More Pico de Gallo

I'm enjoying the tomatoes before the grasshoppers eat them all.  I made 7 more pints of pico de gallo yesterday and I also used my new Roma sauce maker and pureed all the roma tomatoes.  Then I made spaghetti sauce out of it.  I'm not sure if it's my soil but is there a way to get my sauce a little more sweet? (besides brown sugar)  My carrots are the same way.  I can't quite call it sour or bitter but it's a bit of something like that. 

I love that old scale but it's not big enough to weigh my pumpkins.  And my husband purchased it in Germany and so it is in grams - I have to spend a little extra time converting things (but it sure makes using his German cookbooks a breeze). 

And I've picked this many jalapenos twice but haven't bothered to weigh them.  I just wanted to get them into my food!

Roma sauce maker

This roma strainer makes life easier.  Who am I kidding?  Growing Roma's from seed and then protecting them from pests, oh and then washing and cutting them is never the easy way.  But this does make that choice easier.  You don't have to parboil them or anything.  Just pick vine ripe tomatoes, quarter them, and smash them into this strainer.  It will send the seeds and skins out one way and the delicious parts of the tomato out the other side.  I know it looks gross but it makes for delicious spaghetti sauce and maybe next time I'll try and make pizza sauce.  

Just so you know my five year old helped me turn this while I smashed the tomatoes. He had a great time! One of these days I will decorate that big empty wall over the stairs.  In the meantime I'm busy gardening.

Harvest Monday - August 22nd

Well, you win some, you loose some.  This past week was an interesting one.  On Tuesday I spent the day fighting off the Army Worms.  I thought at first they were tomato fruit worms and a neighbor called them cutworms.  Apparently they are all related. But I sent an email to the USU extension services with my bowl full of those nasty things (see below) and Taun said that they came from the alfalfa field and I was lucky that the ground was not moving.  Uhm, seriously?  If I had that many I don't think I'd ever garden again. I have faith things will be better - see, I'm starting more lettuce.

 I did have a crazy run in with the tomato hornworm.  I found a one inch tiny one first - not bad.  Then as I was shaking the only roma tomato in a cage this big fat hornworm flopped on the ground. It was at least 3/4 inch wide and 5 inches long.  Gag!  I screamed and then jumped back a few feet.  I lost half my roma tomatoes which is sad because I really wanted to try making my own tomato sauce because I purchased one of these this year.  I don't know if the plants will recover enough to give me some more.  I ripped off all the larger roma tomatoes - green or otherwise and checked for holes and if they were good, they got washed in soapy water and placed in the window as you can see here.  I have 8 roma plants and I don't think I'm going to get much after all.  

See - as my friend Keiko said, "I think I just threw up in my mouth." No, I did not touch the hornworm - I scooped it into the bowl with the lid.  Yes, I did pick off all those army worms by hand.  Thank you Atlas garden gloves. And having said that, I will never buy leather gardening gloves again.  The nitrile touch garden gloves have spoiled me.  They wash well and wick the moisture away.  I LOVE them.  They fit well.  And I don't get dirt down into the tips of the glove fingers like I did with the leather gloves. I blame the seams for that.  Atlas nitrile touch garden gloves rock!

I did have some luck on Thursday and harvested this nice bunch of tomatoes, 1 more squash, and 4 lemon cucumbers. Loving the lemon cucs.  

And go check out Daphne's Dandelions to see fun a beautiful harvests from all over the world. It's also interesting to see how far behind I am living here in the tops of the mountains.  And I have to share this photo again.  Can you blame me?

Harvest Monday - August 15th

Head on over to Daphne's Dandelions and scroll on down to see what everyone else is harvesting.

On the 10th I canned 10 Quarts of green beans.  I'm loving the wide mouth jars for this.  I used my 23 quart Presto Pressure Canner.

On the 12th I harvested the first of my tomatoes and 1 squash.  I have 2 squash plants and they are producing just the right amount for what my husband and I can eat.

