The harvest continues
From this morning.
Those small yellow pear tomatoes just keep coming. We use them for everything, sauces, stews, salsa, salads, and that's just the s'es.
They are really good though, eat'm like candy.
While harvesting potatoes I accidentally uprooted a volunteer tomato plant of all green ones. It's ok though, I'll make Chile Verde and freeze for winter.
Not shown are a cup of raspberries (didn't survive breakfast) and corn.
Can't figure out why the ears of corn are so small. They are well past their harvest date and get plenty of sun and water. Maybe next year I'll try a different type.
Green beans and cucumbers are flowering a second time possibly giving me a second crop.
Italian squash is overwhelming the greenhouse framework.
And producing 4 ft. long fruit, so long I have to show it sideways.
Tried everything I could to flip that, but failed. Gonna have to go to work and find some recipes to freeze this stuff but running out of freezer space.
Gardening is fun. Harvesting, processing, and storing is a bitch. Not going hungry though.
Peace.
Comments
It all looks delicious e1
It does take some work but well worth it. Nothing beats the taste of vegetables and fruit that you grow yourself, we've ( my wife and I ) had a pretty good year for our little garden lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers and I appreciate them even more since I gave up eating meat 3yrs. ago.
Italian squash
A favorite in my wife's family who came to the US from Sicily after WW2, They call it Cucuzza, pronounced Ca coot sa.
Yeah I'm trying to ween myself off
of meat. Finding substitutes for protein that taste good is where I'm at now.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
protein
I hear you. Some of the main veggie-world protein sources. legumes, give me horrific gas. I love them, but most of them decidedly don't like me.
Peanuts are one exception; and, somewhat ironically, soybeans roasted and salted like peanuts are. I have no problem with roasted soybeans, but I have to be careful with some other soyfoods. I get along with most lentils pretty well, too; and lentils are seriously nutritious!
Tree nuts are also a great vegetable protein source. Of course, I find most tree nuts very tasty, so this is not a problem for me. The only threat cashews pose to me is that I might overeat them.
In all cases, "your mileage may vary".
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
omicat italian squash
Overwhelming your greenhouse and growing 4-foot long fruits!
What part of the country do you live in? And what variety of Italian Squash did you plant -- "Steely Dan" ??!!??
Seriously, that's some substantial squash-age there! Congratulations!
My sister brought over some tomatoes her hubby had grown this year. Seriously yummy!!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
I live in the Pacific Northwest
The seed packet said Snake Gourd.
Aka cacuzza.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
That's where I get caught up,
harvesting, processing and storing. It is a bitch at times. I'm good at getting the dam garden going, get the plants all nice and fruitful. Then when it comes to the picking and grinning, I run out of gas.
But, I eat tomatoes at every meal for about 3 months, so there's that. I've got 17 tomato plants this year, 25 last year. Love going out and picking my dinner just before I prepare it.
I hear ya, Big Al
But being raised in SoCal gave me a Mexican food palate, so I make a lot of sauces and chile verde and freeze. Tomato/Basil soup I make by the gallon, and it lasts til next season in freezer.
Great soup on a cold rainy PNw day.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
I'm jealous of your garden.
I've no room to plant corn at home, but I plant it at work, so right now I'm swimming in corn. Husking, blanching and freezing. It's getting old.
I'm not an expert on farming corn, but for this:
Small ears might mean that the variety you planted, under this years conditions, didn't produce tassels (pollen, male) at the same time that the ears (female) were ready for it. If you don't get good advice from other local gardeners, you might consider co-planting a few different varieties that are recommended for your area. Let em grow and have sex as they want. Or as the wind blows the pollen anyway.
Thanks for the advice , peachcreek
Didn't think of the sex part. Had the same suggestion regarding the Italian squash, they needed hand pollination. And look what happened.
A shout out to mhagle on that video, thanks Marilyn. Look what you have wrought.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
If pollination is a problem
If the corn rows are incomplete and the corn cob is close to normal size it is a pollination problem. If the ears are smaller that the write up in the seed catalog maybe growing conditions, including cool nights. In the past I have grown corn that ripened between 45 and 60 days that were only 4 to 6 inches in length. The cob to corn row were in proportion to large ear.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Beautiful Harvest
It's the time of year when you say ... "This why I went to all that trouble!" Yum!
