Fall = Winding Down The Garden

The garden is winding down. It's been a good year for some things (zucchini, lettuce, snow peas) and not so good for others (peppers, eggplant, tomatoes). The last month was slow. We had a lot of cantaloupe and watermelon, but really - that's boring.

Because the zucchini plants died, the cantaloupes over-ripened and the eggplants just weren't right - we had a surplus of rotten produce. What can you do with rotten produce? Shoot it of course!

Ryan and I used the leftover produce as target practice for his new .22. It was completely random and totally awesome at the same time.

A cantaloupe was the first victim:



Mid-way through the experiment:



We wanted to make sure the cantaloupe was completely destroyed:




The mini-sized eggplants may have been terrible to eat, but they were great target practice:



I think I nailed this thing about 20 times!



I also took A LOT of video - but I realized it's not as exciting as I expected. I tried to upload a file, but it didn't work. Oh well!

Happy fall!

Midget Mutant Eggplants Have Purpose

The midget, mutant eggplants have a purpose. They are the perfect size for eggplant fries!!! (and the crowd goes wild). Eggplant fries are a recipe I found on the internet last year. They are wonderful and go great with anything you would normally have french fries with.

You start out with cutting the eggplant. With my midget version, you don't even have to cut them that much!



Mixture is made of 3/4 c flour, 2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp Italian seasoning, 1 tsp parsley flakes (salt and pepper to taste). No eggs, milk or breadcrumbs (which make most fried recipes messy to prepare).



After mixing, deep fry to a crispy, golden brown. These delicious guys were the perfect side:



Yay to eggplant fries! Maybe I should edit the eggplant tag to "mutant midget eggplant". LOL.

Bummer Summer

This summer has been a bummer, in the garden and for life in general. But - there are always positive things that spring out that keep me going. I went out this morning (before the excessive heat warning goes into effect for the next 4 days) to check on things in the garden.

I found NINE cantaloupe. Not two, not four....NINE. In fact, I found 11 but two were already mush. I can't believe it. I realized as I dropped them on my front porch, that I have a lot of produce accumulating - good thing I'm visiting friends and family this week!



There is a mix of peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, cantaloupe and a few more mutant eggplants. The garden hasn't turned out quite like I was hoping - but I am going to be satisfied with what I've achieved!

Blossom-End Rot Strikes Again

I thought I was safe from any more damages from blossom-end rot. But, I was wrong. I have been patiently waiting for my eggplants to grow like they did last year. Unfortunately, this week I realized that last year we had mature egg plants at this time. In fact, we were well into the "Summer of Eggplant". Hrmph.

Today, I began to examine my eggplants a little more closely. They had started to rot...still attached to the plant. So, our plans for eggplant fries galore have been reduced to "we'll have some."

Here are the minature eggplants all ready to be eaten (the non-rotted ones):



As I mentioned previously, the green peppers were affected as well. They were already miserable looking, but I took the opportunity to take a picture of this "bell" pepper. They are already turning red...at this size:



Oh well, next year we may have to scaled back the garden and focus on the important things.

Fresh, Farm Picked Melons!

I've been keeping a close eye on my cantaloupes. Last week, I came out to find one all cracked up and bug filled. Bummer. I wish I had some advice on how to pick them perfectly, but I haven't figured it out yet!

Earlier this week, in anticipation of it becoming over-ripe, I picked a cantaloupe. It was terrible. Not completely green, but it was the type of cantaloupe you are served in a restaurant when it's not really in season. It lacked flavor.

Today was a big day though! I had two perfectly ripe cantaloupe. I have a hard time not eating as I cut these. They are so good!



Plenty more where that one came from! Odd that the cantaloupe is ready about the same time as last year, despite getting in the ground about 3 weeks earlier. Interesting observation, I might make a special note.

The Joys of Summer

I love tomatoes. I love to cut them up and eat a whole plate as a snack. Or, as a meal! They are one of my biggest joys of having a garden and one of my favorite memories from Grandpa's garden growing up.

I could seriously write a love poem to garden tomatoes,but I'll keep that one to myself. It probably would have a sad last verse since this year has not been the greatest for tomatoes.

I had a decent hall from the garden today, I picked about 10 tomatoes and a few more peppers. Now,I'm going to sit back and enjoy this:



Delicious.

Zucchini Bread A Fan Favorite

I've made a lot of zucchini bread this summer and I plan to at least freeze already portioned bags for later adventures. Of course, I was happy when Ryan liked it and thrilled when my friend RR (and family) liked it. BUT - I received the BEST compliment of all time today.

The pickiest little eater I know LOVED my zucchini bread. In fact, he said "mmmm" and just to make sure I heard him he said it again even louder "MMMMMM".



