoiled with all this rain! My garden is doing better than ever before! And I'm doing.... nothing... at... all... (except tie up tomato plants that are taller than I am, direct vigorous squash/cucumber/melon vines back into our yard, pull up weeds that are growing overnight, etc. etc. etc.).

As of today, I officially recant all of my complaining, frustrated lambastes of organic gardening, embittered diatribes against cutworms and the like. Instead, I've been fully restored to the joys of having garden produce on my back doorstep!

I harvested another bumper crop of basil leaves today (I'm getting 3-4 cups weekly now), a cucumber (3 more footlongs on the way this week), some orange cherry tomatoes (looks like a few quarts will be ripening up this week), some romas, some all-purpose tomatoes, some onions, and enough green and wax beans to feed my family for two meals (those are going into the freezer). My pepper plants have little babies (they never produced at all last year), my winter squash plants have babies, and there is a watermelon volunteer in the compost heap. To add to the contentment, my middle child (W) asked eagerly for a "cum-cum" as soon as we walked in the door to the kitchen (he LOVES cucumbers). Aaahhh.... maybe this post will remind me next spring why I'm digging in the dirt and muttering and wondering if this is all worth it.

Abundance in the Garden

After my very trying start to my gardening year, suddenly I'm looking at prospective (and actual) abundance! I just harvested a volunteer cucumber from last year: it's 13 inches long!!!!! Not sure what it's going to taste like. It grew in a matter of days, so I'm going to have to keep an eye on the vigorous plant and the other baby cukes on it. I have flowers on a couple of pepper plants, flowers on most of my bean plants, baby jalapenos forming, green tomatoes on most of my tomato plants, and.... a HUGE crop of basil. I'm going to be making pesto today because I brought in about 4 cups of leaves!!!! That's right: 4 cups. Crazy, eh? I've rooted some of the cuttings in water, so let me know if you're interested. I know Alicia is--I can always root more for the rest of you. I have Marseilles, Sweet Genovese, Lime, and Cinnamon.

Interesting Idea: Survival Seed Bank

So, I ran across this little idea in another blog: Survival Seed Bank. You can buy a certain amount of seeds that will last you quite a while due to the way they're sealed. The idea is that then you can ensure that your family will always have a source of food.

This is interesting to me partly because my cousin Cary Fowler (well, first cousin, once removed) was one of the key people getting the Svalbard Global Seed Bank up and running.

Gardening Take 2

Well... we left behind the first garden. I was sad to leave - had lots of squash, cukes, melons, beans, radishes, carrots, lettuce, spinach, peas, beans, basil,beets, mustard, and discovered (the day we left *sob*) that 3 pepper plants and 2 tomato plants were growing back! Not sure what happened to my cabbages, now that I think of it!

So... I'm trying take 2 at the new place. I planted some squash, zucchini, melons, lettuce, spinach, and mustard. It sounds like a lot, but it isn't - just threw a few seeds in the tiny plot and hoping something happens. I have some space in the front that I'm considering sticking some other stuff into. It'll be a late late harvest, but hopefully the weather will hold and we'll be good to go. I'd be overjoyed at some melons and spaghetti squash at this point. 2 things I hate to pay for!

Organic Gardening is for the Birds...

...and slugs, cabbage loopers, roly polies, weird black bugs, worms, rabbits, dogs,.....

I'm delighted to report that I harvested two monstrous heads of Napa cabbage Thursday night and will harvest two more this week. The amount of bugs in my kitchen sink as I did the preliminary cleaning of one head gave Elizabeth nightmares.... Seriously. They freaked her out, and she woke up in the middle of the night thinking there were bugs in her bed. It could have been because her mommy was also a little freaked out and working VERY hard to keep all the bugs in the sink/down the drain as they frantically crawled up the walls of the sink. Hmm.... Next time, I'll just hose the cabbages off outside or dunk them in the kiddy pool (when there are no kids in it).

ANYWAY, once that trauma was past us, I was willing to re-wash and eat this lovely, Swiss-cheese-looking cabbage. The bugs left me a little, and, when it's chopped finely in a yummy Mexican slaw, you can't even see the little holes and inroads from the bugs.

I've got baby tomatoes coming on one tomato plant, cukes/beans/zucchini/winter squash sprouting, and pepper and basil plants thriving. All greens, save the cabbage, have gone to seed. Oh, I even harvested a little broccoli. My peas look like they're packing up for summer vacation.

How's everyone else's little plots doing? Katie, I know, has some Swiss chard coming up.

Strawberry Season

Anyone else overdosing on strawberries? You can pick them at the Fruit and Berry Patch now, but I have yet to do that. I've gotten some from Pratt's and from the Farmer's Market.

Here's a website for strawberry picking info and one for strawberry jam! I didn't try this recipe; I used one of my sister's and had ok success. I've used others from this website before, though, and had good luck with them.