We had a blast with our garden this summer;)You won't know by looking at it right now, it's pathetic with weeds taking over and the tomatoes and bean plants dying back.
In fact, Lydia and I almost cried when we saw our huge, luscious zucchini plants dying back a few weeks ago:(
All good things must come to an end... or at least the summer part of our summer garden.
We did get to "put away" some of the goods. I have 5 canned quarts of squash and a few baggies in the freezer. We canned tomatoes with friends and were given a lot of those quarts;) We have some corn "put up"... not much though:/
And somethings are just better fresh... like squash and zucchini:)Chris and I were ready to try a very simplified version of Ratatouille. I sauteed the squash and zucchini in EVOO with some salt and pepper. Then layered the squash, zucchini and pepperoni slices. Finally we drizzled spaghetti sauce over the layers (sometimes the sauce was a meat sauce). Chris and I ate lots of Ratatouille this summer;)
The kids got to cut into a few little watermelon. They kept picking them too early.. or that's at least what we thought:)
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| love his expressions:) And it was edible:) |
Even though I know very little about black eyed peas... we had plenty come up. I had two little "shell-ers".
We even got some corn in... awesome to eat the corn that we planted:)
And I have two fantastic corn shuckers;)
We are still getting some peppers and tomatoes... so fresh salsa right now;) Anyway, it's been quite the experience and we've all learned a lot. Next year I am definitely investing in tomato cages and maybe planting a few less tomato plants... 48 was a bit much for us this year:) Although many people got to enjoy fresh Roma and Cherry tomatoes from the garden:)
Can you find Lydia in the picture to the right?? Those tomato plants were crazy!! I referred to them for most of the growing season as my "unruly teens"... they were just every where;)
I also hope to figure out a way to can at my house. I found out in the middle of the season that my nice flat glass top stove wasn't going to be suitable to can on... who knew:/ Anyway, we have a few possibilities so that we can get more canned next season and make our growing season last through the winter.
Can I also say that I stink at growing and harvesting beans... definitely going to work on that next year so we don't have to purchase them all year long at the grocery store;)
I'll be sharing our favorite zucchini recipe from this summer, soon:) Too good NOT to share;)
3 comments:
I enjoyed all the great produce you all gave me this summer. The squash was yummy and the tomatoes were great marinated in Italian dressing and feta cheese! Thank you little harvesters and growers! You guys did an awesome job for this being your first year GROWING!
That is just awesome! I love all of the pics. I really wish I could grow something, but there is so much wildlife AND we have to have pest control here. I won't want to eat stuff that has pest spray on/near it!
Although I am not into gardening (and even do not get my balcony planted well) I definitely would love to have some vegetables like tomatoes and zucchini in my own garden if I would have one! Lucky you!
Right now I am getting zucchini from my co-workers garden. Hers are growing so big like yours, too! The first one was very good but the second had a hard peel! Which also did not get soft after "cooking" (did in a pan so not really cooking). Have you had this before, too? Never had this before with any zucchini I ever ate.
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