Finally.. Fall Gardening Season

Well, it's been a long, HOT summer...  70 days over 100F HOT...  Like, we beat multiple records in the state of Texas HOT...And my garden has suffered some because of it.  Though, there has been some bright spots.

My basil has gone crazy and I'm handing it out left and right.

As well the sage has done much better than I anticipated. 

Not only that, but some of the butternut squash not only survived the spring production and the summer but is producing again.

In addition, during all that insane heat, we began planting for the Fall and hoping that some day we would see "lows" below 86F and that everything would begin to perk up again!
 And it has...

One of the gardens is almost overrun with jalapenos, Hatch chili, eggplant, and other various pepper plants.  All which survived the brutality of summer.  (Can you tell summer was really miserable?)

The potted plants, because I could provide them some shade, also did well.
In addition, we planted a lot of new produce for the fall potential.

 Corn!  My first try at this and so far I'm surprised at how quickly they've grown.  These were seeds merely a month ago.

Ohh.  and more butternut squash as well as some pumpkins and gourds!

And, soon, I will hopefully be able to show the collard greens, carrots, radishes, and tomatoes as they begin to grow/produce.  So hopefully I'll have more to tell soon.

Ohh, had to add these.  Not really liking them as edible eggplant, but thought they were really pretty!

Garden Refresh

July is just around the corner and in Texas that means summer is in full swing.  Over the past few weeks, we've had an overabundance of crop to fill our kitchen.  I've had great dinners, given some away, canned alot, stocked, freezer and the frig.  But, now that we are going into constant 100F days, it's time to "start" the fall crop.  Neil Sperry said in a recent FB post, ..."(whether) carrying spring plants over makes any sense. (It seldom does make sense.)" and I've decided that he has a point.  Last year, we nursed a tomato plant to no avail, so this year, we're starting over.

Spring/Summer Garden

 And this weekend, the beginnings of the Summer/Fall garden!  I've removed about 10 tomato bushes that are done with their crop and have 2-3 more to go.  I've added 4 new tomato plants for fall production as well as butternut squash seeds. This is the first real Fall garden (usually I'm too late), so I'm pretty excited.  Wish me luck!

Listen to what mom says..

I'm a visual person.  If I see it I can make it, understand what's wrong, duplicate it, whatever.  I'm not, however, an audio person.  Read me a story, tell me a joke or give directions and after about 30 seconds I've forgotten the beginning.  Might be an attention span thing, but nonetheless... I just can't recall the whole of it. :)

My mom has a tendency to verbally provide recipes.  When we're talking about food, or what we did over the past week, she'll verbally recall the entire recipe for some dish she's made that she believes my DH or myself will love.  Though I appreciate her enthusiasm, it always appears to be when I'm not in a position to write it down.  So, of course, rarely do I remember any of the details of these "must have" recipes.

But one snippet of these many recipes stuck.

Mom likes to grill vegetables this time of year.  About anything you can imagine, she'll grill.  What's interesting is the way she "finishes off the dish."  Fresh diced tomatoes and a bit of basil.  What a difference it makes to what can sometimes be boring grilled veggies!  It adds a freshness and lightness to the dish.  Something I would totally recommend next time you serve grilled veggies. 

My version the other evening... Purple and white potatoes, onions, and fairy tale eggplant from the garden. topped with cherry tomatoes and fresh basil.
Enjoy and make sure to listen to what mom says...

World of Tomatoes

Like many scientist I tend to run my life like an experiment.  Last year, we decided to plant something like 36 different items in our garden just to see what would grow for us and what wouldn't.  But, this year, we honed in on the produce that was most successful and worked a more concentrated experiment.  What varieties of tomatoes would grow?  Which garden would be a better planting ground for them?

