Remember the Eggplant
Remember that little eggplant bloom that I posted a while back?
This is what it has turned in to.
I’m looking forward to harvesting it for some veggie lasagna or something.
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Happy Harvest
This weekend I headed to the Farmer’s Market to pick up some tomatoes to can for the winter because I was worried my plants weren’t going to produce enough. It’s been rather cool here this August (70’s during the day, 50’s at night), so the tomatoes don’t really seem to be ripening as quickly as they usually do. This weekend we finally got some warm weather, in the 80’s. It’s still getting cold in the evenings, but it seems like this warm spell was all the tomatoes needed to ripen up. I harvested tomatoes yesterday afternoon and got my biggest harvest yet.
I picked 10lbs of tomatoes yesterday! This brings my total 2008 tomato harvest up to 26lbs (21 romas, 5 beefsteak). I also discovered 4 hornworms on one plant. So, they were stoned (yep smashed with a big rock, another use for all those rocks I dig up out of my flowerbeds).
It’s funny the different sizes of tomatoes that can come from one plant.
I’ve heard rumblings from a few people it’s been a bad year for tomatoes. My plants are healthy and productive. How are your tomatoes doing this year?
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An Apple a Day
The other day while on our way home, Mr Chiots and I spotted an apple tree beside the road with a bunch of apples on it. There is a small orchard down the road, so probably years ago someone bought an apple, ate it and threw the core out the window.
We stopped the car and picked one and tasted it. They were delicious, so picked as many as we could reach (it looked like someone else had been picking them as well).
So what are my plans for these apples? I’m thinking of cooking them down with some transparent apples I bought at the farmer’s market to make some apple butter.
Have you ever picked fruit from the side of the road?
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A Peck of Pickled Peppers?
I was at a local farm buying peaches 2 weeks ago and they had banana peppers for 6 for $1. Since Mr Chiots and a friend LOVE hot peppers on their pizza, I decided to buy some and try my hand a pickling them. I looked up a few recipes and finally settled on a combination of 2.
So do they pass the test? Yes, Mr Chiots had some on pizza the other day and loved them. So I guess next year I’ll be growing banana peppers (good thing I saved some seeds) and pickling them for a years’ worth of pizza toppings.
Here’s the Recipe I used:
PICKLED HOT PEPPERS
1 1/2 lb of banana peppers
6 cups vinegar
2 cups water
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon non-iodized salt (kosher or pickling salt)
Cut peppers into 1/2 inch pieces. Combine vinegar, water, garlic & salt in a large sauce pot. Bring mixture to a boil: reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes, remove garlic. Pack peppers into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Ladle hot pickling liquid over peppers, leaving 1/4-inch head space. Remove air bubbles (by running knife around jar edges). Adjust 2 piece caps, process 10-minutes in boiling water canner.
If you don’t want to process your peppers you can just keep them in the fridge. Since I was only doing half a batch this is what I did, they’ll be eaten up quickly around here.
Anyone out there have a pickled hot pepper recipe they love?
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Eggplants in Bloom
I started some eggplant seeds this year. They are finicky plants for sure. Mine languished in the cool of the spring and finally took hold. I noticed the other day that it’s blooming. What beautiful blooms it has. Mr Chiot’s and I don’t really like eggplant, but we eat some at least once a year, I figured I would try to grow some this year (perhaps we’ll like it more).
Anyone out there have a good eggplant recipe for non-eggplant lovers? I’m thinking veggie lasagne.
