OK, I was surprised last week that we had less participants for the Garden Party. I don't know about anyone else, but this month and into October are prime time for "putting up" for the winter with lots of things ready for harvest. And I've been looking forward to seeing what you're doing with all the things you grew, as well as see how the garden is growing.
So don't forget the recipes-let's see what you're doing with the seasonal produce you grew or bought from a farmer's market!
As for me, I've frozen green beans, canned some pickled beans, and since the wild blackberries have been ripening for the past few weeks, my kids picked some for freezer jam and smoothies.
Yesterday, though, I celebrated Labor Day by working most of the day in the kitchen using up zucchini in some baking (including my favorite zucchini bread) and canning my first salsa of the season (yea!) and my first ever tomatilla salsa verde.
Here's what I have to show for it: 19 jars of different salsas. I really had to do some research, as I didn't have enough tomatoes to make more than one batch of my favorite salsa. So I found a recipe online (a reputable source- a state extension agency) for a salsa using less tomatoes and more chilies and onions.
It turned out more watery than we like and very spicy (which Brian likes...), but at least I have some salsa. This tomato situation is the worst I can remember, actually. We've often had variable weather, but in all my years of growing tomatoes for canning, I've never had so many sit on the plant just refusing to turn color.
I realized today that we've not had one ripe Brandywine tomato from our two plants that have been loaded with huge fruit for about a month. Not one. And when I looked today, I couldn't even see any that had pink on them anywhere. *sigh*
And can I just say tomatillos are very weird? The husk combined with the stickiness and then the lack of juice when you cut them- strange, strange. I had to go online to find out what they look like when they are ripe- I've never grown them before and I had them in all stages: cherry tomato-sized ones that had pushed out of the husk all the way up to slicing-tomato sized still in their husks. What's up with that?
Anyone grow tomatillos before? Why do some turn light green with tan husks and others push out of the husk while still dark green and tiny? I hope we like this salsa verde- what else can you do with tomatillos?
And if you're going to be spending so much time in the kitchen, why not use some of those zucchinis that are producing to make a yummy chocolate cake?
Why not, indeed.
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