Our production seems to be outpacing the losses from shoplifting by the varmints.
Arrived home from a week at the lake to discover complete devastation of the tomatoes. Not really sure what kind of varmint we’re dealing with but a varmint for sure. Half-eaten tomatoes strewn around the back yard, both beautifully ripe and green. I guess the varmint ran out of ripe tomatoes mid-week.
This tomato was the only one left undamaged and close to ripe. But it needed at least another day (and probably two) so I left it on the vine. Came out this morning to find one tiny bite taken out of it. Curses! Foiled!
And so far it’s the heavyweight winner, even with a we bit removed. 2 lbs. 5/8 ounces.
Filed under: Garden, Kitchen | Tags: brussels sprouts, Garden, herbs, Kitchen
4 days and counting. The long range forecast is not looking great for the frying of the bird. We’ll keep you posted.
On the other hand, this year may be our most bounteous harvest yet for the holiday table. In the past we’ve had little more than a few herbs to use for the big feast but this year we’ll be able to serve our own Brussels sprouts as well as lettuce if we went nuts and decided we needed to ruin our holiday meal with a salad. There are also a few shallots poking their fronds up from the soil.
Alas, it doesn’t look like the beets I planted in late August are going to amount to anything. Maybe enough for a garnish at best. I’ll wait until Thursday to pull a couple and roast ’em up real fast if there are enough to make a side.
In preparation for the arrival of friends and family we gussied up the yard this weekend. Mowed, fertilized, raked the remaining leaves. This year we only threw out one bag of leaves, the rest went to the composting bin to be used over the course of the year.
Also, on Friday I stopped by our guys at NJ Grinding to get our knives sharpened for all the food prep we’ll be doing.
On Tuesday this week we had our first meal from our own tomatoes. A simple pasta sauce made from about 10 Super Marzanos, a little onion, a little garlic, a little olive oil and a HUGE handful of basil. Spectacular. The meal used up all of our ripe tomatoes (except the cherries, we’re swimming in those) but we’re going to be able to eat the first slicers this weekend. We’ll keep you posted.
So the dumb-asses folks at Gardener’s Supply couldn’t come through with the goods and plans for the new raised bed have been changed. Back in the depths of winter we decided to build raised bed #3. Since the Big Pine was taken down last year the very back of the yard gets a lot more light. We figured we’d get another bed in back there to take the usual overabundance of seedlings that we usually don’t have room for.
I called up to Burlington, VT, the home of GS to inquire about the status of the Raised Bed Corners I had ordered back on 4/29. Originally back-ordered to 5/11, the date on the site had changed to 5/28. Sure enough, when I called they confirmed the later date and went on with something like “oh, yeah, those are made here in Vermont and we can’t get them out any faster”. To which I wanted to say “Well call over to Mason/Jay-Sun/LotDog at the metal press and tell him to put down the bong and put in some overtime, ‘cuz Phish tour hasn’t started yet”.
I wanted to say that. But instead I just said “I’ve got tomatoes to plant, that won’t work. Please cancel my order”
So I’ll be tilling a hole in the ground and just planting in the dirt we’ve got. Just like they did it in the old days.
We’re still nursing our aching selves back to fighting form but we got a lot accomplished last weekend. All of the tomato and herb seedlings under the lights got repotted into larger containers. We planted all the stuff I bought last Friday. And The Principessa and The Principessa-Mum weeded, mulched and edged the front yard. With new edging no less! It looks spiffy!
With highs this weekend forecast in the 80’s we’re trying to not overload ourselves for next weekend.
All done. Yesterday I harvested the fall crop of beets….not very large ones. I tried to pull a couple last weekend but they were frozen solid in the ground. I think next year I need to start them earlier than late August. I think a little bit of the parsley may have made it through last week’s cold snap. So, hopefully there’ll be two things on the Thanksgiving table from the garden. We’ll see.
Wow, I haven’t posted almost the entire peak season…but here’s what’s been keeping me away:
Clockwise, from upper left: Costoluto Genovese, Sriped German, Rutgers, Cherokee Purple, Striped German.
It was hot this week and I didn’t make it into the garden on Wednesday or Thursday. I went out this morning and this was the haul:
Primo and Segundo show off some of the larger specimens:
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JerzeeTomato 