Sunday, June 27, 2010

Already Tomatoes

No garden work today except harvest. Picked enough paste type tomatoes over the last couple of days to warrant a canning run. Just a few pints of chopped tomatoes. Enough other tomatoes to make a pot of sauce for some eggplant parm for dinner since we also have a surplus of Japanese eggplant. Unfortunately falling behind on the green beans, yellow squash and patty pans so I have to figure out something for all that.

Madam noticed a sale at Target in the paper this morning for a 3.5 cubic foot chest type freezer for $129. Couldn't pass it up as the basement refrigerator freezer is already bursting with peas and green beans. I am not a big fan of freezing yellow squash but it is functional in a casserole. Currently staying ahead of the okra but with the heat it is coming on strong and some of it will find its way into the freezer as well. Again, not ideal but usable in stews and soups.

Worked all day yesterday putting pickling cucumbers and a few more squash in where the potatoes were. I did ten hills of cukes and then 6 of zucchini and more yellow crookneck. The zucchini didn't do well this year and we have only had a couple so I thought a second planting justified. The rest of the winter squash are doing OK except for the French potimorron which have failed for two years in a row. It must just get too hot too early for them around here and I won't waste space on them again. Also put in 6 hills of pie pumpkins or sugar pumpkins. I tried to buy one last year to make pies at Thanksgiving and Whole Foods wanted nearly $4 a pound for them. It would have been about 12 bucks for two pies. I used Libby's.

Off to finish reducing the tomatoes for sauce and then grill some aubergine. Madam loves eggplant in all its forms but I could take it or leave it, though Parmesan is not too bad. It wouldn't be so bad if it was nutritious in any way but it is pretty lacking in the nutrients. Enough olive oil, garlic, sauce and cheese will make it much more acceptable.

The picture is from our stay in the French countryside with our English friends in August of 08. Those are the potimorron squash that looked so nice on the wall that I have failed to successfully grow here in Georgia.

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