We got an inch of rain today - the garden needed it.
Harvested my first tomatoes yesterday. I picked the ripe ones and also anything with a blush of color. Last year, I found out that they ripen beautifully on the counter top with no extra work. By picking them early, I don’t have to worry about over ripening, cracks from too much water, pests, etc. They taste just like the ones that ripen on the vine.
Bit the bullet and bought myself a decent food processor. I’ve struggled through the last 2 years with a cheapie one that didn’t do the job very well and then the plastic holding the blade was showing cracks. It’s time to start canning (Jalapeno Pepper Jelly, Hot Pepper Butter, Jalapeno Cowboy Candy, etc.) and I needed something that worked well. I tried it out Friday, pureeing avocados to freeze (caught a good deal - 39 cents each so I got 22). The puree texture was downright ‘silky’, so the processor works well. Today was to be a basil harvest/make pesto day, but it was raining so hard, I didn’t go to the garden .... maybe tomorrow for pesto. Lots of eggplants, so baba ghanoush is also on the ‘to do’ list.
Ordered a butane burner to try with my water bath canner since I have a glass top stove - it arrived today so I’ll be trying it out this coming week.
The Squirrelinator continues to impress ... count is 14 so far with zero tomatoes stolen and they won’t be getting into the fig bush this year, either.
Squash & cukes are ‘done’ so they are cleaned out of the garden. I’m contemplating more raised beds so I can start a fall garden while the summer garden is still producing.
What’s a ‘Squirrelinator’
And I’d love the recipe for jalapeno cowboy candy!
What do you do with an overabundance of squash?
OK, two things:
What is this: Jalapeno Cowboy Candy?
What is this: Squirrelinator?
Jalapeno Sweet Potato Chowder / North Carolina sweet potato growers' recipe.
METHOD Sauté/soften diced onion in 2 tb butter. Add lge puréed baked sweet potato, qt veg stock.
BTB; simmer/reduce slightly. Add 1 1/2 c garden corn kernels, tsp minced jalapenos, 1/2 c h/cream, tsp salt.
Simmer 10 min. SERVE garnished w/ jalapeno rings, chp scallions.