And we”re canning.  Northern lights, Amish Paste and Romas.

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Whole tomatoes – 11 quarts

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Today marks the first round of tomato canning from the garden.  A small batch,  10 1/2 quarts.

Tomato Puree

I hate it while I’m doing it, but I love it when I can grab a big jar out of the pantry . . . → Read More: Tomato Canning Season Begins]]> Ah, the joy, the satisfaction, the aching back and legs.

Today marks the first round of tomato canning from the garden.  A small batch,  10 1/2 quarts.

Tomato Puree

I hate it while I’m doing it, but I love it when I can grab a big jar out of the pantry on a snowy winter day.

Onward…to the Advil bottle.

Technorati Tags: canning, gardening, tomato

I am making it a goal this year to update both this and my . . . → Read More: Preserving The Harvest]]> It’s been forever since I’ve posted, I know (I know!). Busy summer and busy fall. We are finishing up the canning…just apples and squash left. I’ll post more on the garden totals next time. A really good harvest this year.

I am making it a goal this year to update both this and my And Another Thing blog on a regular basis.

Technorati Tags: canning, Garden, harvest, preserving

We have doubled the size of the garden this year.  The DR Power Tiller has made this possible.  We have sections of the garden area that are very heavy in clay.  . . . → Read More: Diggin’ in the dirt…]]> Putting in the garden.  Some of the plants got a little nipped by a rogue frost last week, but seem to have survived.

We have doubled the size of the garden this year.  The DR Power Tiller has made this possible.  We have sections of the garden area that are very heavy in clay.  I don’t think we could have increased the size in time for plant with our walk behind tiller.  I’ll post pictures later, but here’s a run down of what is planted in the ‘big’ garden so far:

Peas and Beans

Alaska peas (6)

California Black Eyed Cow Peas (9)

Kentucky Wonder Bean (11)

Misc. Veg

Brussel Sprouts (3)

Cauliflower (3)

Golden Acre Cabbage (3)

Green Comet Broccoli (3)

Onion (2)

Peppers

Baby Bell (2)

Excusion II (2)

Flamingo (2)

Garden Salsa (4)

Jalapeno (2)

Marcato (2)

Summer Sweet (2)

Sweet Banana

Valencia Orange (2)

Corn

Honey Pearl (6)

Peaches & Cream (27)

Ruby Red (19)

Sugar Dots (12)

Eggplant

Fairy Tale

Gretel

Tomatos

Alaska Fancy

Amish Paste (7)

Berkley Tie Dye

Big Rainbow (4)

Black Sea Man (4)

Black Zebra

Caro Rich

Carolina Gold (2)

Celebrity

Purple Cherokee (2)

Dr. Wyche

Glacer

Green Zebra (2)

Husky Gold

Jubilee

Mortgage Lifter

Mr. Stripey 92)

Northern Lights (2)

Old German (3)

Primo Red (2)

Red Currant (2)

Roma (2)

SubArctic (3)

Super Bush

Waspinicon Peach

Yellow

Technorati Tags: Alaska Peas, Alaskan Fancy, amish paste, bean, Berkley Tie Dye, Big Rainbow, Black Sea Man, Black Zebra, Brussel Sprouts, California Black Eyed Cow Peas, Caro Rich, Carolina Gold, Cauliflower, Celebrity, Cherokee Purple, Dr. Wyche, Excusion II, Fairy Tale, Flamingo, Garden Salsa, Glacier, Golden Acre Cabbage, Green Comet, green zebra, Gretel, Honey Pearl, Husky Gold, Jalapeno, Jubilee, Kentucky Wonder Bean, Marcato, mortgage lifter, Mr. Stripey, northern lights, Old German, Onion, Peaches & Cream, peppers, Primo Red, Red Current, Red Ruby, Roma, Sugar Dots, Summer Sweet, Super Bush, Sweet Banana Pepper, tomato, Valencia Orange, Waspinicon Peach, Yellow Tomato

However, global warming has not arrived in . . . → Read More: On Gardening and Global Warming]]> I keep saying to myself that I need to sit down and plan out the expanded garden.  It will be roughly 4 times the size of last year and I need to figure out what will go where and when things need to get in the ground.

However, global warming has not arrived in Northern Ohio as yet.  And although it is not snowing, there’s a cold rain falling that is right on the edge.

It’s hard to map out the garden when it does not appear it will ever be warm enough to plan anything.

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Here’s how we are going to make that happen:

Out with the old Troybilt tiller, in with the tow-behind DR PowerTiller.

Oh. Yeah.

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We haven’t seen the big 3 or 4 pounder yet, but we have gotten some big. freakin’. tomatoes.

A one pound seven ounce Ele (or Elie or . . . → Read More: The American Four Square Tomato Farm]]> We spent a great deal of time processing veggies this weekend. The tomatoes are coming pretty fast & furious now….we are just trying to keep up.

We haven’t seen the big 3 or 4 pounder yet, but we have gotten some big. freakin’. tomatoes.

A one pound seven ounce Ele (or Elie or Ely). It’s a beautiful yellow orange tomato. Few seeds and a nice semi-sweet flavor.

The big Purple Cherokee. One pound five. I like the smaller ones better, it seems to me they have a richer flavor.

Making tomato puree. Psychedelic!!!

Dennis smoked a pork shoulder and a kielbasa which turned out just delicious.

After the pork came out of the smoker, we sliced some of our eggplant and then vacuum packed them and popped them in the freezer.

Oh, I also made spiced blueberry jam.

I think I might have slept at some point too……….

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Unfortunately, I forgot to add the Sitemeter code to the footer, so I have no idea who’s been visiting. . . . → Read More: Lately]]> I’ve been trying to decide on a new theme for the blog (I just don’t have time to do one myself), so I’ve been trying several different ones out for the last couple of weeks.

Unfortunately, I forgot to add the Sitemeter code to the footer, so I have no idea who’s been visiting. Please take a moment to say hello in the comments section. Sometimes, I wonder if anyone is really reading us.

Also, we spent all last weekend harvesting and canning & dehydrating the corn and tomatoes from the garden. We have quite a few eggplant to deal with yet and more tomatoes are coming, so next weekend will probably be a food processing couple of days too.

Here are a couple of pictures of some of the tomatoes we pulled out of the overgrown rainforest that is our garden:

Mortgage Lifter, Golden Jubilee, Northern Lights, Green Zebra, Old Ivory Egg. Purple Cherokee, Amish Paste

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We’ve never grown heirloom tomatoes before, so we didn’t really know what to expect. We’ve had other tomato plants before, so we figured it would be about the same….

I think we’ve . . . → Read More: Help veg gardeners advice needed!!]]> I mentioned in a previous post that we had put in a vegetable garden (here and on my personal blog, here).

We’ve never grown heirloom tomatoes before, so we didn’t really know what to expect. We’ve had other tomato plants before, so we figured it would be about the same….

I think we’ve misjudged this.

Here are a few photos of the heirloom tomato jungle currently growing in our yard:

It’s only just July. These plants are fully four feet tall, crawling outside the cages and growing into each other. We planted them the minimum distance suggested. We should have doubled or tripled that.

So what should we do? Should we prune some of the stems/branches? Growing this closely together, will the developing tomatoes get enough sun to ripen? I’m totally dumb-founded how out of control these plants are.

Is this typical of heirloom tomatoes? They are growing out of their cages running along the ground and then turning upward toward the sun. It’s hard to get between the rows, let alone the plants. Forget about weeding and who knows how difficult harvesting may prove.

Advice, please!!

Technorati Tags: gardening, Heirloom tomatoes, vegetable garden, vegetables