Here is today's harvest, August 15th.  There is an infestation of caterpillars.  They have orange red heads and black and grey stripe the long way.  They are all over the house and it was amazing to me that they were on everything and didn't care that it was a jalapeno, pumpkin, or onion.  I'll post a photo when I can calm down enough to get one.  They've just about destroyed my green onions.

If you've never tried a lemon cucumber you need to.  It's delicious! This one was a little bigger than the size of a baseball.

I accidentally got my first heirloom tomato.  Oops.  I love the character. This is a pink brandywine that's still green of course. I'm going to let it sit in the window sill and see if it'll ripen.

 I also did my 3rd green bean picking.  It's slowing down.  They cut the alfalfa in the field next to the garden and the grasshoppers have moved in.  Wish they'd eat the caterpillars instead of the green bean blossoms.  

And this had me super happy.  The jalapenos are starting to look good.  I didn't really need this many but I did chop up 4 and needed 3 for my pico de gallo.  It's heavenly to eat fresh pico from fresh produce.  I'll post photos soon.

I haven't done a total before so I thought I'd start today.  I think it's such a great idea and something I want to include in my garden journal from now on.

Today's Total

Alliums: 5.15 lb

Cabbage: .88 lb

Cucumber: 1.1 lb

Green Beans: 4.41 lbs

Jalapenos: .25 lb

Kohlrabi: .10 lb

Squash: .44 lb

Tomato: 3.7 lbs

Green Tomatoes

I'm looking forward to my tomatoes this year.  I decided to try a few heirloom tomatoes.  I want to be able to preserve some of my own seeds.  I love starting my own tomatoes.  I spent $4/ plant for 2 plants at Walmart this year and started 12 Early Girl and 8 Roma tomatoes for much less than $8.  

This first one is a Bonnie Red Beefsteak. It's in a powder coated heavy duty cage that cost somewhere around $19 each.  Now I wish I had made something taller from a cattle panel. It's covered with blossoms and has plenty of fruit starting to set.

This one is a Bonnie Brandywine. It's slower than the beefsteak.

This is an Early Girl.  I got the seeds from Anderson Seed and Garden. I love these but not for slicing.

Here it is peaking out of the cage. 

Just another view of the Early Girl.

And here you can see the Early Girls in the left two rows and one dill and the Roma's on the right.  The Red Beefsteak and the Pink Brandywine are in my square foot garden clear across the yard.  We are on a half acre on a hillside so I am limited on space.  My row garden is 15x40 and my square foot garden is 10x3. Not sure on the size of the corn patch. I am looking to eek more space out where I can.  

Transplanting Tomatoes and those blue green garden ghosts

I hate filling Walls of Water.  I do.  They work so well that I have to.  This year has been so wet and cold that I was nervous about trying to get my tomato plants used to the outside weather.  The nice thing about these is that they prevent sunburn, they warm the plants and the ground around them, prevent hail damage, and they let you plant your tomatoes earlier than normal giving their roots a chance to really grow.  I plant them sideways in a trench filled with a hand full of egg shells.  I had an entire gallon bag saved and it was nearly gone in two days. The egg shells prevent blossom end rot (the black rotten bottom on the bottom of the tomato that forms when there is a lack of calcium).  I planted 12 early girl tomatoes - great for canning.  And then 7 roma tomatoes.  And lastly 1 dill.  Romas don't need cages but the early girl tomatoes do. I started them inside.  My supplies cost me about $7 to grow 30 tomato plants from seed.  You can buy 1 tomato plant from the green house for a minimum of $2 on a good sale. That's $60 for 30 tomatoes.  That means I save $53 starting them on  my own. 

The trellis on the end is for peas.  They are just starting to sprout. 

You can see the pipe for the drip line I made here.  I plugged two spots this year to make a wider row for my tomatoes.

And the thing about digital is you can take more photos.  So walk around your garden/plants/etc and take photos from many angles.  You'll be surprised what you thought you'd like and what you actually see.

