Freezing Tomatoes

This week we got some surplus tomatoes, 1/2 bushel, for $7. Half of them went into spaghetti sauce and half just became diced tomatoes. So for $7 we got approximately 5 jars of spaghetti sauce and 10 16 oz. cans of diced tomatoes. Totally worth it.

Vegetable bouillon

So, supposedly if you dry soup vegetables and then powder them in a blender you can add them to soups, scrambled eggs, etc. Here, tomatoes, leeks, and kale. I'll let you know how it goes.

First tomatoes

First ripe tomatoes came in a week ago. They are trickling in slowly as slugs and rodents get the lower first tomatoes. But there are plenty on the bushes and we will have a pretty good harvest despite the blight on the lower leaves.

First Tomatillos

Last year the first harvest was August 16th, this year August 19th. I planted later this year, but it's interesting how close to the same date the tomatillos are coming in. There are five plants this year and they are all flowering like mad. It could be a very good year for salsa verde. Gotta stock up on limes.

Compost

You know you are processing the harvest when you park the wheelbarrow on the back porch for the trimmings. Huge kale and chard harvest today. Funny thing is that the kale that I harvested today was all the weeds. Self-seeded kale from the tomato patch and as far away as 20 feet from the seed source. The kale that I actually planted this year still needs to be harvested. I can't even walk past it.

KALE

On horse manure. There were two heads like this crowding my tomatoes. They are blanched and frozen now.
The photo shoot was a blast. A two-year old with new knowledge of an iphone camera button. It's hard to say if he was shooting still or video. : )

Random Updates

Whoa. Chard on horse manure.

OK, on the left is a parsnip, on the right are some chioggia beets. So what the heck is in between? Hint - It was in the beet rows.

Yep. I grew cauliflower. Think I let it go too long, it's a little too cabbagy - but it's the first cauliflower I've ever grown and I'm very pleased. There are 3 more heads out there.

This is what the tomato bed looks like. This is one heck of a solar energy collector.

Dad-gum-it! Ground Hogs! Or, if you are my two-year-old "Hot Dogs!" (He knows what a hot dog is but since it's the closest thing to ground hog that he can actually say I guess he decided it was close enough.)

Oooo.. Edie, don't get too close! That guy is MAD!

Mmmm... I didn't do a good job with potatoes this year. But these are the harvest from the ones I didn't find last year. They grew happily in the garlic patch.

Jimsonweed. Poisonous. Note to self.