I had to refrain from giving him any more than just the one slice. While the Zucchini part is oh so healthy, the bread part isn't. He did choose my bread over his normal go-to of mac n cheese. Point, Aunt Kayla.

Elsie's Salsa

The blossom-end rot delayed my salsa making plans this year. I have been slowly gathering ripe tomatoes, resisting my desires to eat them and putting them in a gallon bucket, anxiously awaiting a full gallon so I could make salsa.

Our 2009 garden plan was basically this: make "grandma's salsa." The grandma in this case was Ryan's grandma, Elsie. Ryan has great memories from his childhood of his grandma canning her salsa. The taste brings back all of those memories and it's something that my non-food loving husband, LOVES. I tried making it last year, scared to death that it wouldn't taste the same, but Ryan and his sister both agree that it tastes just like they remember.

So, aside from the gallon of tomatoes, the salsa also includes green peppers (obviously not from my garden), jalapenos, onions (also not from my garden...can you tell I'm bitter?) and Serrano peppers (or, a hot chile pepper).

Mixed all together and cooking on the stove:



After cooking and hot water bath canning..... we have 10 freshly canned salsa jars (and one larger jar with the leftover). I am not very good at planning how many jars I need, but I made a note for next time, I need 12 pint jars!



Hopefully, this is just the beginning of our yummy salsa making 2010. If you want the full recipe, please let me know.

Picking Peppers to Pickle....

I did not realize two weeks passed since my last garden post! I have no excuses, other than life happens! Things in the garden have slowed down at the moment, which makes no sense to me - it should be flourishing!

Since this post is about peppers...I'll get down to the nitty gritty. The green peppers were basically wiped out. There are some peppers growing, but they are so tiny they are not useful in recipes and certainly aren't going to be added to a veggie tray any time soon (or ever)!

The banana peppers are great. I already prepped one can (aka jar) of them and I've been using them on sandwiches. The jalenpenos are doing ok, what is left of them. They also didn't see the growth that we saw last year, but I am getting enough to be able to can and possibly make poppers.

Here are the picked peppers waiting to be canned:



(I will need quite a few more jalapenos, so I'm working on it!)

The serrano pepper plant and the cayenne pepper plant are also growing long, beautiful peppers. I am a little afraid to eat them...they are going to be HOT!!!

Hopefully things will pick back up, so I can have more posts!

Blossom-End Rot

As someone who has spent a lot of time writing about Rhizoctonia Root Rot or Phytophora Root Rot (both soybean diseases for those of you going "huh?"), you would think I would be thrilled to talk about my new discovery: Blossom-End Rot . WRONG. It's in MY garden!

Blossom-End Rot is happening all over my tomato plants and from what I can read on the internet, there is nothing I can do about it! Blossom-End Rot is associated with calcium absorption into the plant and is caused by many things.

Here is what my friends at THE Ohio State University Extension have to say about it:

This may result from low calcium levels or high amounts of competitive cations in the soil, drought stress, or excessive soil moisture fluctuations which reduce uptake and movement of calcium into the plant, or rapid, vegetative growth due to excessive nitrogen fertilization.

Summary: I had too much water followed by no water, my plants are screwed.

This picture was taken from tOSU's website and displays what is happening. I keep forgetting to take pictures when I am out in the garden.



While this problem will not spread from one fruit to another, it can cause quite the problems throughout the garden. Again, tOSU says

This nonparasitic disorder can be very damaging, with losses of 50% or more in some years.

So far, I have tossed as many tomatoes this year as I have picked. I am hoping that it is just on the early ones and we can continue on to a successful growing season. Unfortunately, a lot of the plants are already struggling due to the various dead parts caused by the flooding.

Blossom-End Rot also appears on peppers and eggplant. My eggplants are troopers and I am seeing no signs of this disorder on them. However, the peppers are getting taken pretty fast, so their likelihood of survival is very low.

Let's hope some rain and balance of calcium can get these plants out of their stressed disposition! To read more about blossom-end rot from tOSU go to this link: http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3117.html. And, please remember to use "the" before every mention of Ohio State. Thanks.

What To Do WIth Zucchini - Part One Million

I've lost count on the zucchini attempts. I've done fries. I've added it to pasta dishes. Ryan and I have used them in a jousting match. I even tried to convince Albert Pujols they would work good as bats!

Oh, and I made Chilled Zucchini Soup:



Today, I try use #1,000,001: Using it to barter a new car. Wish me luck and happy Tuesday.

A Whole Family Of Tomatoes!

I picked a whole family of tomatoes today. We've got big daddy, momma, brother and the twins....



Tasty!

