There were a few small harvests this week. I've run out to the garden for an occasional onion or a couple of radishes, not even enough to bother weighing or photographing. However, Sunday there was enough spinach for another big salad, and I pinched off some of the outer lettuce leaves, and pulled a couple of onions and a few radishes to add to it. All together there were ten ounces of salad fixings.
A lovely salad of baby greens, radishes and sweet onions.We are eating a lot of last year's garden harvest. This week I made a pizza, using home canned pizza sauce and red bell peppers from the freezer. We also ate home made canned salsa, and spaghetti made with home canned pasta sauce.
Of course, there are other home canned foods that we eat throughout the week, such as tarter sauce made with home canned dill relish, home canned ketchup, sweet relish and strawberry or peach jam. Mr. Granny likes an occasional red beer, so he used up all my home canned tomato juice. He has discovered, however, the home made tomato sauce works just as well, he just doesn't use as much per drink. I guess I know what I'll be using a lot of my 2010 tomatoes for!
If you have harvested something this week, or are using a previous harvest, please visit our Harvest Monday hostess at Daphne's Dandelions and leave a comment!
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There hasn't been much going on in the garden this past week. The weather has been cold and windy, below our average temperatures for this time of the year, so things haven't been growing much. I spent most of the week mixing up potting soil and filling the five-gallon buckets for more tomatoes. Four of them have been set in place, with 8' stakes secured to the facia board of the garden shed, filled with the potting mix and planted with cherry tomatoes. I planted one each of Sungold, Black Cherry, Velvet Red (aka Angora Super Sweet) and Kimberly. It wasn't until after I had the stakes all screwed to the eaves and the buckets planted that I realized I had forgotten to add the second (inverted) tomato cage to the buckets! I suppose I could climb up there and unscrew them and add the other cages.....or maybe I'll just try to keep the vines tied to the stakes. Decisions, decisions.
Eight of the dollar store pots have been planted with (3) Early Jalapeno, (2) Hungarian Wax and (3) Golden Calwonder peppers. The Calwonders are still being moved into the shed at night, but I'm taking a chance on leaving the others out for now. They may all have to come in Tuesday night, as we're expecting a temperature plunge into the high 30s. The wind has been relentless, but most of the plants are protected by the fence or the shed.
Cherry tomatoes, hot peppers, logs, frogs, gnomes and Otto.No seedlings are growing under the big lights in the garden shed now, but I do have a few things started in the laundry room window. It's mostly lettuce seedlings, in varying stages of growth. I'm trying to always keep some on hand to plant any bare spots that might show up, since I have so many new varieties to try. There's always a shady spot or two to tuck in a few plants, so maybe I can keep them growing through the hot summer months.
Lettuce, zucchini and tiny parsley seedlings.
My rhodies are just beginning to bloom, providing welcomed color on these cloudy, dreary days.
Pizza looks good! :-)
ReplyDeleteI have been meaning to ask you how well you were able to whittle away on those canned tomatoes this past winter - how much is left?
ReplyDeleteNice salad Granny. I'm jealous...we won't have any greens from this year for a while.
ReplyDeleteWe will have to get together on our canning recipes. I can and freeze a lot. Keeps me very busy in the summer!
I will post a picture of my fork sooner or later. The little helper and the weather would not cooperate last week!
I've got to ask... what on earth is red beer?
ReplyDeleteI am hoping our Washington state weather turns around later this week and at least warms up a bit. All the warm lovers are stalled at the moment due to the damp coolness. Like you, I have only a handful of items under the grow lights at the moment - basically just peppers and basil. I repotted both of them this weekend and will leave them there for a week before migrating them both out to the greenhouse. Once I move them, I will shut down the grow light/heat mat set up until later this summer when the fall crops need to be started.
ReplyDeleteThe salad looks delicious - as do the other menu items made with preserved harvests.
Yeah, i'm with Mr. Granny - how on earth do you do it? Heh.
ReplyDeleteI bet that pizza was good! However, no more homemade spaghetti sauce for me - it takes too long to make, and is not worth the effort, in my opinion.
Dan, it was really good! Italian sausage, mushrooms, peppers, olives. Just about everything but the kitchen sink. The home canned sauce did separate a bit, and get a bit watery. Next time I'll dump it into a coffee filter and drain off the excess liquid.
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Erin, we've done really well on the tomato products. I still have a lot of the sweet chili sauce, but I'm out of juice, running low on sauce and salsa, and have only one quart of the quartered tomatoes. Pickles, on the other hand, will not have to be made again for YEARS!
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Robin, I'm trying to talk myself out of buying a vacuum sealer this year, but I think I'm losing the battle. Except for those in the ZipLoc vacuum bags I used last year, the veggies got some freezer burn. I never could find the ZipLocs on the grocery store shelves after that first box :-(
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Kitsap, this wind is what is so annoying. Well, along with the cold temperatures. My daughter just called and said it's blowing so hard in W. Richland, she's afraid trees are coming down. She's never seen the wind blow that hard. I hope it isn't headed my way.
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Jan, it's just beer with tomato juice. A perfectly good way to ruin tomato juice if you ask me ;-)
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EG, I like home made. Some of the store-bought canned ones aren't bad, but the packaged mixes are way too salty for my taste (Mr. Granny prefers the packaged mixes).
Oh, yummy. You really know how to make a person hungry. LOL! Your onions and radishes make for some great meals.
