Wait, why are you watering nothing? Aren't we in a drought? Good question! For one, working bone dry dirt with a rototiller, s-tines, or anything that loosens the dirt up so plants can have healthy roots, will turn your clay soil to dust and boulders if it doesn't break your implement. Second, hopefully you sprout some of the seeds in your "weed seed bank" and can work them back in and have less weeds to hoe out once you plant in the bed.
Once it dries out, we'll rototill, roll down, knife in drip tape, roll down again and we're good to plant! First in will be direct seeded carrots, beets, parsnips, rutabega and the like. Then the transplants. In the meantime we'll start this same process for the winter garden.
The glut of summer always seems to land just when everyone is sick of it. We're swimming in cucumbers, peppers, cherry tomatoes, okra, and basil. So, if anyone want's to come grab some stuff to preserve, pickle, or the like with, please let me know! We even have fresh grape leaves for pickles! (It is supposed to keep them crunchy... something about tannins)
Here are some pictures from my own preserving adventures as well as other farm friends and adventures:
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| What to do with 30 lbs of cucumbers that never quite got where they were going, and now are just a bit to soft to ever get there? PICKLES! |
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| We let them lactoferment for about a week. We read that when it is this hot, we should add 1/3 extra salt. Not surprisingly they're very salty. We downsized the containers and added some fresh water before refrigerating. Everyone does this on the floor next to the cat, right? |
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| Our cherry type tomatoes exploded! I picked what I could one day and set out to can. |
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| This is the result of our first round of cherry tomato canning. Never had canned cherry tomatoes? They're delicious! They won't do for spaghetti sauce, but they're amazing as a soup base (they'd be awesome in this week's recipe come winter!) or in grain salads (strain out liquid and use it to cook grain, add back tomatoes at the end). |
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| We also had some overgrown summer squash friends. They're a bit on the tough side, but because of this- they make great stuffers! I mixed up sausage, bread crumbs, egg, cherry tomatoes, the squash insides, garlic, onion, basil, and the usual salt and pepper and made the filling. Unfortunately I had too much filling, so they ended up being meat domes. |
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| This past weekend we had a booth at the Woodland Tomato Festival. We featured our finest tomato wares and enjoyed the fine fried foods offered at such affairs. Tarra even made a new friend. |
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| Well, we made two new friends. This beautiful dog came to visit us several times to borrow our shade. She was available for adoption from the SPCA. She was too big for our house though, which is too bad, she was such a sweetheart! |
This week's recipe is a household favorite. You can make it as simple or luxurious as you'd like. I like to go all the way with it: making chicken stock and garlic broth- using both for the base. I like to use tomato paste and brown it to give a depth of flavor AND use fresh tomatoes (especially cherries).
Late Summer Minestrone
1
large onion, diced
1
head garlic, smashed and peeled
5 C
stock
1 C
tomato (fresh[chopped} or canned)
1
med or large summer squash, diced
Okra,
sliced
Green
or long beans, sliced into 3” strips
½
med cabbage, shredded
Pasta
Basil
Heat
a large pot and sweat onions in oil. Add garlic until fragrant. Add stock and tomatoes
and bring near a boil. Add chopped veggies and cook until tender. Cook pasta
separate and add at the end with fresh basil.
Variations:
-Add
a dollop of pesto before serving
-Use
garlic broth
-Add
tomato paste to onion garlic mix and brown to deepen flavor
-Add
some white beans for authentic Italian flair
-Use
orzo or Isreli couscous for fun pasta
-Add
the rinds of parmesean to stock and let sit in soup
-Add greens!
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