End of August

August went by so fast! How could it have possibly been a whole month? Well, I have the produce to prove it at least...

The vast majority of the harvest has been tomatoes, no surprise there! I haven't been able to keep up with all the cherry tomatoes, I've found plenty that have split (and rotted, I'll spare you the pictures) on the vine. Many of the green zebra tomatoes have also been suffering from blossom end rot; more so than the other plants. Other than that though, no major catastrophes (huzzah!).

Many, many lemon cucumbers as well. You'd think from the look of things that I didn't plant any normal cucumbers... except I know I did. Perhaps they do cross breed? Or maybe the lemon cukes are just that much more virulent? Who knows! They've been (and still are) producing like mad. Many blossoms still coming, and the vines only look spotty/dried out in a couple places.

So what's a girl to do with so much produce? Time to get out the canner!

...well, not the canner, per se. I made two batches of sauce, using roughly a bushel of tomatoes, which went into the freezer.

Last year, the sauce ran out very quickly since I use so much of it during winter. That was due to the horrible tomato crop; I only managed to "borrow" a few containers from my parents.

Now I've got plenty! Should be all set. And, I have a huge new pot, and a hand-me-down stainless steel strainer for grinding up the tomatoes, so I can always make more.

I think I ended up with maybe 24 containers total? Mm... I'm thinking homemade pizza!

 Next up: pickles! I finally learned how to make "real" pickles, aka bread and butter pickles. Used a recipe from either the Blue Book or the internet somewhere... many of them are similar, I can't recall the exact recipe I used. Hopefully they turn out good; I used the lemon cucumbers in place of normal pickling/green cucumbers.

The sad thing, however, is that I now have to wait until September 15th to try them. (I made them on August 15th; you're supposed to wait 4-6 weeks to try them. Ah, patience.)

I am SO GLAD I didn't have to freeze these. Between the sauce, berries, other vegetables, waffles, and ice cream... not a lot of room.

The flowers in the background are from a seller at the Guilford Farmer's Market. I don't know what the green ones are (if they're even technically flowers?) but I thought they were awesome. A little bouquet like this is perfect for my apartment!

Speaking of flowers, my glads didn't really fair so well. One bloomed; I had it inside for a week or so (it rained really hard a while ago and decided to bring it in). Guess those florists will be happy!

And of course, I made more jam! This is 3 1/2 cups of blackberries from out back, plus 1 1/2 cups of raspberries. It tastes AMAZING. But pretty much any homemade jam is delicious.

In addition, I also canned a batch of tomatoes. No pictures, since I didn't think of it at the time, but it was successful! Seven pints are stored away for winter now... those stews will taste extra delish.

At the moment, I still have tomatoes and cucumbers coming out the wazoo, so I will likely make another batch of pickles, and another batch of canned tomatoes (or perhaps I'll try salsa? Depends on how ambitious I want to be... I've read salsa is rather difficult to make up and can).

Next update, expect some pictures of the garden! I was right some time ago... it's definitely turned into a jungle out there...

August is here, and things be a-growin'

The above is an accurate depiction of my face when I wander out to the garden these days.

[Eyes are lemon cukes, nose is a hybrid - whoops! - of a norm and lemon cuke. Mouth is a colander full of cherry tomatoes.]

I have gotten at least two colanders full of cherry tomatoes (about 3 quarts to a colander). I lost count of the July tomatoes, but they're still pumping strong. Big Boys are turning, I've picked a half dozen of those. And cucumbers? Don't get me started! I had to learn how to make pickles because they were hanging around the fridge too long (I refuse to let anything go bad!). The picture to the right is from a week and a half ago, so imagine all that times a whole lot.

I also got my first red pepper today; I've picked several of the purple peppers already though.

On a somber note, my onions and garlic have been overrun by everything else. Poor guys, I didn't realize just how big everything would get around them! They'll still be yummy, just tiny. 

I also have come to realize that the patio cherry tomatoes aren't nearly as delectable, nor are the plants as healthy looking as the in-the-ground tomatoes. I think I'm going to cut them back soon, and plant some lettuce in the containers, or some other sort of low-maintenance crop that will last through the fall. Then after than, I bet I could even plant some garlic in them and overwinter them! Either way, I've learned tomatoes are too big for a pot. Perhaps a determinate variety, but certainly not the kind I tried out.

Next week, no surprise, it's time for me to learn sauce! Mom is hauling out the grinder for me (thanks Mom!) and I'll be churnin' away.

Also, apples are ready: http://www.lymanorchards.com/. YES.