What's Cooking - Green Tomato Pickles

Sadly I have an abundance of Green Tomatoes and also an abundance of insects that are hungry for the tomatoes as soon as the start to ripen. Vines are starting to waste away too. So yesterday I want out and reaped all the green tomatoes of decent size. Just not anything under 1 1/2" diameter.

The larger tomatoes, I will use to make fried green tomatoes, the smaller ones I quartered and made green tomato pickles. These are a little different than cucumber pickles, because the only seasoning I use is Garlic, lots of Garlic! Give these a try and enjoy.

GREEN TOMATO PICKLES

quart canning jars
white sugar
salt
whole garlic cloves
cider vinegar
boiling water

Quarter the green tomatoes, they should be about 1 1/2" to 2 1/2" in diameter. Each jar should have 3 peeled garlic cloves. I put one on the bottom, one in the middle and one on the top. Fill jars tightly with tomatoes, leaving about 1" headroom. Make sure to tap them on the counter to get as many as you can into each jar.

When the jars are full, add one tablespoon sugar, one tablespoon salt, and 1/2 cup of vinegar (don't forget the garlic). Add the boiling water slowly to just cover the tomatoes, there should be 3/4" headroom left. put on canning lids and do a boiling water bath. I process for 15 minutes, because these are firm and can take it. You can do 10 minutes.

I know it will be tempting to try, but these do better if they sit for at least 3 days. I've tried it, and they just don't absorb enough of the garlic for a few days.

What's Cooking? - Tabbouleh

My parsley turned into a massive bush this year. Healthy and abundant. Honestly it's the first time I tried growing it. I had no idea it was either so easy to grow, or perfectly suited to my horrible soil conditions. I also have an unbelievable abundance of tomatoes from only 12 plants. I have a tiny garden, so it was quite a shock, and the only reason I planted 12 was that last year we didn't get ANY tomatoes.

I was puzzled at what to do with the parsley, when my daughter reminded me of tabbouleh. There are almost as many variations on the recipe as there are spellings of the Bulgar wheat and tomato Middle Eastern salad.

I'm posting my favorite recipe, but in searching I've found - cracked wheat or quinoa instead of Bulgar wheat - mint instead of parsley or mint AND parsley - and the addition of cucumbers, which makes sense, but I've never tried or seen. I'm sure they are all yummy. Here's my version.

Tabbouleh

1 cup Bulgar Wheat
1 cup water
6 very ripe tomatoes
nice sized clump of fresh parsley (1/2 c chopped)
Chives or Green onions (1/2 c chopped)
1/4 cup olive oil
juice of 1 lemon or equivalent bottled
salt to taste

In a good sized bowl add the Bulgar Wheat. Add one cup boiling water and let sit until cooled. The wheat should be hydrated by the time it is cooled. Cut up the tomatoes in 3/4" to 1/2" cubes and add to wheat. Finely dice the parsley and add, and chop the Green onions and add.

Add the olive oil and lemon and stir gently to mix. Let this sit in the refrigerator for about an hour for the wheat to absorb the rest of the juices. Enjoy!

Life on Mars - Gardening Bliss

Even though the climate was like that of the Angry Red Planet this week (in more ways than one) I'm just so thrilled at the outcome of my garden this week that I can forgive all.

I've been quiet this past week. I lost a loved one and am adjusting. Things in my home are a bit unstable and I'm adjusting. I've taken to walking to calm myself when I'm frustrated and I think I should have done that years ago. When I feel like I'm about to boil over, I just take a walk. Why didn't I think of that before. I have quite a temper, I would have been really fit.

Back in the garden....this week I was able to pick several handfuls of beans. I didn't plant a lot, so I didn't expect much and did get more than I hoped for. They are still producing. I picked through the turnips and found one great 2 1/2" diameter one. I hope the rest grow that big. The leaves are getting a bit lacy from the leaf eating critters though.

I love that the  bugs don't eat tomato plants, and I rotate the tomatoes so the tomato worms don't find them. Did you know that's how to keep them away? Never plant your tomatoes in the same place from year to year. Also, beans add nitrogen to the soil, so they beef up the soil for other plants.

Native Americans planted corn, pumpkin and beans together, to make a sort of symbiotic plant system. The pumpkins shield the ground (cooling and keeping weed free). The corn makes a pole for the beans to climb, and the beans add nutrients to the soil. Brilliant.

I really wanted to talk about my flowers today. Some of my favorites and my inspiration for my jewelry. Last year the yard was pretty bare so we got a few clearance rose bushes and I borrowed some Shasta Daisy roots from the lake.

I also dug up some Day Lilies that were behind the house in the shade and brought them into the light. The soil was so good that they all flourished far better than I expected.

And then there is the roses. There are three bushes, all doing well, but the biggest surprise was the climbing bush. The flowers looked pale pink at first and not attractive, but since planting have turned into a vibrant deep magenta. I'm really liking them now.

My own flowers are not so literal. They are just impressions of these beauties that I love so much. You can find all of my flowers at akacinders.com or on Artfire at http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/akaCINDERS

Best Garden Ever

One would think that with as little space as I have to work with, I might do better with my garden. Someone keeps threatening to move. Not until after harvest PLEASE, because I finally got things to produce in this lousy piece of soil.

Just look at the lush green. OK, so maybe the turnip and radishes have a few holes in the leaves, but mostly it's perfection. I've actually eaten some of the onion green, some radishes and a tiny pepper that had a dead spot on it. I cut the bad part off and removed it to not affect the whole plant. I think it was from the scorching hot sun the past few days.

Not that the garden is perfect, something ate my cucumbers, and my lettuce and carrots. The rows between the turnips, radishes and beans are a bit wider than planned. And OMG the tomatoes are so much bigger than I had imagined they would get. I am so eager to pick those puppies.

See my little row of herbs. Some are in pots, but most of them are in collars sunk into the ground to keep them from spreading. In front of the basil (out of view) is oregano, parsley, and a pathetic globe basil that I will never try again. The cilantro grew from last years seed I replanted in the pot. It's fabulous. The mint is growing like mad.  I "borrowed" some from the gardens down at the lake. This is the second year for the oregano too.

I decided to do this with the herbs after my DD's MIL kept weeding them out of our front beds. She apparently can't recognize leaf shapes, or the smell of herbs on her hands.

The line around the garden, isn't really a fence, it's more of a trip wire. Actually it's a line of demarcation, in hopes that the same family won't mow over the plants, or put the lawn furniture on them when they mow. So not kidding about that one. You should have heard me scream when I found our wagon on my budding onion sprouts. 


The overall view of the garden. The buckets in front are full of potatoes. When they are ready, you just dump them over and voila, No digging. Behind the potatoes are in order, onions, beans, radishes, turnips, tomatoes, patty pan squash and in pots at the back, green and jalapeno peppers.


 A row of corn runs down the side and there'a a huge squash type plant I didn't seed, at the back of the garden. I think it might have been Halloween pumpkin compost overflow. We'll see when it starts to produce. 

Oh how I hope that I can keep the garden this lush and harvest more than a few green tomatoes this year. The corn is fast growing, but I don't have much time to get it knee high by the Fourth of July. I plan on it being a fence to keep unwanted visitors out. 




As for the tomatoes. Here is a sweet baby, just waiting to grow and be enjoyed. isn't he a cutie?