What To Do With Zucchini - Part Cinq

I knew high school french would come in handy! We're now on to part five of "What To Do With Zucchini". I've lost faith that any of you are reading these, but I'm going to keep posting them. SO THERE!

Today's adventure in Zucchini came from self-titled, Jeannie Zucchini. The recipe? Chocolate Zucchini Cake. For those wondering, Jeannie Zucchini is my cousin's mother-in-law.

I started out by "grating" the Zucchini in my KitchenAid Mixer (it's getting a workout this summer with all this baking!).



Next, I prepared the dry ingredients in a bowl, so they were ready to be sifted later.



Then, I mixed the "wet" ingredients together following the recipe (no Zucchini yet). It looked something like this:



After sifting the dry ingredients, the cake mixture looked like this:



Time to mix in the zucchini, put it in a cake pan and top with mini chocolate chips:



45 minutes later and we have a finished product:



It smells WONDERFUL. I can't wait to eat it for dessert later. And, of course you can have the full recipe:

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

½ c margarine
1 ½ c sugar
½ c vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
½ c sour milk*
2 ½ c flour
4 tbls cocoa
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cloves
½ tsp salt
2 c grated zucchini
mini chocolate chips
chopped walnuts (opt.)

Cream margarine and sugar, add oil and eggs then sour milk and vanilla. Sift in dry ingredients, then mix in grated zucchini. Pour batter into 9x12 pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and nuts (opt.). Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Let stand for at least 5 minutes. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream :)

*NOTE: Sour milk by adding ½ tsp. lemon juice.

Have a great weekend!

Growing Gardens Need Water

I knew I would be saying this eventually - but I think we could use some rain! Oh well, if we don't get it early next week, I will be forced to water, water, water. As far as weather goes, HOT is the only way to describe the last few weeks.

I heard recently that I am "quite the gardener" or from others they heard I "love gardening". I'm here to set the record straight on this, or at least provide some clarity. I like planting and watching things grow. I LOVE eating what comes out of the garden. The process of weeding, however, is my LEAST favorite thing to do. And, I'm terrible at it (you'll see as this post goes on). So, I think that would make me a B- gardener, at best. I guess this post somewhat falls in the "not an expert" area again. I just want to say that I'm not "quite the gardener." I think its about 80 percent luck!

A few things have transpired this week, so let's take a look at them...Some of the tomatoes are ripening! Please note: none of the early girls are ripening or close to ripening. What a joke! I won't waste my time/space with them in the future. This small picture really doesn't give you a full idea, but it does show some orange amongst the green.



We still see the results of earlier flooding. The tomatoes are a bit stunted, I would say. Aside from large areas of dead plant, the fruit that is producing is smaller than average when it is ripening. I see this with the surviving green peppers as well. Of course, this doesn't stop the appeal or taste. In the case of this tomato, size does not matter. It was FANTASTIC!



The eggplants, which are actually in the same row as the tomatoes and one row over from the green peppers, look just fine (another mystery)! I predict eggplant fries in our near future!



Oh look! The watermelon is getting bigger! We now counted 13. "Sharing is caring" will be our motto in a few weeks I'm sure.



I received feedback on my last melon post suggesting my cantaloupe didn't look like cantaloupe. They were still pretty young at the last post. Here is one that is maturing and OH NO! it looks like a cantaloupe to me! (This is also the same exact cantaloupe from the last post):



I researched the cantaloupe life cycle online and they appear to be normal at this stage. I grew cantaloupe last year, but I never even noticed them until they were yellowed and ready to be picked!

In other news, the green beans produced well and the zucchini keep on ticking. I didn't take any pictures, but they're good to go - trust me.

What To Do With Zucchini - Part Quatre

When I started this, I didn't realize there would be a part four. But, now I'm guessing it will be up to 1,000,000 by the time I get rid of all this zucchini.

Yesterday's garden haul looked like this:



Of course, I haven't even touched any of those because I am still working on the ones from before.

Today's what to do with zucchini was inspired by hibachi restaurants, in other words Japanese Steakhouses. Generally, they serve zucchini in their vegetables, so I wanted to do something that style.

We had salmon on the grill, teppanyaki inspired from this recipe http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/asian-grilled-salmon-recipe/index.html Instead of using the leftover mix on the salmon (post-grilling), I set it aside for the vegetables.

Chopped zucchini:



I added the zucchini to the pan with onions and also the sauce. I sauteed them with a little margarine:



They were a great complement to the salmon. If I make again, I will probably make a separate veggie marinade, with less oil.

Melon Monday

Yesterday was a great day to get out and check out the garden. It was also a weeding day, but I hate weeding - let's focus of the fun stuff. Most of the exciting stuff is happening with the melons. However, first things first. Do you see what I see?



