I have but a small windowbox planted with herbs, but my landlady has a grand garden, and keeps leaving five-pound zucchinis and twelve-inch cucumbers on my porch.
This is fine; I love zucchini. I’ve been eating zucchini stir fry, grilled marinated zucchini, zucchini frittata, baked breaded zucchini . . . you get the picture.
I made most of the cucumbers into a batch of refrigerator pickles that rawked. I added some dill seeds (from the dill in my windowbox) and that made 'em real perky. I brought a couple of jars to work, hoping to fob them off on people, and both jars were devoured at lunchtime!
I also made some chocolate zucchini bread which came out well. I think another batch of that is in store.
Would you mind posting your refrigerator pickle recipe?
We are also having “the year of the cucumber” and I’m running out of friends to gift with them.
I only have cherry and pear tomatoes ripe just now, but from the looks of things, when the rest go ripe we will be buried under tomatoes. I’ll make sauce with the pastes and freeze it. I’ll gorge myself on tomato sandwiches and fresh salsa with the rest.
I’m feeling guilty as we speak for not picking the cherry tomatoes that are taking over my flower bed. I made the mistake of planting one on the deck, one in the flowerbed near the fence and one in the flowerbed that used to be a sandbox.
I have cherry tomatoes coming out my ears! I can only eat so many too. Boy, are they sweet and good! I usually pick a handful after I come back from running and eat them fresh off the vine.
I should be going out to my dad’s to harvest some of his garden…he always overplants and called me before he left to come pick stuff so it didn’t go to waste. Not been there yet this week. :sheepish grin:
It won’t be but a matter of days before we start canning everything: dilly beans, tomatoes, tomatoe sauce, potatos, etc. etc. We’re going to try canning some pickled garlic this year too. Yum!
8 C thinly-sliced pickles
1 C onion (Vidalias or other sweet onions are best.)
1 C green pepper
1 Tbs Salt
2 Tsp Celery seed
2 Tsp Dill seed (if available)
1 C white vinegar
1 C sugar
Cut onions and green peppers into big chunks. Combine the vegetables with salt and spices and mix well. Mix together vinegar and sugar until sugar is dissolved, and pour over vegetables. Refigerate a couple of hours at least. Transfer to clean jars if desired. Will keep in the fidge for a couple of months–probably more, but they never last that long.
Bunnygirl I know what you mean about Too Many Plants. I’m always afraid I’ll kill one, so I plant a couple extra, and end up with 'way too much. But tomatoes off the vine, still warm from the sun, are sooooo good.
I left the magazine with the zuke recipe at home, but I’ll post it tomorrow.
I have some veggies in planters, but something isn’t right with them - 3/4 of the cucumbers have died, the tomatoes split before I can harvest them, and the tomato plants are looking odd. I have 6 green peppers from the two plants, and I don’t think any more are coming. I miss the rich soil in Virginia and Maryland. This sand is too much of a challenge to make gardening fun.
I’m also using my veggies (carrots, brocolli, zuke) in stirfries. The oregano has been dried (I’ve got enough for a couple years now). Dill, thyme, rosemary, sage, more basil, chives, all go in everything (almost) I cook.
Radishes-- just planted another batch, along with more carrots and broccoli. Lettuce has been a steady feast.
I’m still waiting on my leeks-- they’ll probably be great in December or January.
The best was potatoes-- I don’t even remember planting them- but I was weeding and <poof> out popped a potato.
And there’s no such thing as too many tomatoes. But they’re nearly impossible to grow in my area because of blight.
Anyone with a dearth of cherry tomatoes, take note:
Saute them with zucchini and carrots. Colorful and good.
Cut them in half, place in a nonreactive dish, and sprinkle liberally with salt, pepper and Tabasco. Add vodka to cover and refrigerate. Odd, but good. I usually pass these as snacks, but make an interesting cold salad.
Add to cubes of feta and chopped cucumber, pour on Greek dressing. This has served as dinner when I don’t want to heat up the house.
Or my favourite way of dealing with them: oven (or sun) dry them until they’re shrivelled and most of the water has evaporated. The resulting nuggets can be kept, covered in olive oil, in the refrigerator for a LONG time and tossed into whatever you want. Salads, sandwiches, frittatas.
I made some into dried tomato pesto for penne last week, and boy was that good.
If you’re drying in the oven, put 'em on a cookie sheet and put the oven as low as it will go for about eight hours. Sundrying takes longer, but I think it’s better, Make sure they’re covered (I use old window screen, washed).
Good idea. I’ve actually got a food dehydrator - you’d think I’d make some use of it! Maybe I’ll drag it out and throw the 'mater on there, cut in half.
FairyChat: if your tomatoes are splitting, its because of inconsistant watering, keep em well watered and it shouldnt happen.
Well up here in Minnesota my tomatoes and beans havent produced anything yet,(the bee population has gone down from last year after i evicted them from the siding on my house) so I gotta get some 0-10-10 fert. and my strawberries were enjoyed by the tree rats that seem to know when they are ripe before I do. It was the strawberries first year so I wasnt too concerned, and built a nice metal mesh protective cage for them next year.
During July and August, my wife and I live on bruscetta(sp?). Last spring, we planted 3 tomato plants. We loved them and cared for them. They managed to get about 6~7 feet high, filled with lovely, huge tomatoes. We planted 3 basil plants and a parsley plant to keep them company. We got about 80 tomatoes on the two larger plants (the other was a cherry tomato plant). The basil is huge - we’ve been eating pesto for weeks.
But LA has had a cool summer. The damn things just flat out refused to ripen. Now that we’ve gotten our August heat snap, it looks like they’ll all come in at once. We’re talking 15 pounds of tomatoes ripening over the course of a week. Luckily, the plants seem to still be setting (or they were last week, anyway), so we might get lucky again this year and keep getting them until October.
Inconsistent watering (letting the plants dry out during a dry spell) is likely to cause blossom end rot. If the toms are splitting/cracking, it’s likely that they’ve had too much water (not always something you can control), especially if the weather has been unusually warm. Hot weather plus lots of water can make the fruit grow too fast and crack. You can still eat them, of course, but the cracked fruit does invite disease, so you may want to pick them early.
Normally no need to lock your car doors in the church parking lot, but this time of year it’s a good idea or you’re liable to come back to find a huge bag of zucchini, yellow squash and okra. I only have herbs in my little garden box, dill, rosemary, oregano, parsley and chives. Surprisingly, the year I buy only one tomato plant it dies.
Okay, here’s one way to help use up that zucchini:
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
3 C flour
1/4 C unsweetened cocoa
1 Tbs cinnamon (that’s a lot, but it’s goooood!)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 C sugar
3 C eggs
1 C vegetable oil[sup]*[/sup]
2 tsp vanilla
2 C grated zucchini
1 C choppped nuts
1 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350[sup]o[/sup]F. Grease 2 loaf pans. In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa,cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt; mix well. In another bowl, combine sugar and eggs; beat until well-blended. Add oil[sup]*[/sup] and vanilla; stir until combined. Stir in zucchini. Add flour and mix until just moistened. Stir in nuts nad chocolate chips. Divide the batter between the two pans. Bake 55-60 min, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes, cool completely on wire racks.
[sup]*[/sup] I balked at the amount of oil and substituted 1 cup of applesauce instead, and I think it came out fine–the texture is kind of spongy, but none of my ravenous coworkers complained.
I think I’ll throw in some raisins next time. . . I love chocolate and raisins.
