The tomato plants

here at the house are already out of control! I decided to stay home all day today and get some things done around the house. Well, I ended up spending a great deal of time trimming and tying up the tomatoes plants. It's a good thing I did! Look what I found buried in all those leaves!!

The first two ripe tomatoes! Of course they are the "Matt's Wild Cherry". I think that there's going to be one happy "Italian" around here tonight! He actually had a tomato dream the other night. He said that he came downstairs for breakfast and I had a big beautiful ripe Cherokee Purple tomato for him! These are not a CP.....but it's a start!

I waited until the last day of

Strawberry picking season to realize that there would not be enough strawberries in the garden to keep "The Italian" in strawberry jam for the year. Although there are many many organic farms in our area, organic strawberry farms are few and far between. Monday I found a farm that wasn't too far from us that still had strawberries to pick and Tuesday would be the last day.

Tuesday morning I set out to go strawberry picking in hopes of getting about 20 lbs of strawberries. I figured that I need to make at least 3 batches of strawberry jam and freeze some as well.

Well, the strawberry field was pretty much done for the season and I only managed to get about 10 lbs.

When I got home, I cleaned the strawberries and processed enough to make three batches of Strawberry Jam. I was pleasantly surprised to have enough to freeze too. These strawberries are not nearly as tasty as the ones growing in the garden. But, they would definitely make some good strawberry jam!

Wednesday I made two batches of jam. I ran out of pectin so I will have to make the final batch today. I ended up with 6 pints and 5 half pints of great tasting jam to keep "The Italian" happy, for awhile anyway. The final batch will be put in half pint jelly jars for gift giving.

So, what have you been putting up lately??

Harvest Monday.........6/13/2011

The harvesting and varieties of harvests are definitely picking up around here. I pulled the rest of the gigantic Baby Choi. There were 14 plants total. Five were given to family and friends, some was frozen and the rest is being used in some great Asian dishes prepared by "The Italian".

Baby Choi - 89 oz. harvested this week

I planted three varieties of cauliflower this spring at the plots. The first variety to form heads is the "Silver Cup".

The first head of "Silver Cup" was very small and flowering immediately with pink and green flowers. "The Italian" used it in a stir fry.

The second and third heads of the "Silver Cup" were also small but didn't flower as bad as the first head did. The worst of these two heads was used in the stir fry with the first head. The fourth head (no pic) is a bit better and the fifth head, still on the plant at the plots, is bigger and much nicer. I am hoping that the two other varieties will produce some bigger heads. This weather we have had, has not been good for the broccoli or cauliflower.

I'm still harvesting scapes from the garlic here at the house. I made some "Scape Pesto Base" and froze it for use over the winter. I made it with just the scapes and oil olive. That way we could add pine nuts, cheese or what ever we felt like when we use it.

The strawberries are producing at a steady pace. We have been eating them every day. I made an Angel Food Cake this week. We just add some fresh strawberries on top and a little vanilla ice cream on the side to make a wonderful dessert! I really don't think that I will have any strawberries to freeze this year since it is the first year for the plants.

The "Little Marvel" shelling peas are just starting to be harvested. We had one serving of them so far this past week. The beautiful Spring Blush Snap Peas are slowing down a bit. I have managed to freeze a couple of portions. I think that I am going to plant them again in the fall. They are just so darn good! I also started to harvest some Snow Peas here at the house and at the plots.

Saturday I looked at the lettuce and realized that some had to be harvested immediately. I ended up with two pounds consisting of eight different varieties! Of course I gave some to my neighbor and he brought me over a bottle of wine! I wonder how much wine I will get for some wonderful tomatoes????

Harvest total for the week - 11.875 lbs.

Baby Choi - 5.5625 lbs.

Cauliflower - 8 oz.

Lettuce - 2.0625 lbs.

Shelling Peas - 10 oz.

Snow Peas - 4 oz.

Spring Blush Snap Peas - 11 oz.

Spring Onions - 4 oz.

Scapes - 5 oz.

Strawberries - 1.625 lbs.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions our Harvest Monday hostess with the mostest to see what is going on in veggie gardens around the globe!!

Lettuce & Tomatoes

I was sitting here melting from this horrible hot and humid weather looking at some photos I took two days ago at the home garden. I thought that I would share them with you....pretty lettuce and lots of tomatoes on the plants!

Seven out of the ten early tomato plants at the house have set fruit. There may be more now....but it's been too darn hot to go out and search.

By the time I finished this post, a storm came through along with some rain and cool air!! Yipee, now I don't have to go to the plots at 6AM!

It's starting to look like a Garden!!

The plots are really starting to look like a garden. Despite the weather, planting is getting done and everything is growing very well.

Beds 1 & 2.

Bed #1 will be planted with dry beans as a second crop as I pull the first crop plants out. Bed #2, the potatoes are doing great, the snow peas are finally growing and the Three Sisters is just about completely planted. You are supposed to plant the beans after the corn. Due to the fact that I am planting special beans  in both Three Sisters, I started them at home. They will be put in a couple of days as soon as this heat wave ends. The space between the Three Sisters and small bean plants will be left empty for some fall broccoli. I also planted watermelons at the one end of the potatoes and in a space between the two varieties. I got the idea from the book Carrots Love Tomatoes. The early potatoes will be done before the melons get too big.

The potatoes are starting to bloom and the potato beetles are under control! I have been picking the bugs, removing eggs and using DE on them. The gardener behind us is doing the same thing and it looks like it has worked.

Beds 3 & part of 4.

Most of the tomatoes have been staked in Bed #3 (Tomato Alley). Bed #4, the Three Sister has been planted the same as in Bed #2.

One variety of the cantaloupe has been planted in Bed #4. I put the stakes in at the ends which will hold the supports for the melons. I also have another variety of cantaloupe and korean melons to planted in this bed.

The Sugar Magnolia Purple Snap Vine Peas are finally growing in Bed #4. I even saw a couple of flowers on them! Maybe we will get some of those beautiful peas after all!

Beds 5 & 6

A zucchini has been planted at the end of Bed #5. I will sow another zucchini seed behind this plant shortly. Nasturtiums have been planted throughout the beds where needed as pest control. They also add a lot of color to the garden and the flowers are great on salads!

The Little Marvel peas are growing and blossoming in Bed #5. Most of the tomatoes in that bed have also been staked.

The Fava Beans at the end of Bed #6 (Strawberry Bed) are growing nicely. They also have some flowers on them that are ready to open.

The Blackberry bushes are loaded. I have to remember to pick up some bird netting to cover them before the birds get to them.

The older Raspberry bushes that were at the plots are loaded with young berries. These also need to be netted soon.

Well, that's a little bit of what is going on at the plots. There is a lot that I missed....but there will be more posts and pictures in the near future.