Smoked Salsa

We have an abundance of tomatoes and peppers from our garden. It has been a banner year for tomatoes since we had so much rain early in the season! Therefore, we decided to make salsa with our harvest.

7 pounds of chopped tomatoes
1 pound of finely diced peppers
1 large red and yellow onion chopped
1 head of garlic chopped
1 bunch of cilantro (just the leaves)
1 bunch of thyme (just the leaves)
6 red hot peppers chopped
3 tablespoons of kosher salt
2 ounces of lime juice
6 shakes of Tabasco Smoked Chipotle sauce
1 capful of liquid smoke

First, we boiled the jars, rings and lids to sterilize. Chopped all the ingredients. In a pan with hot oil we added the onions let them cook for about one minute then add the garlic. We then added the peppers and tomatoes salt, hot peppers, lime juice, Tabasco and the liquid smoke. This cooked for about 8-9 minutes we then added the cilantro and thyme.

The mixture was removed from the stove and we began to fill the jars with the salsa. We wiped the edge of each jar with a clean paper towel then lifted the lid with a magnet and placed the lid on the top of the jar. You need to be careful not to touch the sterilized lids and jars so your salsa does not become contaminated, Once the lid is in place we twisted the rings in place to hold the lids. Back into the boiling water bath. The jars boiled for 15 minutes and were removed from the water and allowed to cool. As the jars are cooling, you will hear the lids popping and sealing themselves. If they do not pop, you can push them down and as long as they do not pop back up it is a good seal! Once completed cooled we removed the rings and labeled the salsa. Good eats!!!

TO SEE THE PHOTO ALBUM OF THE PROCESS CLICK ON THE PHOTO BELOW

Smoked Salsa

From Vine to Dine!

There is nothing better than a tomato fresh from the garden! This year we planted nine tomato plants; eight we hung upside down in baskets and one we planted in the ground. What we did not plan on was the nine that grew from tomatoes that fell on the ground last year and germinated in to plants!

Tonight was to hot and sticky to cook and I have been waiting for the perfect moment to pick the first tomato and consume immediately. Tonight was the night. (Some tomatoes had been picked and snacked on but none had made it in to the house!)

I ventured outside in the hot and humid air to pick some yellow Lemon Drops, some Sweet Baby Girls and one huge Brandy Boy along with green beans, purple pod beans a cucumber and some basil. The Brandy Boy weighed in at 1 pound 9 ounces! As I was assembling dinner the Lemon Drops and Sweet Baby Girls disappeared – Phil and Mia ate them; I guess they were hungry!

I had picked up a French Baguette at the farmers market sliced it open gave it a sprinkle of Olive Oil, Balsamic vinegar, a nice slice of homemade mozzarella cheese and a better slice of that vine ripe Brandy Boy tomato, I added some coarse ground sea salt and a few leaves of garden fresh basil. The perfect dinner – from vine to dine with in minutes cannot get much fresher than that!

TO SEE ALL PHOTOS IN THE ALBUM CLICK ON THE PHOTO BELOW

Garden Update 8.20.09

Garden Update 7.12.09

More rain this week, however, we have had 3 days of sunshine, it just rained at night. This week I harvested most of the beets, radishes and waterlogged onions. I sowed lots of beets and some radish in that area.

The peas are starting to die back so I planted more for a fall crop. The beans are looking great and we have had a good harvest, however, planted some more beans as well. Looking forward to a bountiful fall harvest of peas and beans.

Earlier this week I harvested some compost from the worm bin and fed the tomatoes, cauliflower, and zucchini. Today I went to the grass clipping compost heap and remulched the beans, potatoes, cucumbers, peas, tomatoes, zucchini and peppers. The grass clippings are doing a great job of keeping the weeds down and do not seem to be adding too much nitrogen to the soil. In the grass clipping compost pile was also add ash from the wood oven so I think we have a good balance.

Hoping the sun keeps shining!

To see the photo album click on the photo below

Garden update 7.12.09

Garden Update June 27, 2009

Here comes the sun! After weeks of rain, drizzle and overcast days we finally have a sunny day and it looks like we have a few in a row with just threats of thunderstorms. Over the past 2 weeks, we have harvested peas, strawberries, lettuce and radishes. I am anxiously awaiting our first tomato!

The tomato plants have tons of flowers and the ones that had been fed worm tea from our vermicomposting bin have taken off as well as the petunias that are planted in the top of our upside down tomatoes. We also rotated the hanging baskets to ensure they all get a good dose of sun!

As I photographed the garden today, I noticed that the cucumbers that I sowed directly in the garden are doing much better than the ones I had started indoors. I guess I will not be starting cucumbers inside again. They mystery tomatoes are doing well and have found several more in the lettuce patch I am going to let them do their own thing and hope we have a very bountiful tomato harvest.

The fruit trees we planted in June all have leaves on them and seem to be adjusting well to their new surroundings. I put a treatment of calcium fertilizer on them this week so we will see if this boosts the growth rate.

Hoping that Mother Nature has shut off the steady supply of water and she sees fits to only rain occasionally for the rest of the summer!

To see the album click on the photo below

Garen update 6.27.09

Mystery Tomato

Another week of rain!! Mother Nature we need to sun so our vegetables will grow!

As I was photographing the garden today I noticed yet another “Mystery Tomato” plant. I’m going to let her grow where she is right now and transplant her when she gets a bit larger. Now it’s a wait and see game as to the variety of two tomato plants. I guess we had a ton of dropped tomatoes last year. What I am surprised at is we have not seen any grape vines. Last fall when we made wine we dumped all the stems, skins and seeds from pressing the grapes into the garden. So we should have something popping in but have not seen anything as of yet!

The broccoli is toast, I keep cutting the large flowered stalks off hoping that will could have a few small broccoli shoots off the side but it does not look promising. Peas, beans radish, lettuce, onions, asparagus, squash, carrots and cukes are doing outstanding. Peppers, and egg plant seem to be at a standstill.

The hanging tomato experiment is going ok, still the strongest plant is the one planted directly in the ground. The fourth of July hanging tomato has a flower or two so we should have ripe tomatoes in 30 days. Rule of thumb is 30 days from flower to ripe fruit so we will try to keep track of that.

Pray for sun!

Click to see the album

Garden over time 6.14.09

Garden Update May 31, 2009

We will be posting weekly garden updates on our blog, not only so we can track our progress but to make notes as to what has worked and what was not such a great idea.

Our latest experiment is growing tomatoes upside down in wire baskets we purchased from Wal-Mart for $7 each. We lined them with plastic to help keep the soil from drying out. The baskets were filled with Miracle Grow Garden Soil - not potting soil! I check the soil every day to ensure that the soil has not dries out. My concerns with this method are that the basket may be too small for all the roots. I had placed 3 petunia plans on the top and one tomato plant on the bottom, so there may be a war for root space.

I have been feeding the plants with "worm tea" from our vermicomposting bin. So far the plants look healthy they were planted on May 17, 2008.

We also had our first harvest of herbs, we did not pick any basil as it is not ready, rosemary it did not need a hair cut as this is the herb we use to most of and we did not take any parsley, still does not look like it could use that hair cut.

Click on the photo below to see the album

Garden May 30, 2009