I don't do canning anymore ... Only freezing. Some veggies have to be blanched, but most don't. And doing small lots is important. So maybe I pick in 20 okra. Wash them, cut them up, throw them in the freezer. Same for peppers. Tomatoes ... Cut out bad spots, run them through the food processor on slice, bag them and freeze them. I also freeze jam and sauerkraut in jars.
Do you have a favorite cacuzza recipe?
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
Found a couple of recipes
for the Cucuzzi but haven't tried yet.
Incidentally, thank you for that video. Solved the problem.
Just goes to show how important a community of people can be. I'm already getting suggestions regarding the corn. Shout out to Peachtree, thank you.
Maybe this is how we come together politically, by starting out as a community of gardeners plying our hobby. Conferring, suggesting, advising, HELPING, each other.
Come to think of it, like midwest farming communities.
Whooda thunk.
Peace
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Don't think I've had cucuzzi, but we like zucchini as a side
dish with pasta.
Have a bunch of good friends in Northern Italy and have stayed at their homes many times. My really good friend's mother makes a simple zucchini and carrots dish that I've made for years the goes nice with pasta.
For me, a complete pasta addict because of my upbringing, I can rarely just eat it alone. Now must have it with some kind of salad or green or vegetable dish.
She just sautés onion til slightly brown, and adds sliced zucchini and carrots (we add garlic near the end too, think she does too but can't remember). Perfect with a rich tomato sauce.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Marilyn - do you suck the air out of the bags when
freezing your sliced tomatoes? Also, how do you use them and how long can you keep them?
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Remove as much air as possible
The extra air space provides room for the water to migrate out of the food and increase the risk for freezer burn. The length of time for use depends on the freezer and use. Tomato slices in my frost-free freezer about 3 months, the one I defrost myself - 6-12 months. Length depends on temperature fluctuations effected by how many times I open the door and location in the freezer. If I cooked the slices for sauce 12-24 months. Only need to discard if has a bad taste.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Thanks. We've frozen whole tomatoes (for making sauces),
but never slices, so naturally I started wondering if they lasted longer, and why, in particular, slices, like for salads, or what?
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Before having to stop eating tomatoes & potatoes
would take a few roma tomatoes I grew and would slice a few to freeze for homemade pizza, along with homemade pesto. A little taste of summer during the depth of winter. It was better than the green/orange tomatoes being shipped to the grocery in the off season and tasted fresher than the home canned tomatoes.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Thanks, e1. That is gorgeous. When did you plant your spuds,
and will you replant fall/winter crop of same?
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Got a late start on spuds
Planted them April 15 and started pulling them a few at a time last month.
Yukon gold. I use my compost pile in late spring/summer for potato patch.
I'm going to try a patch in the main garden, which I cover in fall and winter, for a winter tolerant variety of spuds. The key is finding starts with "eyes". Had a hard time finding starts for the Golds in late spring.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Cool beans, love the diary, missing
the days in the gardens.
Btw, a belated response to last Saturday's OT as i didn't get back to responses for many comments: regarding the NASA photo, lately, I've been posting an image from NASA each morning on the OT. i didn't notice a long load time last week, but i do need to be aware if you folks are experiencing long downloads with their images. Yes, to their
amazing work and the splendid images they post.
Your diary makes me hungry. I did make homemade sauerkraut yesterday, but really miss out on the bounty a garden gives nowadays.
Have a good one!
Thanks for that, Smiley
It slowly revealed itself moving down the page, all those billions of stars in the background. That's how I knew it was real.
Absolutely amazing.
Wish I could mail you some zuccini as my neighbors stopped answering the door. Ha ha.
The squash and zuccini just keep coming.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
zucchini
A gardener stopped at a store and parked the car. There was a sack of zucchini in the back seat.
"I don't need to lock the car; I'll be right back!"
When the gardener returned, the car had been entered illicitly, but not maliciously.
The proof: there were now three sacks of zucchini on the back seat!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Thanks for sharing photos of your harvest
and bringing us along into your garden.
We have a small plot in our city community garden, but it's gone completely neglected because we just don't have the time to get there (it's a 25 minute walk).
Feel myself wanting to go in that direction more and more though.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Heh heh
A vision of you walking down a Queens street with a shovel and wheelbarrow and straw hat just appeared in my head. Lol.
Thanks for the kind words.
Peace.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.