Category Archives: Fruits

Blossom End Rot and Fried Green Tomatoes

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Fried Green Tomatoes

 Our latest issue has been with our tomatoes.  First, some of them are getting blossom end rot.  The ends start to turn dark and leathery and will eventually start to rot the whole tomato.  We found this with several of the green tomatoes on our plant last weekend and, in order to save the fruit, we went ahead and picked the tomatoes, cut away the bad areas, and made fried green tomatoes.  I had never tried fried green tomatoes before since I’m not a big tomato fan, but these were great.  Thanks Drew!

Apparently, one way to quickly stop blossom end rot is to dissolve Tums in the water that you pour over the plants.  This condition is caused by a lack of calcium which is exactly what Tums are made of.  We’ll see if it works.

The other issue is that we have some sort of critter starting to eat our tomatoes before they ripen.  We’ve harvested a few and are trying to ripen them in brown paper bags.  If that seems to work we will go ahead and take them all.

Posted in Cooking, Diseases, Fruits, Pests, Vegetables

Mini Eggplant Parmesan

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To use my eggplant I decided on Eggplant Parmesan.  I’ve never actually tried the dish before and I realized, while looking through recipes, that it consists of  a TON of red sauce and cheese.  I went with a mini version to fit the scale of our eggplants.  The eggplants were sliced, dredged in egg, then panko flakes, and baked in the oven.  Once they were done, I added a dollop of tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese on top and broiled them for another minute or two.  They tasted a bit like pizza bites.

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A pic of our recent stash.

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Posted in Cooking, Fruits, Vegetables

Spaghetti Squash

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We picked and ate our spaghetti squash last night.  It was really fun to be able to grab dinner from the back yard.  We baked it, scrapped out the innards, and cooked it in a skillet with some butter, garlic, and parsley (also from the garden).

Spaghetti squash

Spaghetti squash

 

Now what to do with our two eggplants here.  We’ve tried roasted and grilled so far,  but neither of us were too impressed.  Maybe Eggplant Parmesan or Babaganoush is in our future.

Eggplants

Eggplants

Posted in Cooking, Fruits, Vegetables

A surprise

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Due to joining an awesome garden group, we received a bunch of free, extra plants.  No room in the raised bed meant a trip to garden ridge and the purchase of many pots.

What we got:

Persimmon Orange Tomato

Botinecka Zuta Pepper

Money Maker Eggplant

Congo Trinidad Hot Pepper

Listada Eggplant

Purple Tomatillo

Sungold Cherry Tomato

Cossack Husk Cherry Tomato

Tomato, peppers, eggplant, squash

Tomato, peppers, eggplant, squash

Pineapple Tomato

Spaghetti Squash

Spice Globe Basil

Italian Classic Basil

Comune II Parsley

Jimmy T Okra

Cardoon

Black raspberry

Comfrey

Roselle

 

Wow, totally blew my mind.

 

Posted in Fruits, Vegetables

And so it begins

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I dream of being surrounded by rows and rows of vegetables, all grown by me, that will feed my family all year long.  I guess I’ll have to start with what I can manage in our quarter acre yard.  I’m always disappointed when I read books or blogs of people saying they are a beginner gardener and then I later find out they come from a long line of farmers and it really isn’t their first rodeo.  So I’m a bit of a skeptic when I see that claim and I never know who to believe. However,  I do know that I really am a beginner in the green thumb arena and I want to document my journey into this unknown realm of seeds and pods.

I’m not exactly sure where this back-to-the earth desire came from, but I think it partially stems from the year my husband and I spent in Japan and a peak into a different way of living.  It made me want to have less, but experience more.  Specifically, to create something or bring something new into existence.  Ever since then,  we’ve been dying to have a yard that we can bring to life.

To begin, I’m going to have to backtrack a bit because it’s already the end of June and I’m just now collecting my gardening thoughts.  But I’ll start at the beginning and bring things up to date.

Here we go…

 

Posted in Chickens, Fruits, Vegetables
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