ReplyDeleteLove your Rhododendron blooms. So pretty. Mine are about ready now to bloom. Just a little sun now after all of the rain will make them unfurl.
Hocking Hills, I really love the rhodies, I just wish the blossoms lasted longer. I don't have a lot of flowers in my yard, so I really appreciate the rhododendrons and lilacs when they are in bloom...but I sure dread the yearly task of removing all those dead flower stalks!
ReplyDeleteYour weather sounds like ours is normally. But we have been abnormally warm this year and the last warm spell has been very hot. We hit 87 yesterday. We are usually in the low sixties about now. What makes it worse is that Boston's main water line broke and the city and most of the burbs are in a boiling water ban (we are using back up water from some reservoirs but it is untreated). So I have to keep boiling water on the stove. Ack way too hot.
ReplyDeleteYour salad looks lovely. I should start picking some of my outer lettuce leaves soon. I have so much of it.
It all looks good. I've felt remarkably wealthy this year, eating canned tomatoes and jam. Feels very --- prepared. Keeping lettuce seeds going is a terrific idea, and I should emulate it.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, we had lovely, warm, above normal temps earlier, but the past couple weeks have been cold and windy. Even the lettuce and spinach have been growing much slower than normal.
ReplyDeleteWow. Weather is totally weird all over, except here, so far. Normal hot and humid, at the moment. We could use more rain. And all the floods and tornadoes out EG's way...broken water mains and boiling water...
ReplyDeleteAt least you got a little salad out of your garden this week. I did harvest my first ripe tomato today, but not enough lettuce to make a salad from.
Your rhody bloom is really pretty. I found a plant last year marked down to $4 or $5 and stuck it in a pot. Mine came and went about three weeks ago. It had beautiful blooms on it, they just didn't last too long.
ReplyDeleteStefaneener, I had really good luck extending my lettuce season in 2008. I shaded it with lattice, and it never did bolt. Last year I wasn't so careful, and we never did have enough lettuce for our needs. I've decided to sow a few seeds indoors about every 2-3 weeks this year, or until I have no more space to grow them. And I'm prepared to install the lattice again!
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SB, I just turned on the sprinklers about a half hour ago, as the wind was really drying everything out. A few minutes later, the wind began blowing really, really hard, and it started pouring down rain....horizontal rain! I had to rush out and move all my plants inside to protect them. We're expecting 40 mph winds with 60 mph gusts today, and now the temps are supposed to get down to 35-38 for the next three nights. BOO!
Yummy salad fixings! And that pizza, yum, yum!
ReplyDeleteI am still harvesting tomatoes from my freezer, but the stash is rapidly dwindling. Oh, well, the next batch is already in the ground.
I am sorry to hear about your nasty weather. I hope that those strong winds in your daughter's town do not come way.
Wow...wonderful harvest AG...and that pizza looks fabulous : ) I will be right over...will Mr. Granny share a red beer? lol!
ReplyDeleteRed beer is making my stomach churn. Now, red Vodka...that's something to write home about.
ReplyDeleteWhen did Dad get demoted from "Mr. H" to "Mr. Granny"?
ReplyDeleteJust climb carefully if you decide to attach those upper cages after the fact. I talked F. into copying your system somewhat and inverting some of our cages, etc., to see if we can do a better job of staking this year. Once the plants hit 10 feet last season, it meant trouble. ;)
ReplyDeleteThat pizza looks fantastic!
The tomatoes sound like they are off to a great start.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Vacume Sealer, I have a Food Saver Vacume Sealer that I purchased from Costco a few years ago and I just love it. That, in my opinion, is the place you will find the best price on the unit and rolls/bags. I don't know how I ever managed without one.
Cheryl, that's my only complaint about the rhodies. I need to fertilize mine, I notice the light pink one has some yellow leaves this year.
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Angela, it looks like we're getting the winds right now. Expecting wind gusts up to 60 mph.
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Ribbit, beer (yuck), vodka (yuck), whiskey (yuck), rum (kinda yum), tequila (kinda yum). In other words, I like those drinks that taste like fruit juice, not booze. And I'll take my tomato juice straight, no ice.
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Sunny, he'll share his beer, but keep your hands off his pizza!
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Amy, read the April 27th. blog, right under the picture of Mr. Granny's tomato (that he still hasn't watered).
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Meredith, I don't think I'll be doing any climbing for the next few days. I just ran out to move the recently watered tomato plants from the wind. They're in a big plastic tote, and quite heavy when wet. Stabbing pain in lower back, hurts to stand up straight. Where's the Motrin when I need it?
Heather, that's good to know. I'd only priced it at Wal-Mart. It wasn't so much the price of the system, but the price of the bags that has kept me from buying. However, when compared to freezer burning and ruining the food. I think a Food Saver is in my future ;-) Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThat pizza looks really yummy Gran. My seed starting shelves are starting to thin out too.
ReplyDeleteI'm gathering your tomatoes made it through the cold snap just fine?
Oh, Thomas...I started to answer you here, and it turned into a blog. Tune in tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteWOW! This is really an amazing and attractive post .As for the Vacume Sealer, I have a Food Saver Vacume Sealer that I purchased from Costco a few years ago and I just love it. That, in my opinion, is the place you will find the best price on the unit and rolls/bags. I don't know how I ever managed without one.Thanks for sharing such an informative post. Beer Baseball Cap
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