I've harvested and eaten and given away a whole bunch of tomatoes. I won't be getting as many as I had originally thought because the mites really got my plants. A couple of plants just died but the rest are hanging in there and I seem to have gotten the mites sort of under control. The cucumber plants only ended up producing a few. I think it got to hot for them. They keep wilting.
The melons (cantelope and watermelon) aren't going to produce anything edible. The cantelope kept getting eaten by the cucumber beetles and I think got a fungus as well as being crowded out by a zucchini plant. The watermelon's leaves suddenly started curling up and turning yellow and looking wilty. I think it might be bacterial wilt or something else. Either way it is quite sad since I did have a few baby watermelons. One of they appears like it might be getting bigger but it could all be in my head. The plants aren't dead yet but struggling for sure.
The green beans were and are delicious. They appear to be flowering again so I might get some more before it freezes!!! Oh and most exiciting I have corn. I unfortunately picked two of them too early, but there are still 6 or so still out there. I'll let you know how it tastes. Second most exiciting thing is my green peppers appear to be starting to turn!!! My thai hots have been turning for a little while now. In fact I need to go out there and harvest some of them. I wonder how spicy they will be.
I made salsa tonight from all my different types of tomatoes. I got a hot pepper from my CSA and decided to add some of it because Sean thought it was a little bland. It is good thing that I only chopped up half of the pepper (serrano I think) and then only put half of the chopped up portion into the salsa. Now it has a bit of a kick. I think I got a seed during one of my tasting because it burned the back of my throat. It is melding in the refridgerator until tomorrow. Hopefully it won't get too much spicier or I will have to add more tomatoes or something.
I'm going to try and make pasta sauce later in the week and maybe can some chopped tomatoes. I got quart sized canning jars from my next door neighbor. Tomorrow I'm going to look at good will for some pint sized ones. I want the smaller ones for canning jam. I've got a whole bunch of blackberries that I want to turning into jam. Apparently you can make small batches of jam in your bread machine (if it has a jam setting). We'll see how it goes!
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3 comments:
I read your blog shortly before I sold our bread maker on Craigslist, and when the lady came over to look at it I told her it could also make jam! That was after looking it up in the instructions and sure enough it said it could!
Katie - This is Alexa - Megan's mom. I hope you don't mind if I look in on your blog from time to time.
kate,
1. The canningGuidlines can be found here http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html
read the canning prinicpals first you will be much happier.
2. Forget the jam setting on the bread machine. Sounds sketchy to me. all you need is a heavy pot and a spoon. A deep pot, funnel, and ball jars with new self sealing lids if you want to can the jam. Oh and long tongs to get the bloody hot jars out is also a good idea.
3. Get some Pomona's Universal Pectin. Not only will you need less sugar to set but one box will make a 2-4 recipes instead of one.
4. Craigslist, freecycle, and garage sales are all great places for canning jars. the Thrift store usually has them priced more expensive than new. 2-3 $ for a dozen is a good price in my area.
5. Give me a call if you want help. So far i have made almost four dozen jam, and 1 1/2 dozen peaches and cherries. This week is tomato's. Wish me luck i am going to get 40lbs of tomatoes.
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