Lots of Tomatoes (among other things)

First, onions and garlic harvested a few weeks ago. I decided to try drying some of the garlic in braids, which is something I've read about. It worked, but I didn't do display quality here:

Better luck next year, I guess.

I also pulled up the onions and set them to dry. Of course, it rained on them a couple of times. We'll see how they cured. They are now in the basement and won't be used immediately because we have plenty of fresh ones from the CSA.

More pickles came:



Some of these were destined for dill pickles. I made two types this year: with and without a quarter teaspoon of hot pepper flakes. Lots of fresh dill in each jar. (Unfortunately, not fromthe garden, as the dill didn't do well in the front).

And then, the tomatoes. Wouldn't you know it: I am learning about more things that can go wrong with tomatoes. Like yellow shoulders which is apparently likely due to low potassium. Can't do anything about it now, I'll have to wait for next spring. They still make good sauce though, using my new technique (a food mill).

Since excessive heat may also cause this, I've taken to letting the tomatoes ripen inside (another Internet suggestion). Fortunately, we have an extra room which is ideal for this:

Oh yes, we have this year's variety of cherry tomatoes---"chocolate cherry." Mine don't look like the picture, however, and they seem to keep the green shoulders:
It's a little hard to see, but there are two little sweet peppers on the side. This is a pepper variety I picked up at the last minute at Home Depot. Haven't tried them yet.

Needed: Cucumber ideas

Well, I wanted cucumbers. And I got them. A lot of them. They keep appearing---every time I go outside to look at the plants, I see a couple more that I missed.

Only problem is that I don't need that many. And, for making pickles, I should pick a bunch at once. Since the Alibi cucumbers aren't producing a lot yet, I'm not ready to do this (not to mention that I don't have time to make pickles right now.)

So I'm looking for recipes. Did you know you could grill cucumbers?

Tomatoes!

Yes, they are starting to turn red! I think this may be the earliest we've had tomatoes. Also, I figured out how to stake them (I hope) so that the cages will remain upright. This involves pegs which are apparently designed for trees, but as long as it works, right?

Now to find cucumber recipies. Too many all of a sudden. Too bad the main cucumber eater isn't here.

Garlic time

I pulled up the garlic. There's a lot because the extra garlic in the back---which I didn't plant, it "naturalized" got included in the harvest. And there were a lot of bulbs back there. I did this once before some years ago, but I must have missed one or two. At least we'll have a lot of garlic, plus I'll try to save more for planting this year. Also, I tried braiding some garlic bulbs this year. We'll see how they come out.

Cucumbers are maturing at the rate of one every other day or so. Khlolrabi and Kale are still good.

I checked my records, and the earliest I've ever had a ripe tomato was July 16.The plants are completely out of control, and several have pushed over their cages. The usually happens in August.

Oh, and I think the birds have been getting to the raspberries. Not sure I begrudge them at this point, because we got a huge amount before they came in. Still, I wouldn't have minded more...