And here is a great view of the rows.  I can't wait to plant my green beans and lemon cucumbers.

I love this view of the mountains behind the garden.

And my pea trellis is just a cattle panel that I cut the bottom horizontal row off of and stuck it in the ground.

For more photography tips and also great ideas on enhancing your digital or scanned photos check out my Photo First Aid class at ReneePearson.com

Sprout Count

Like I shared before, we have onions, kohlrabi, garlic, cabbage, and lettuce out in the garden.  But I thought I might give you a count of what I am growing inside - my sprouts. 

I guess I haven't really kept track of what I've been up to and there is still more to sprout after this. I went through my seeds this morning and wow! 

So here goes (sprouts growing as of May 2, 2011):

Genovese Basil: 6 

but waiting on 18 more (just planted last week)

Bell Peppers: 12

Jalapenos: 18

Early Girl Tomato: 17

Roma Tomato: 13

DX-52-12 tomato: 12 

New This Year

Chives: 1 gallon pot

Dill: 12

I plan on putting the basil next to the house in a flower bed.  I've been very inspired but the edible garden I saw in last month's issue of Better Homes and Gardens and genovese basil is a gorgeous plant.  I can almost taste the bruschetta thanks to Udi's gluten free bread.  

I just recently removed the heating pad from beneath the jalapenos and bell peppers.  They take about 2 to 3 weeks to sprout.

And here is one of the new items I am giving a try this year. Dill. Oh and chives - did you know chive flowers are gorgeous and edible?  I'm not sure I'm game on eating flowers.

 My amazing friend Tera recommended that I grow dill.  You certainly don't need 12 - unless you grow 100+ cucumber plants.  But I've never grown dill before and I wanted to make sure a few sprouted.  I hear that not only are fresh dill sprigs great for dill pickles, it's great on halibut which I could practically eat all summer because it cooks on the grill and keeps my house cooler. 

And guess what???

Dill attracts tomato horn worms - they like dill better than tomatoes - and they are easier to catch because horn worms are wide and dill plants are much more slender than tomato plants.  I am going to try and add the paper towel rolls around the tomato plant base stems. - they are better than styrofoam cups and are biodegradable.

 So I'm going to be giving away a few tomato and dill plants this season.  There is a widow down the road that I bring a few to.  I love visiting with her and it's become tradition.  This will be the 3rd year. I'm sure my mother in law will take some.  She has the magic touch when it comes to growing tomatoes and she can keep them alive longer than anyone I know. 

What's next - in a few weeks - pumpkins, squash, zucchini, cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumbers.  You should only keep them inside for 2 weeks or so or else the plants just don't want to grow.

IF YOU THINK YOU DON'T HAVE ROOM, YOU'RE WRONG.  ALL OF THESE PLANTS HAVE BEEN GROWING IN WINDOW MY DINING ROOM AND LIVING ROOM WINDOW SILLS.  

Growing our own food

So I found out the tomato seeds really like sprouting in these peat cups much more than they like the little  trays - see the last photo.  The cold weather vegetables really did well in those trays, especially the romaine lettuce. We are growing Roma tomatoes and Early Girl's.  I want to grow the Romas for tomato sauce that I want to can this year.  I tried just a little last year and froze it.  It was wonderful in our spaghetti sauce.  The Early Girl tomato plants produce like crazy.  They are great bottled too.  I love them in my pico de gallo salsa like stuff that I freeze in the Ball freezer jars.  

Someone was feeling bored here waiting for me to say we could head outside and let him plant the peas. Daddy was at school for birthday lunch with our oldest.  He brought donuts for her class.  And he brought Subway sandwiches so she wouldn't have to eat school chili. After lunch he came home early and then we picked up the steer compost and covered our garden with it. 

And these plants are nice and prepared for cold.  They just desperately need to go in the ground.  As soon as it's dry enough to till - I promise.  It's been soaking wet this spring even with the lake melting earlier.