We have been busy lately harvesting everything from our garden. We had a killing frost and so the garden is pretty much over. We did keep things alive a little longer by covering with tarps and running the sprinkler during the night. At this time the peppers and sunflowers are still growing but everything else we picked. Mara and I did most of the harvesting. It was so fun having Mara help. She and I both love seeing everything that God makes grow and so was just flitting around the garden making up songs about harvesting and thankfulness.
I have done a little canning this year. Not as much as last year but that is okay. I still have quite a bit of canned goods left over from last year. Tomatoes are some of my favorite things to can as they are so easy! I leave the skins on, quarter them, cold pack them and then water bath them. I find it a lot of fun.
We have eaten a lot of food from our garden this year. This is a picture of a recent stir fry. I was raised eating food like this and I really enjoy it. My husband however doesn't enjoy it so much so I usually serve it for lunch. My kids aren't crazy about stir fry but they are learning to like it.
We picked lots of the green tomatoes in the garden too. They are in boxes under our bed ripening. Hopefully we will have tomatoes to eat for a couple of months yet. Last year my parents using this method had tomatoes until the end of March. Tomatoes like this aren't as good as fresh from the garden but they are pretty good. (About like what you get from the store.)How is harvesting going at your house?
6 comments:
I am in the middle of canning right now. I've got most of my tomatoes canned either just plain or as salsa. I'm leaving for 5 days so I want to make sure I get them all done before I go. I also have some apples that I made into applesauce yesterday but I still have a bunch left. I'm not sure if they will keep until I get back or not so I'll probably go ahead and take care of those today too. Lots to do...
That is so neat about putting the green tomatoes under the bed. I've never heard of that. I've got a bunch of green tomatoes that I didn't think I'd get to harvest. I'm going to try that! Thanks.
What do you do with those white scallops? I have a bunch, but don't know what to make with them:)
Amy, I hope all your canning goes well. It sounds like you are very busy too! If you have a cool place for the apples, they would probably keep fine. About the tomatoes you do have to check them regularly because if they start to rot it can get really gross!
Jenni, We like to use those in stir fry or I will grate them up and use them just like zucchini in baked goods. I have to articles on using zucchini that will give you some ideas. If you do find out other ways to use them I would enjoy hearing about it!
and a light goes on! thank you so much!
I also put my green tomatoes under the bed along with the winter squash. I would though, put several layers of newspaper or another layer of cardboard under the tomatoes in case one gets a soft spot and starts to rot. If this happens then you can just change the paper only and keep the box. That way your pretty carpet won't get a stain and you won't have to climb under the bed to clean it! :-) Love your blog. Here the garden is still going but the plants are getting pretty worn out looking. I have noticed the stores stopped selling any seeds after July...There were none for the fall gardens etc and no plants either. :-( Next year I will get seed very early for my fall garden. We can plant here in Sept. for fall{ S. Calif}.
Anna, you are so right about the newspaper layering! I did know that because my mom did that but this year I forgot all about it in my hurry to get things put away. I did run into some trouble too and really wished I would have remembered! Thanks for adding the note about that.
That is to bad about there being no seeds for a fall garden. Did you try ordering online or from catelogs? I have never done fall gardening as usually where I have lived it has been far to cold. I did live in Kansas shortly where perhaps it would have worked but I didn't think of it.
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