Posted on 07/31/2009 4:00:03 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning to all of you gardeners. The last day of July and I am wondering what August has in store for us weather wise? One thing I do know is the weather will continue to do what it wants and the only thing you can do about it is to accept it or move somewhere else. Of course once you move the weather there will change.
You bet I remember that earlier picture! Man they have grown! Must be hard to heard geeses!
You do know that it would not take much more for me to end it all by jumping off the tailgate of my Chevy pickup...
For what conceivable reason??? Wha’d I do???
Before you end it all, could you come over and help me pick eggplant? It should only take a month or two!!! Bring a wheelbarrow!
No but I’ve dehydrated both sucessfully. They taste like candy when dehydrated but you do have to be careful and keep track of how many pieces equal one slice otherwise you could eat a whole melon and not realize it since they are mostly water.
Oh Dear how to I say this.. It's because... it's because your garden is a Old Man's Wet Dream!
Salsa! Love it!
I usually wing it because I’ve made it for so many years, but here is a very good recipe I made up long ago:
Too Many Tomatoes (Fresh) Salsa
5 or 6 medium sized fresh tomatoes, any color combo, cored and finely diced
1/2 red or sweet white onion, finely diced
1 jalapeño chili pepper, stems, ribs, seeds removed*, finely diced
*Use a SPOON to take out the seeds and ribs of the jalapeno pepper. Yes, your thumbnail works just FINE, but you will pay for it dearly, LOL!
A ‘drizzle’ of good olive oil
A ‘splash’ of red wine or balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. of chopped garlic
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro OR 1 heaping teaspoon of ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste (I don’t add salt to anything when I’m cooking)
Chop, mix, eat. :)
Just keep bumping up the amounts to fit your tomato harvest.
If you want a cooked salsa try this recipe. It’s made in your crock pot so you don’t have to heat up the house by running the stove:
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Slow-Cooked-Salsa
And here’s a recipe for cooked salsa, using up about 40 roma-type tomatoes at a time for salsa. If you need to use a combination of tomatoes, just slowly cook it down longer to make it less ‘wet.’
http://www.recipezaar.com/Easy-Cooked-Salsa-30052
You can’t go wrong with either ‘Taste of Home’ or ‘RecipeZaar’ recipes, IMHO. Both are great sites and the recipes always turn out right.
I also like fruit in my salsa, though it drives Husband ‘round the bend, LOL! Add crushed (canned, drained) pineapple to ANY salsa recipe and it’s a winner to me. :)
The cherry tomatoes—saw a squirrel rolling one across the deck the other day. Went out to chase it away and found a pile of five tomatoes in the corner of the deck. Stocking up for winter??
Planted some cukes for a fall crop and they are coming up!
Have had good rain this week and typically hot and humid weather.
,
LOL! That’s extremely kind of you to say. To me, my garden is a mess that needs much more attention than I’ve been giving it lately. Thanks ... I needed that.
I have a new dryer and just did my onions. Any special instructions for melons? Do they need to be soaked in lemon water first to keep their color?
I am sooooooooooooooooooooo “J” of your work. Your plants are GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!
I was in the midst of making green tomato chutney when the power went out just before 5pm. IT came back on about 15 minutes ago and needless to say, I’m not in the mood to deal with it right now -— it can wait until the morning.
We thought hubby had closed the bedroom window in time, but alas he didn’t. His pillow is now in the dryer (the wind blew mine off the bed) and even flipping the mattress is not working real well because it was soaked completely through.
Dinner for me and hubby was ham salad sandwiches and kidlet had a chicken salad sandwich because I was unable to finish making the turkey curry I had started, let alone cook any rice. OH well, at least I don’t have to worry about the question of “what’s for dinner” on Sunday.
Add the tomatoes cut them in pieces and cook until the skin just pulls away from the pulp.
Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese.
I keep it in the refrigerator and serve it cold as a salad with grilled meat....
Oh, BTW, my kids nick named it “garden-garbage”
ROFL!!!!!!!!! I love it!!!!!
Thank your kids for giving me a great name for a summer fave in this household!!!!!
Another way I love to do it is wrapped in a double thickness of foil, either on the grill or in the oven. Add some small cubes of beef (or any meat) that have been marinated in your favorite vinaigrette and you've got a NO POT TO WASH dinner!!!!
I just dried mine but what I did do was make sure I cut each slice into the same amount of pieces. a 3” square will go down to about 1/3” because they have so much water in them.
Turkey curry sounds great. Hard to beat a good curry ... I think shrimp is my favorite, but it is one of those dishes that I haven't mastered. Penzey's has a hot curry blend that I haven't tried yet, and that might just be the ticket.
How'd the greenhouse project go? Love to see photos, if you have any.
Thank you so much for the stir-fry using eggplant. I need all the help I can get!
Thanks for the generous compliment on my garden. That means so much coming from an expert. ;-)
Good Morning. We have taters, bell peppers, onions, and cucumbers. Mellons are not ripe yet. Can’t catch a break with the tomatoes.
Having a lot of trouble with squirrels eating them. We have cages around them, but did not make the diameter large enough, the little buggers can still reach some of them.
Yesterday, we woke up to caterpillars which had stripped the leaves on one plant, and eaten the best tomatoes. Went to walmart to get some BT or something and all they had was something called ECOsense.
The fine print says the name is not intended to imply environmental safety. Contains pyrethrins, canola oil, and mostly botanical insecticides(specifics not listed). Probably going to take it back, but I will research it a little more first.
Any one know for sure what I could use that is a little more friendly to humans, and the environment. We have a well so I am always reluctant to add any pollutant to our soil.
The only place I have found BT is at our county co-op.
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