Cleaning Up the Garden

Yesterday afternoon, I dug in and did some 'maintenance' in the garden.

First, I picked all the tomatoes that were close to ripe.  I also removed a lot of the bad fruits and tossed them into the compost heap.  The good ones were put on a table on the back porch.  We'll be 'saucing' them.

The green beans were basically a failure this year.  We were able to get  a couple of good messes to eat, but weren't able to grow enough to can.  The drought was just too much for them.  So, I took down the short poultry netting fence I had erected around the beans to keep the rabbits out.  I rolled it up and put it away, along with the electric fence posts I had hung the wire on.  I then pulled all the drying plants, stripped the vines off the bean poles and piled all the vegetation in a heap.  Then I pulled up all the beanpoles and stacked them up off the ground next to the shed for use next year.
       
Next, I pulled back the straw mulch all along the rows and also down along where I'd pulled all the onions a few weeks ago.  I hoed up a nice long row and sowed turnip seed.  If they germinate well, there should be plenty to store and use.  We don't use a whole lot of turnips, but they are good once in a while, cooked along with mashed potatoes.  Of course, they're good raw too!

I pulled a few turnips from an earlier planting and picked a few bell peppers.  So now, the garden is caught up and we're just waiting to see the turnip seed sprout.

Pizza! Pizza!

It may seem like tomatoes and tomato products have dominated the blog so far as garden crops go.  Well, I guess that's a fact.  Our tomatoes are just about the only crop that has done well in the parched garden this year.  So, since we have gallons of salsa already put back, Patti has turned her hand towards making pizza sauce.  Below is part of a slow cooker full of the sauce.  The main ingredients--the tomatoes, onions, and peppers all came from the garden.  The seasonings, we buy in bulk from the nearby Amish grocery store.
 

Homemade pizza sauce.

 Since the sauce was homemade, Patti also wanted to make the dough.  So, below are some pictures of the 'trial run'.  We sampled two or three different kinds of pizzas and discussed whether the sauce needed to be 'tweaked' a bit.  I really enjoy being the Guinea pig for these culinary experiments!  It's hard for me to be too critical with pizza sauce dripping off my chin!

A pepperoni pizza and a veggie version.

Pepperonis, jalapenos, onions, and cheese top this pie.

 Once the formula is perfected, we'll make more and can it up into pint jars.  A pint will make a couple of pizzas.  The dough recipe is also a success as evidenced by the crust in the picture above.

More Salsa!

We have now canned well over five gallons of salsa this year!!  We've used jelly jars, pint jars, and here you can see some "party size" quarts being canned.  We also do the canning on the back porch using the Coleman camp stove.  It helps keep the heat out of the kitchen. 

The camp stove does a great job for canning.

Here are some 'party size' jars of salsa coming to a boil.

As I took the tomato peels and other scraps out to the compost pile, I noticed that I'll probably be needing to pick tomatoes again tomorrow!

A bit of rain!!

Wow! I awoke this morning to see a light rain falling!  It is sorely needed.  The forecast looks like we may get some throughout the next few days.  It isn't a good soaker, but at this point, any and all rainfall is appreciated!

Patti managed to find enough tomatoes ripened in the garden to make a batch of salsa.  It is a favorite in our household and we never end up with any left over from year to year. She made the batch a night or two ago, then put it in the fridge.  After I got in from work, I set up the camp stove out on the back porch and set the canner to heating up.  After allowing it to process in the boiling water bath for 40 minutes. I shut off the heat.  Shortly afterwards, I plucked each jar from the boiling water bath and set them to cool, covering them with a towel to prevent them from cooling too fast and breaking.

Patti's first batch of salsa yielded 9 jars of the spicy stuff!

Now, if we could only figure out how to make and store enough crispy tortilla chips to last us the winter, we'd be all set!

Below is my wife's recipe for her notorious "911 Sauce" made using lots of fiery hot Thai peppers.  Beware!  This stuff is delightfully dangerous!  (If you have less fiery preferences, just substitute some jalapenos or other milder peppers for the thai peppers.  We didn't have Thai peppers this year, so that's what we did.  However you make it, I'm sure you'll like it.  Enjoy!

911 Salsa

2 Tbsp olive oil

½ c onions, chopped fine

½ c celery, minced

2 Tbsp red or green sweet peppers, minced

3 Tbsp Thai Hot peppers, minced

1 clove garlic, chopped fine

4 medium tomatoes, chopped

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp honey

½ tsp dried basil

¼ tsp dried coriander

¼ tsp cumin seeds

¼ tsp chili powder

In a large skillet, heat the oil.  Add the onions, celery, the sweet and hot peppers, and garlic.  Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Stir in the tomatoes, lemon juice, honey, basil, coriander, cumin seeds, and chili powder.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low; cover and simmer for 20 minutes.  Makes about 5 half-pints.

Ladle the hot salsa into clean jars.  Wipe the rims and apply the lids, screwing them down snugly.  Process for 40 minutes in a boiling water bath.

As I looked at the garden this morning, I can see that our Celebrity tomatoes are starting to come on.  Those, along with the Viva Italia tomatoes and the Romas, will be picked on Monday evening and hopefully, we'll be making some more salsa and canning this week!

Cool Weather

Well, I should have known.  After listening to a couple of neighbors talk about how they had some tomato plants that had set fruit, I decided I should at least get a few plants set out.  I did.  Two nights later, I was digging around in the shop looking for boxes and buckets to cover the young plants to protect them from the frost that was forecast.

I have a dozen Celebrity and half a dozen Viva Italia paste tomatoes out.  There are also a few bell pepper and jalepeno pepper plants braving the cool temperatures.

In our area, the average date of the last frost is about 10 May.  I have a hard time resisting the urge to get some plants out early, especially when it has been as mild as this spring has been.

I know, though, from experience that plants that are set out later soon catch up with those that were set out earlier, in the cooler soil and temperatures.  Maybe next year, I'll remember that!  Maybe, I won't be in such a rush.