Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Garden Update and a trip to the market.

I took some new pictures of the garden on Sunday, but I have no patience tonight for sitting here waiting for the pictures to upload, so here's a full garden shot:


Both new and old onions are doing well. The carrots are gorgeous and delicious. I pulled up the spinach after Tanna, Mary and my Mom told me it was beyond saving. I replanted more spinach a few weeks ago, but nothing is happening in there. We've got tons of green tomatos, and have dug up enough potatos for 3 meals! Unfortunately the zucchinis are not doing well. I don't think we'll get anything off of either plant.

Look who's visiting my basil! Awww, so cute.


I went to Millarville on Saturday, and they were having their 100th Priddis and Millarville Fair. I saw some animals, old farm machinery, and the musical ride.


There were all sorts of competitions for animals, agriculture, arts, and food.

And the farmers market.


A literal ton of tomatos, cucumbers, cherries, zucchinis, pepper and Taber corn. I lurched back to my car and put all my goodies on the ground to get my keys out of my bag. An elderly couple was walking by into the market, and the gentleman said "Oh my, that is too many tomatos!". Now that I have them home, I am almost in agreement. So Scott and I have started Operation:Too Many Tomatos. You can look forward to many, many tomato related posts here in the future.

If anyone wants to give me suggestions to use them up, email me!!!

11 comments:

Katerina said...

Your garden is truly a thing of beauty, I aspire to have that nice of a plot! Plus our westcoast weather this year has been death to my basil and tomatoes.

breadchick said...

Sara, I am so jealous of your garden. It is lovely. Fried Green Tomatoes!
That is one of my favourite things for using tomatoes.

Morgan said...

I made this recipe earlier this week with 'cocktail' tomatoes I'd bought at crossroads: "Roasted Tomatoes and Cippoline Onions Over White Beans With Garlic-Rubbed Bread Cubes" (http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/09/the-best-thing-sam-ever-did). I wish I had more tomatoes - the sauce it makes is incredible! Didn't bother making bread cubes, just slices. Also would work very well over quinoa instead of beans, I think.

Or BLT sandwiches. True fact - until last summer John had never had a homemade BLT - poor sheltered life...

Sara said...

Katerina - Thank you very much! This is the best garden (one of the only ones too) that I have ever had. I am worried about how many tomatos we will actually get, but we'll see.

Mary - I am keeping fried green tomatos in mind....I just hope they will get a bit bigger.

PW- thanks I'm going to go read that recipe right now. How is that possible that he never had a blt???? Poor, poor man.

Deborah said...

What a beautiful garden!! I am planning on canning some homemade marinara sauce if I ever get any tomatoes out of my garden!!

Peabody said...

Boooo on the tomatoes. I'm allergic to tomatoes. :(

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Operation: Too many tomatoes! That's an operation to be in on. Be sure to slow roast some of them. So good. And don't miss the Fried Green ones - always want some of those.

Andrea said...

Lovely garden! Are those benches on either end? Did you build the structure yourselves? We're gardening in containers this year because we just moved in, but we're building our raised beds this fall to be ready for spring planting.

As for the extra tomatoes, absolutely slow roast some of them for your sauce; it makes a huge difference in flavor. You can also make salsa and can it or freeze it.

Sara said...

Deborah - thank you!

Peabody - allergic to tomatos?? that is just not right.

Tanna - both excellent suggestions.

Andrea - thank you very much! Yes, my husband built it in the spring. That is a step, but you could sit on it. I slow roasted some of the tomatos today - they are divine.

Lis said...

I love your garden. =)

We're at the same point with the tomatoes. One word of caution for your next garden.. do not grow the grape tomato variety. There is absolutely no way you can keep up. An army of starving men could not keep up. I'm giving them away by the pound - and still not keeping up.

We also planed beefsteak and another smaller "meaty" variety that I can't remember right now and this is what Hubbs made - I didn't have any but it didn't look bad at all. He said his mom would make this often in the summer as a "filler" because it was cheap and could easily feed the 6 kids.

You can either slice, dice, or just smoosh a boatload of tomatoes into a large skillet with a lil olive oil and saute until they start to break down. Then you make a slurry of 2 tbs flour and about a 1/2 c. of milk - pour this in and season with whatever you want. He sticks with just s&p. Keep stirring over med. heat until it starts to thicken and then simply serve it over a few pieces of toasted bread. Tomatoes & Toast. That's all there is to it.. and it uses up A LOT of tomatoes. =)

xoxo

Emmy said...

I really enjoyed seeing pictures of your garden. What a great picture of the ladybug on your basil. Nice haul from the farmers market too. My grandma bought me one of those folding wheeled carts for Christmas a few years ago. It works great for going to the farm market.