The Bounty!

This isn't all from my garden, but my brother, sister-in-law, and nephews stopped by over the weekend and had some vegetables to share. They brought loads of cucumbers, onions, and garlic, which is nice because we aren't growing those things.

Do you see that cucumber next to the giant zucchini? My brother handed me that thing and all I could do was turn around and try to unload our giant zucchini on him!! He wasn't having it though so we now have about 15 lbs of cucumbers and one 15-lb zucchini! I'm guessing. Next year I hope to add a produce scale to my gardening shed, but for now I'm just guessing. 

I also gave them peppers, which they didn't  have. Garden exchanges are a beautiful thing when they work out. I was thankful they didn't try to give us any tomatoes!

Next weekend we have a block party and I'm thinking we'll be making some type of cucumber side dish!

Determinate v. Indeterminate

Tomatoes come in 2 types-determinate and indeterminate. Determinate ripen all at once. Indeterminate ripen throughout the season. If you're ever confused....roma tomatoes are determinate! Whoa. And this isn't even the bulk of it. Most are still ripening. 

We were able to turn this....into this:

That's zucchini/tomato soup just like my mom makes! Except we used fresh tomatoes! It's basically just a puréed tomato base with potatoes, zucchinis, and onions in it. There should also be an egg cracked in it and some Parmesan but we were using what we had and we were out of Parmesan and eggs. Sad, but the soup was still great!

Habanero Fail!

I thought I was doing a good thing when I put my habaneros in the ground finally. I thought they'd finally grow big and produce fruit. But I think they were pretty stunted from the deer incident. They never grew. They didn't die either, but they were taking up room in my garden that now seemed appropriate for things that might actually produce, especially for a fall garden. So out they came! I'd be lying if I said it broke my heart to rip them out. I had given up on them. In went lettuce, Swiss chard, and ...uh... I forget. Radishes I think. Well, we'll see in 45 days I guess!

I also plucked some ripe tomatoes and one giant zucchini. I was a little disappointed we haven't had more zucchini by now. But I'm glad to have the one at least. No green beans yet. Well...I found one but no real green bean harvest to speak of yet. 

I think it might be an off year. We had lots of rain early on, then not much rain, then some suddenly cool temps recently. As one gardener commented, this much inconsistency isn't good for any one type of vegetable. It's bad for all. 

We also got a few of the early roma tomatoes (which I put in a brown paper bag to help them ripen just a little more) and some banana peppers too, which is nice!

Now to find a recipe that uses peppers, zucchini and tomatoes! Yum!