Gardening Continued

I do not know if this years garden was more prolific than last years because I did not keep stats last year.  But I did this year.

Eggplants

I planted two Iciban (Japanese) eggplants and each in their own raised bed.  Usually I plant two together in one raised bed.  I definitely produced more eggplants this year than in previous year's.  Over the summer, I made 5 batches of eggplant hummus that are in the freezer, three batches of veggie tacos, one eggplant parmesan dish and one batch eggplant & tomato sauce for pasta.

Zucchini

It was not a good year for my one and only zucchini plant.  My only comfort was that some other gardeners also seemed to have a problem with zucchini this year.  We conferred and think the ground might have been too wet because of all the rain we received.  Anyway, that sounded like as good as reason as any.  So I only made 5 batches of chocolate chip zucchini bread (in the freezer), one zucchini quiche and one meal of cheese tortellini with zucchini.

Grape Tomatoes

I have learned grape tomatoes are much easier to grow than regular size tomatoes.  So I always make sure to grow some.  This year I had two kinds.  One was a Napa grape and one was a yellow pear.  The yellow pear I have grown before and it is prolific.  The chickens ate most of them and they even got tired of eating them.  I think next year I will not plant them.

The red grape tomatoes, though, I saved for us humans.  I made and froze 18 batches of roasted grape tomatoes that can be served on baguettes with avocados.  I also made a corn tomato salad, a caprese salad and an egg bake with them.

Roma Tomatoes

I always have trouble with my tomato plants.  I even took a class on them this year to see if I could do any better.  While at the nursery for the class I bought one of their plants.  It was a Brandyfred dwarf.  Unfortunately, I was never sure when the tomatoes were ripe.  By the time they turned red they had often split their skins and fallen off the vine.  Finally, toward the end of the summer I just picked them green.  That is when I found a recipe for baked fried green tomatoes.  It was delicious.  I wish I had tried them sooner.

The Roma tomato plant I bought from Burpee's online catalog.  They insisted it was very hardy which is what I needed.  It did pretty well.  I made five batches of tomato jam, 2 batches of salsa and one batch of pasta sauce.  All those recipes used about 43 pounds of tomatoes.  Suffice it to say, I was very pleased with my tomato output.

Bell Peppers

My two bell peppers did not do as well this year as in previous years.  Overall, I picked about 60 bell peppers and many of them were small.  I just chop these up and freeze them to use in casseroles and soups during the winter.

Raspberries

This is my favorite plant.  First I love raspberries and second I ate them so fast I never had any available for baking.  I would pick a handful of raspberries every three days or so and then take them into the kitchen to rinse them in a colander.  From the colander they went straight into my mouth.  No one else can confirm how great they taste because I never shared them either. 

Watermelon

I had one watermelon plant.  Mike gets a kick out of seeing how big they grow.  However, the plant spreads out everywhere.  He and I got into an argument early in the summer.  I did not want the vines growing out of the raised bed and throughout my garden because I was stepping on them.  He did not want them growing through the garden fence and into the yard because then he could not mow the grass.  We ended up with 3 great tasting and nice size watermelons and 6 not so nice ones.  The six were given to the neighbors horses and our chickens.  I think we are going to pass on raising watermelons next year.  It is not worth the argument or having to eat a huge watermelon all by myself.  (Mike does not eat watermelon.)

I am going to keep a copy of this blog post handy for the next time someone asks me what I spend my time on now that I am retired.