Yep. It's a red tomato! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will return in a couple days. If it makes it to the house, I may even slice it. :)

And, now back to the melons! The watermelon keep growing wonderfully and vary in size. For the ones we can see, we counted 11 melons yesterday.

Some look like this (or even smaller):



Others look like this:



The watermelon are the most popular garden topic for my husband. He cannot wait for them to ripen!

In other melon news, we also see cantaloupe forming (on the other side of the garden). These are not as exciting for my husband, but they are incredibly exciting for me! I love cantaloupe. They look weird, but I think will eventually plump and round out a little.

Small cantaloupe:



Probably the biggest one we have right now:



There will be no entries on "What To Do" with watermelon or cantaloupe. The simple answer is "eat it"!

What To With Zucchini - Part Trois

I warned you it was coming! :) Yesterday's adventure in "what to do with zucchini" was an old family recipe - Zucchini Casserole. This one was great for a picnic!

To make zucchini casserole, you first need...Zucchini. 5 cups, chopped to be exact! I don't peel it, but you can. (You also need to cook it. I left out that step in the pictures.)



Next is carrots (2 cups chopped or shredded) and onions (1.5 cups chopped), sauteed with 4 tablespoons of butter.



Mix all of that together with some cream of chicken soup and sour cream....



I skipped a few other steps, but a 9x13 pan has a stuffing mixture in the bottom, topped with zucchini mixture and then topped with more stuffing:



Oh, and I added cheese for good measure.



I didn't get a picture of the finished product (actually cooked). But, I promise it was delicious. The full recipe is below. You can also find it in the Roanoke-Benson High School Band Cookbook, printed 1994. :)


Zucchini Casserole
5 c. Zucchini, cubed
1/2 c. butter
1 (8oz) pkg herb stuffing mix
1.5 c. chopped onions
2 c. shredded carrots
4 T. butter
1 c. sour cream
2 cans cream of chicken soup
Cheese (opt.)

Cook zucchini; drain. Melt 1/2 cup butter and mix with stuffing. Place 1/2 of the stuffing mixture into bottom of 9x13 baking dish. Cook onion and carrots in 4 tablespoons butter until tender. Remove from heat and combine with zucchini. Mix sour cream and soup; add to zucchini mixture. Spread on top of stuffing in pan. Remainder of stuffing goes on top. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes, covered. Uncover and continue baking an additional 10 to 15 minutes, or until top is browned.

What To Do With Zucchini - Part Deux

This week hasn't brought any new Zucchini. However, I am still using the first round of squash picked from the garden. I've now made three batches of zucchini bread (a new tradition, I think) and we've had grilled zucchini as well (marinated in Kraft Free Italian Dressing). Tonight's dinner paired nicely with Fried Zucchini.

I started by slicing a large zucchini (I still have half of it left, please wait for "What To Do With Zucchini - Part Trois" to find out more). I had a plate full of round slices when finished:



Then I dipped them in this three bowl process: 1) flour, 2) beaten eggs, 3) "Kayla's Italian Bread Crumbs" - also known as plain bread crumbs, Italian seasoning and garlic powder. I only buy plain bread crumbs because they are more versatile. The recipe called for Italian bread crumbs, so they can be substituted.



My frying oil was set at 375 degrees. I fried them until golden brown. Once finished, I dusted them with Parmesan cheese and garlic salt to add a little more flavor.



They were great dipped in ranch dressing or "plain" as my husband prefers. The process I used was based on this recipe: http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,161,153190-241202,00.html.

I Do Know Beans

Green Beans! I picked my first bucket of beans today. Unexpectedly, to be honest. I went to the garden to plant another batch of lettuce, radishes and (NEW!)blue pumpkins. While I was out there, I noticed I had a few green beans hanging from the plants.

As I went through the row, I realized there were more than just a "few" green beans. We have quite a few. I'm sure there will be more soon!

Obligatory shot of green beans:



Thanks for looking!

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

We spent time in the garden yesterday. After a few days of dry weather, things are finally drying out. The future looks better than it did last week.

The Good

Watermelon



Eggplant



Other things of note: The peppers that did survive look to be rebounding quite nicely. The tomatoes have more fruit this week than last, so they must still be producing. Their leaves look normal and have left the drooping behind!


The Bad

Onions



The onions probably should have been done now, as their tops have died off. Unfortunately, this is as big as they are. I will replant bulbs soon. We also tilled up the snow peas and lettuce, they had run their course! I plan to replant the lettuce, I have really enjoyed having fresh salads all the time. We are also adding some pumpkins to the garden soon.


The Ugly

Broccoli



Cauliflower



Aside from the broccoli and cauliflower, I think some of the plants can bounce back from the water torture. I'm going to wait it out before digging them up.