It's that time of year again, when crates of tomatos at the farmer's market are cheap, making it possible for us to put up many jars for the winter.
Undoubtedly, the notion of canning seems antiquated to many. Why waste a summer evening or precious weekend day slicing and simmering pots on the stove when you can buy everything under the sun at the grocery store in abundence?
Because the truth is, most grocery store produce sucks. While it's very hard to go without any fresh food (and I don't try, but I do limit it) in the winter months, for things like pasta sauce, the truth is that the taste quality of those mealy, pinkish orbs in the grocery store don't actually have any flavor. So, these last few years we've tried to preserve some of the wonderful produce that we can buy at farm markets or grow on our own.
See how lovely?
Last year Margie and I discovered that the most excellent way to can these tomatos is to smoke em first. This lead to me buying yet another smoker (last years sucked because it took four hours to adequately smoke a tomato and this is NOT OKAY). So John and I went to the Home Depot and brought home some sort of contraption that I, being crazy, decided to build in the yard all by myself on one of summer's hottest days.
So, Matlock and I spent a lot of time in our yard trying to figure out how to smoke up some tomatos. Apparently there is a PENALTY OF DEATH for using pre-soaked briquettes or lighter fluid of any kind, so I got to work on starting fires on 103 degree days. My dog thinks I'm an idiot.
You start with something like this
Slice them and put them onto racks, and smoke before canning.
Our cucumber plant has been prolific this year. Friends and family have been the recipients of our bounty of beautiful cucumbers, crunchy and fresh off the vines. Margie and I have taken to pickling them due to the quantity.
Pretty!
The garden's bounty has been good to us thus far this year.
Cherry tomatos in abundence!
Zucchinis have become muffins
Of course I now have another 20 lbs of tomatos to process. Anyone want to come help me slice?
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Poor Agnes!!!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Of somewhat bigger cantaloupes and HOLY CRAP THAT'S A ZUCCHINI ALMOST AS BIG AS MY THIGH!
Lovely little melons, each about the size of a lemon or so:
Aren't they sweet?
I was perusing the garden, smiling at all the ripening little tomatos...
When I noticed the fruit of my zucchini-raping loins. Well, holy crap, we DO have zucchinis. Oh and DO WE EVER. Apparently no one noticed this gem, which was close to the size of my thigh:
Oops.
Today's haul:
Aren't they sweet?
I was perusing the garden, smiling at all the ripening little tomatos...
When I noticed the fruit of my zucchini-raping loins. Well, holy crap, we DO have zucchinis. Oh and DO WE EVER. Apparently no one noticed this gem, which was close to the size of my thigh:
Oops.
Today's haul:
Monday, July 5, 2010
We have tiny baby cantaloupes!!!
Well, the cantaloupe vines have done gone crazy. They've been sitting there wrapping themselves around things for weeks and we were wondering if we'd have to rape them too, but a few bees showed back up and now, lo and behold...
The garden is looking awfully snazzy:
The day's vast haul.
Brio was watching me take pictures of the garden. I'm pretty sure he thinks that we are all crazy. How does one get from a racetrack in New Mexico to a place like our little red farm with the chickens in the yard?
Brio was, of course, and off the track thoroughbred racehorse. It took him a long time to wish to live outside like a horse (he still prefers to be indoors a lot of the time) and to be cool with just hanging out. Our horses do a lot of just hanging out.
See? Big horse Wings has gotten very good at hanging out and our ridiculous antics.
The garden is looking awfully snazzy:
The day's vast haul.
Brio was watching me take pictures of the garden. I'm pretty sure he thinks that we are all crazy. How does one get from a racetrack in New Mexico to a place like our little red farm with the chickens in the yard?
Brio was, of course, and off the track thoroughbred racehorse. It took him a long time to wish to live outside like a horse (he still prefers to be indoors a lot of the time) and to be cool with just hanging out. Our horses do a lot of just hanging out.
See? Big horse Wings has gotten very good at hanging out and our ridiculous antics.
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