The Garden That Was - Summer's End 2010

Above is a pic of a salad I made using Zavory peppers from my garden. They are my favorite pepper. They have the flavor of a habenero, without the heat. They are yummy! Usually they don't make it into the house before I eat them.

The following pics were taken Sept. 7th 2010.
The garden doesn't look anything like this right now.
First of all, the flower beds are gone and in their place I have a huge swath of black mud.
Yay for rain, not.
Second of all, most of the garden was hit with frost a couple days ago, so everything is wilted over and dead.

2010's tomato walls were bigger than ever.
However, next year I will plant fewer plants.
I promise.



Flower beds and Catty and Tibby.

More of the garden.

Next year, I will be taking out the bed with the blue chicken in it.

I think I might move the arch.

Once the morning glory started to grow on it, I couldn't see my pond from the house.

Flower beds. All gone. Goodbye flower beds.

Closer view of the tomato walls.

Back view of the tomato walls.

Middle of the garden. Tomato walls.

It's a jungle!

Side view.

Tibby in the jungle.

Chinese 5 color pepper.

How to: Build A Tomato Wall

How to build a Tomato Wall:

2 x 3/4" 10' EMT conduit

2 x 3/4" conduit connectors

zip ties

2 T-stakes

twine

plastic netting

Cut one 10' EMT conduit in half. These 2 halves make your 5' legs.

Bend 2nd 10' EMT conduit with a pipe bender. The top will be 3' long and each leg will be 3.5 ' long.

Pound your T-stakes into the ground.

Using the 3/4" connectors attach the 5' legs to the 3.5' legs. You now have a 8.5' tall trellis.

Use the zip ties to attach the trellis to the T-stakes.

Use the twine to attach the plastic netting to the trellis.

Done!

Now weave your tomatoes into the plastic netting. As they grow, continue to weave them in and out of the netting.

Zip ties, twine and plastic netting attached to trellis and T-stake.

3/4" connector.


Completed tomato walls.

I buy my plastic netting here - American Nettings
Full grown tomato walls can be seen here - Tomato Walls and Me

Planting Tomatoes

Before the plant sale I took out the plants that I wanted to keep.

The week after the plant sale was beautiful - sunny, 75F - perfect spring/summer.

So, silly me I planted all my plants.

Two days after I planted everything, we had freezing temps. For. The. Whole. Next. Week.

I covered everything, but the peppers aren't looking so great.

These pictures will probably be the peppers memorial service. Remember those beautiful peppers? Oh, yes they were just starting to live, so sad....taken in the prime of life.

This is how I plant my indeterminate tomatoes.

Dig a nice deep trench and amend with kelp (fertilizer) and crushed crab shells (calcium).
Put the tomato to bed in the trench and pull the soil covers up to its leafy chin.


Water deeply.

This is how close I plant my tomatoes.

Remember I grow my tomatoes up not out - so it works.

These are the covered beds I made - I'll show you how in my next post.

In these beds I planted the peppers -poor frosted peppers :(

In this bed the cabbage and broccoli are nestled. On the far right of the covered bed I have Golden shallots.

The bed in front of that has peas and onions.

More tomatoes.

More tomatoes!

The dearly departed peppers.

Really I am sad about this!

Broccoli and cabbage.

Tomato Starts Growing

The seeds' babies are still growing!

Garden Update: October

The garden this morning.

Whaaa! My tomatoes are dead!

I was just getting to know them.

Poor squashies.

Some more sad garden.
The pond was even frozen over,
but the stream kept a piece open for the fish.



The flower garden.

Dried Yellow Tomatoes

This is a picture of 8 pounds of tomatoes.

Place tomatoes on a baking sheet and

roast at 325 degrees until softened, about 40 min.

Place roasted tomatoes on

a plastic wrap covered dehydrator sheet.

Dry tomatoes for 12 - 14 hours,
until tomatoes are crisp,
but still bendable.

8 pounds of tomatoes.

And again

8 pounds of tomatoes

in 1 quart Ziploc bag.

Friday's Harvest & De Nile

More Veggies!

I'm loving this endless summer.

The temp. is 80-85F during the day

and 50F at night.

It's better weather than we had in the actual summer.

I know it will all have to end some time soon, but

until then I can live in denial.

For example:

On Tuesday I thought,

"It's so weird - the trees are all losing their leaves.

What's up with that?"

Oh, duh!

It's called Fall.

NO! NO!

Summer will last FOREVER!

*sigh*

I like De Nile.

Cucumbers.

I gave these to my mom.

She's making Virgina Chunks, a sweet pickle.

They're Ok, but I'll more of a dill person.

More tomatoes.

I'm running out of space and recipes.

Nice problem to have.

Peppers.

Finally.

The little one on the left is the

best pepper I have ever eaten.
They are called Zavory or Yummy,

but I can't remember which is which.

The little pepper has a hot bite to it

and then it is tropical sweet with

overtones of mango and pineapple.

So good!

Onions and carrots.

I need to plant more onions next year.

These are Copra onions.

I grew them last year and

they are a looooooong keeping onion.

I gave some to my parents and my mom used up the

last one in July.

It was as fresh as when I pulled them last fall.

Tomatoes again.

That biggie in the left corner is a

Striped German.

It weighs 2 1/2 lbs!

White Tomato Jelly

I made white tomato jelly today.

This was truly an experiment!

White tomatoes from my garden.

The variety is called White Tomesol.

I removed the cores and used the food processor

to blend them into a smooth liquid.

Then I simmered them overnight.

The next morning....this is what it looked like.

I put the liquidy cooked down tomatoes into

a few layers of cheese cloth.

White tomato juice.

Yes! It's really tomato juice!

White tomato guts after the juice was squeezed out.

Then I made an infusion with chile, a garlic clove, oregano and basil.

I poured boiling water over the spice mixture.

After 20 mins. I strained the spices through a cheese cloth.

Then I made the mistake of tasting it.

Whoa! Hot!

After I found my taste buds cowering underneath the fridge, the adventure continued.
~

I added 4 cups tomato juice to 1/2 cup vinegar in a large stockpot.

Then I added 1 tsp salt.

Next 1 pkg No-sugar-needed pectin.

And one 1/2 cup spice infusion.

Bring to a boil.

Add 2 cups sugar and return to a boil, stirring continuously.

Pour jelly into jars and process for 10 mins in a boiling water bath.

Yum - white tomato jelly with feta, savory and red tomato wedges.



From vine to jar.

~
This jelly is so tasty!
It is pure tomato flavor with a sweet and spicy tang.