We have harvested pounds and pounds of tomatoes over the last few weeks. We have made several batches of salsa, eaten too many BLTs, and I even made a batch of pasta sauce from scratch.
This is what is left of the sauce. We couldn't wait to eat it. It turned out pretty good. Onion, carrot, and celery with herbs and hot peppers cooked in olive oil until soft then added peeled, deseeded tomatoes and cooked and stirred until thick and saucey.
We already have this many more tomatoes waiting to be made into more sauce or salsa. Can you beleive it? The Roma tomatoes are just starting to produce.
These are mostly Romas. Some are from the porch and some are from the garden. The garden plant is definatly making more, especially since about half of the porch ones have end rot, but the porch plants are still making quite a few tomatoes. The Belgian beauty heirloom tomato on the porch is finally making lots of green tomatoes, one has even started changing color. The Superfantasitc that fell over is doing just fine although we did have to straiten it and restake it once again this week. It is just too heavy with giant tomatoes.
These are Superfantastic tomatoes. Aren't they huge? These are my husbands hands.
We have also had gallons of Sungold cherry tomatoes. We eat them one by one, or by the forkful in salads and put bowls of them out for guests. My cousin's girlfriend loves them. They are very tastey. My husband took about two quarts to work in a bowl and they were gone in less than three hours.
Our cucumbers have been making lots of cukes as well. I have yet to make any pickles, though. I just finally bought some apple cider vineger today. I will make pickles out of the next fresh batch. We have made several salads with them and there are a few here in this box waiting for eating.
The danver short carrots just keep getting fatter and not longer. We picked a couple this weekend. The are great in the pasta sauce. They add a little sweetness and lots of vitamin A.
I have been picking up the naturtium seeds from the porch when they fall. I will save them for next year. Hopefully they will be the creeping beautiful kind.
Here are a few peppers from the super hot jalapeno plant on the porch. None of our pepper plants have really taken off yet. It just started being hot enough here two weeks ago. I espect them to start producing heavily over the nest few weeks. The cucumber plants should increase yeild as well.
I am declaring victory over the eggplant aphids, finally. The trick that finally worked may surprise you. I told you I brought home some lady bug eggs form the community garden before, but those didn't make a dent, grew up and flew away. Well, I stepped it up a few notches. We had a huge population of aphids on the lower leaves of our sunflower in the community garden. After a while I noticed a whole host of predators and parasitoids attacking them, so I picked about four leaves and brought them home and placed them in the eggplant pot. Within days I noticed parasitized aphid mummies, predatory maggots, lacewing larvae, and ladybug beetle larvae having a hayday. The new leaves and flowers that have grown this week are totally aphid free. I have notice the first very small fruit developing, as well. I am sure I would have had some earlier if not for the swarms of aphids on the flowers and shoots.
I promise I will have pictures of the garden and porch in the next couple of days.
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