This afternoon and evening i braved the mosquitos to harvest the ripe peppers and tomatoes and zucchinis.
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| My wagon filled with produce. |
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| Green bell peppers and mini bells. |
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| three types of summer squash and pink and black cherry tomatoes |
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| These are Brandywine tomatoes |
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| slicers |
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| Paste tomatoes |
All in all this time I picked 9 zucchini, 4.5 pounds of bell peppers, and over 75 pounds of various varieties of tomatoes. The tomatoes have had a rough time and it shows with some scarring of the skin. We had drought, monsoons and now cold. They will work well for canning even if they aren't going to win a beauty contest. I have started to can, making pepper jelly and zucchini pepper jelly and Bloody Mary mix so far. Today there were a few dandelions in the yard so I collected some for another batch of dandelion jelly.
We were able to harvest a little bit of basil and some spearmint this season. Both came up on their own. Thank goodness for hearty plants since I do not have a green thumb! ;)
ReplyDeleteDon't you love it when volunteer plants show up? This year we had some volunteer Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes that were discovered shortly after Caitlin had commented that she was disappointed that we hadn't planted any this year. What did you do with your basil? We add ours to lemonade and also make anything caprese. I suppose the mint could be used to make a mojito.
DeleteWe cook with it, mozzarella and basil and tomato, or add it to sauce. My husband adds mint to his iced tea or his vodka, ice tea mixers. Sometimes, I will add to water for a kick, but even when we don't use either in the kitchen, I can enjoy their scents in the garden. They are strong...
DeleteAh, you do caprese too. I was thinking that you had said at one point that you were Italian so I am not surprised. And yes, the scents are great.
DeleteLooks like you've got quite a harvest of veges there! I've only canned strawberry jam but it's been a while since I did that. My mother in-law always canned up vegetables. She and her daughter would make kind of a marathon of it about this time of year. Its most appreciated when winter comes and you can taste the good food you put up!
ReplyDeleteThanks Liz, I hear you about the marathon idea. Right now everything seems to be ganging up on me. I am canning bloody mary mix, and two versions of pepper jelly and the dandelions showed up again so I am making dandelion jelly and now the elderberries are ripe and I have two varieties of grapes in the fridge that need to be done asap. I am hoping to limp along until the weekend and then do my marathon...
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