We're getting frost in my area, so I'll be closing my garden soon. I headed out to see what was left, I have peppers and quite a few green tomatoes that need to be picked. I decided to pick what peppers I could. They got a late start for some reason, so my jalapenos and belles are half the size they should be. I'm going to pickle these, I should be able to get several pints for the winter. The chilies, Hungarian Wax and Banana peppers did well.
I'll head out tomorrow and pick the green tomatoes that are a good size and remaining peppers. I plan to can the tomatoes for fried green tomatoes this winter. How do you use your green tomatoes?
I'll probably pull the tomato plants and start cleaning up the garden for fall mulching. I closed the garden last year in early October. I do plan to plant garlic this week-end since it didn't do well this spring. Wish me luck. Have you closed your garden for the season?
My cukes have given me a pretty good crop so far this season. Last year was a bust. I made 4 quarts of spicy dill refrigerator pickles over the week-end, and they are delicious. I marinade them for several hours and than refrigerate them for 10 days. Not sure if all 4 jars will make it that long. I see one being opened and devoured over the week-end.
I was able to harvest a few tomatoes. These are Black Krim and chocolate cherry. The cherry went into a salad and the others sliced with mayo. One of my Straight Eight cukes got away from me and started to turn yellow. I was able to savage the other end to add to my salad. The squash was fried for dinner.
I planted a mix of chili peppers this year. These chilies are huge. Not sure what type they are. Does anyone know what they could possibly be? I chopped them for the freezer. I'll use them in my chili over the winter.
My green beans are producing like crazy. I've put 4 gallons in the freezer so far. I should get another picking or two before I pull them. This is a mix of Blue Lake and Jade.
I found this little fellow on one of my bushes last week. First time that I've ever seen a snake on my property in the 20 years that I've lived here. Needless to say, I didn't hang around long after I spotted him. I think I set a new record for the 50 yard dash! Thankfully my significant other was there and removed him for me. What's happening in your garden?
What a year I'm having in the garden! First the most pathetic tomato that I've ever seen, and now I believe my pickling cucumbers are conspiring against me. They're huge and turning orange. I'm new at this gardening thing, but I do know that cukes are suppose to be green. Why are mine orange? I was planning to make a small batch of pickles this week-end, but I don't know what to do with this monster. These are suppose to be Boston Pickling cukes, so I wasn't expecting this. I did some research on this issue, and there are gardeners all over the blogosphere who have encountered this problem with this particular variety. When I first saw it, I couldn't figure out what it was. When I realized it was a cuke, I thought it could have been a problem as a result of where I planted them. I have Roma tomatoes, dill and onions close by. Not! Most of the gardeners who encountered this same problem have said they have a sweet taste and should still be good for pickling. I plan to make spicy pickles, so I may try it in a salad. I'll keep you posted on the taste and quality of the cukes.
I was able to harvest a beautiful orange Beefsteak, which makes up for the pathetic one below that I picked several days ago. I planted a rainbow Beefsteak, so I'm looking forward to seeing the various colors on the vine.
What a difference in these tomatoes! I'm going to make myself a nice BLT this week-end and this baby is going to on the bed of lettuce topped with crispy bacon. Let the week-end begin! The zucchini will be used in zucchini bread and placed in the freezer. The chilies will used in my pickles and a pot of chili. It's a hundred degrees I know, but I'll taste it and place the batch in the freezer.
Do you make pickles? If so, please share your recipe. I'm also curious to know what type of pickling cukes you plant. I don't think I want to deal with Boston Pickling cukes again.
Went down to the garden and I had peppers everywhere! Green peppers, red peppers, yellow peppers, and orange peppers. Peppers, peppers, and more peppers, lol. Oh what to do? I decided to get to work on the pickled vegetable mix and make salsa.
I decided to pull out the crinkle cutter, which I use mostly to make crinkle cut potatoes for my grandson and cucumbers for my veggie trays to cut my carrots for the pickled veggie mix. I almost forgot that I had this piece of equipment. Shows how much I've used it lately. It worked like a charm.
I modified the recipe in the Ball Blue Book, and added cauliflower, red peppers, banana peppers, carrots, pearl onions and green peppers. I love the color. I think food should be fun as well as appetizing. The recipe actually called for pickling cucumbers, but I didn't grow any and none of the grocery stores had any so they were left out of the batch.
I added 8 1/2 cups of white vinegar, a few garlic cloves, a few dashes of pickling spice and boiled for 15 minutes. The mix turned out quite favourable. I used 1 chili pepper and 2 jalapeno slices per jar and this was the end result: 10 1/2 pints of hot, pickled veggie mix.
I didn't put a dent in the chili, jalapeno and banana peppers, so I decided to whip up a batch of hot salsa. Did I mention that love hot, spicy foods. I was able to harvest a few Amish Paste tomatoes over the week-end, so I chopped those along with the yellow and orange peppers and added lots of hot peppers, seeds and all. I had few red onions left, and tossed those in. I love using Amish Paste and the Roma tomatoes in my salsa. They're meatier, and make great chunky salsa.
The yellow and orange peppers made the batch festive and the chili peppers quite hot. It was perfect! I plan to make another batch and can pint jars to use in my holiday baskets. My family has cast iron stomachs, even the kids love hot, spicy foods. I have a 5 year old niece that loves Texas Pete hot sauce and fried chicken, lol. I plan to make gift baskets for Christmas, which I will add a pint of salsa, the veggie mix, gourmet chips, home made cookies and some sort of jam/jelly.
I decided years ago, to give homemade Christmas gifts instead of spending a fortune at the stores. I refuse to contribute to the commercialization of Christmas. I was able to can a quart and a 1/2 pint from this batch. I didn't bother to seal the jars. This batch of salsa will be gone by the week-end.