So far, we've learned some interesting things. 
1. Early Girl variety did not produce earlier than others.  In fact our first tomatoes came from Celebrity.
2. Celebrity really is a good variety for around here.  It produces alot and quickly.
3.  Don't plant too many cherry/grape/pears tomato varieties as they can overrun you (we 4 different plants for two people)
4. Our new garden has early blight but our established one doesn't really.  Plants are from the same nursery or seed company and were purchase at about the same time.  Haven't figure out an explanation for this yet.
5.  I don't have much luck with Heirloom varieties. To date we planted: Pineapple (no tomatoes), Black Krim (2 tomatoes), Cherokee Purple (1 Tomato), Old German (no tomatoes).  We even split them between pots and the garden as the mice had a field day last year with any heirlooms, but no real luck!
6. Tomatoes need more space than you think - I planted some of mine too close together.
7. Pull them when they are just starting to blush and let them turn red in the house.  I know people will argue about this with me, but if we don't we wouldn't get any tomatoes!  The mice are loving them and this is the only way for me to get any real production.  They're still better than what's int eh grocery store, so I'm willing to take the chance.

Here's an example of 3 days of production (with some eating involved):

 But, if I don't pull them quickly....

Of course, now the fun is I can't actually eat this many tomatoes in a given week, so we're finding fun ways to utilize them.  Look for some recipes soon.

Oh.  And the other tomatoes I'm growing are:
Celebrity
Early Girl
Jet Star
Yellow Pear
Sweet 100
Sweet Baby
Roma
Carnival
Rainbow Hybrid
Rutger's
Whopper

The Beauty of a Garden

It's been a rough year so far.  I won't get into the details or bore you with all that has happened, but let's just say it's been rough. I thought as the winter turned to spring it would get easier and I would have happier news to talk about, but it hasn't and I don't.
 
That being said, the one light that I have every day is my garden.  This year we decided to add a second one as I mentioned.  And with that came a bounty of options for planting.  I really planned out the garden this year, not just throwing in plants and seeds where ever they fit. 

I get up in the morning and want to go see what's growing and what's changed from the night before.  When I get home everyday, it's one of the first things I do.  The dogs have begun to understand that what comes out of the big boxes tastes good, and so they follow me all over, sniffing and searching for something.  For those few minutes, when I'm out there, trimming back plants, looking for what to harvest and admiring all of the potential, I'm happy. 

"Lord, make us mindful of the little things that grow and blossom in these days to make the world beautiful for us."



- W.E.B. du Bois

As the Garden Explodes

Last year I started this blog to talk about the trials and tribulations of my new garden and what I was able to make from it.  But, of course, things are not always as they seem.  We had a rough year with the garden and blogging just wasn't any fun.

But, it's a new year and a new garden or two...

Yep, that's right.  My generous husband decided it would be a great idea to ADD another garden to our backyard.  And after last year's experimentation, we've learned and started in a better place this year.  So, what did I plant?  Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Radish, Peas, Many different Peppers, Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Summer and Winter Squash and Potatoes. 

The good news:  We're producing.  Radishes and Peas were a great early spring addition and just like last year the production was high.  Next...
After weeks of watching as tomatoes appear all over the plants, but stay green, the fun has finally arrived and we're getting edible tomatoes!

We've already produced 2 lbs of these luscious ladies.  I love tomatoes, so I'm pretty excited.  Not only that, we've been able to harvest two tomato plants that were grown from seed!  One is a sweet baby tomato, the other is a hybrid tomato, both seeds from Gurney's.  As well, just like last year, the yellow pear tomatoes are doing well. 
So, with this crop, I found an interesting recipe where you can pickle them.  I'm not sure I've ever heard of pickled tomatoes, but it should interesting, so I'm going to try it out.  I'll let you know in a few weeks how it turns out.

Pickled Cherry Tomatoes

Copied from: http://homepage.mac.com/jdroth/recipes/recipe_136.html

1 quart water + 2 tbsp coarse/kosher salt for brine
Make a brine with the water and salt. Pierce the bottom of each tomato with a clean needle and submerge in the brine for 24 hours at room temperature.


1 pound firm cherry tomatoes
2 cups cider vinegar
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 sprigs tarragon or other herbs
12 black peppercorns

In a saucepan, combine vinegar and sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat. Remove the heat and cool thoroughly.
Remove the tomatoes from the brine and drain. Discard brine.
Carefully arrange the tomatoes in a 1-quart canning jar. Insert the herbs around the edges of the jar. Pour the vinegar-sugar mixture over the tomatoes. Secure with a tight lid. Let sit in a cool, dry place at least 3 weeks before tasting. Once opened the tomatoes can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.