right now

right now

Jun 27, 2011

Only blight can stop us now...

The summer harvest is officially underway here in our garden.  The blight continues to pop up in places but at least the tomatoes look like they will be able to produce as long as I can keep spraying and keeping it at bay.  It's difficult however, because I spray, then we have a thunderstorm splashing the spores up and high winds blowing the plants about.  I hesitate to mulch the beds since I hear of lots of people around here having problems with that due to the high heat and humidity here, the mulch tends to get "icky".


Today, Brandywine, Hillbilly, Orange Wellington & Fourth of July tomatoes, eggplant, small onions (green onions that were left in the garden too long!), lots of random peppers included a jalapeno, a few pepperoncini, Sigaretta and tiny bells.  Also picked some cilantro that has bolted and has green coriander seeds on it.


I turned the eggplant into Baba Ganoush for hubby to take to work since I'm out of hummus.


Here's a cross section of 2 heirloom varieties for those that are interested.  The pink is the beloved Brandywine, the orange/yellow is called Hillbilly.  I may have a new favorite here, the Hillbilly is almost lemony, which I really like!  Some turn out a pretty pink/orange multicolor inside, some do not!



This was a strange sighting... I spotted Finn folding laundry unasked!  I'm pretty sure he's gunning for something here, I just don't know what it is yet.




Today has been an overcast, humid, hot and rainy day...

You may have to enlarge the photo, can you see Mrs. Dove in her  bean basket?
  

Don't feel too bad for her out there, here's  a better shot of her roof I made hubby climb up there and give her LOL!


With all this rain, I decided to try out my new pressure canner today!  I'll sum that up in a separate post :)

10 comments:

  1. Can't wait to hear about your canning experience. Your tomatoes look really nice! I'm glad some of them are doing well for you. You're doing a great job with them!

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  2. Your "harvest" pictures are always so beautiful. They look like something out of a magazine. Gosh, I wish I could taste those tomatoes of yours. But the WORK that you have had to put into them this year! Ugh.

    Finn's folding laundry, huh? Sometimes kids do the strangest things . . . ;o}

    Boy, you are really getting a downpour! We are warned of possible "flash flooding" until 7 p.m. tonight . . . but so far it's only been drizzling. Does that mean a monsoon is coming??

    My pressure canner was ordered today. Wa-hoo!

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  3. Patty, I'm all done canning and it went really well! I can't wait to be more adventurous and do some meat and soups.

    Mama Pea, YAY!! You will love, love this thing! The canning post is set to go at 7:30 pm LOL, you can see then there was no explosions :)
    When it rains here, it's always like that, you need an ark from the tidal flooding right afterwards, then it's gone into the sand and my plants are left saying "hey, I need water again"! The sun just came out and there is STEAM coming off the sidewalk and it's gross and humid and buggy :(

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  4. Only good thing about our high heat is that it's not humid. If it were humid too I'd never go outside.
    Your harvest looks delicious though. Glad you are combating the blight and still getting some tomatoes.
    I wonder what Finn wants.

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  5. I am jealous of your delicious edibles! We had a very freakish spring up here in MN and so I'm just getting pinkie finger sized tomatoes right now....

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  6. I almost feel like I live in the Southern hemisphere when I see your garden. I am month or more away from a tomato. Your not that far away from me!

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  7. You sliced that Brandywine open JUST TO TAUNT ME. Wasn't enough to just have a regular pic. No. Erin had to slice it. Sigh.

    Never trust a kid that does something nice. He's up to no good.
    :D

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  8. The tomatoes look absolutely wonderful Erin. Who would know that you are battling blight with all those beautiful veggies.

    It will be interesting to see if Finn is working towards something....you never know!

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  9. Sparkless, afterwards Finn asked me if I could make spaghetti for dinner, I thought "that's it??" so of course I said yes - THEN the well pump went on the fritz and I couldn't fill the pot with water LOL, poor Finn!
    ***
    Jane, it really is crazy how it doesn't take much distance - kind of like the hardy hibiscus 30 miles from here, I felt like I was at a freak show LOL
    ***
    RuralMama, your weather has really been giving you trouble this year up there. Even so, I miss MN terribly and can't wait to move back :)
    ***
    Sue, you got me! P.S. I thought of you when I was slicing a pepperoncini today - it split and half of it tore into the perfect silhouette of the state of MI :)
    ***
    Robin, right now things are okay, but the blight is slowly working it's way up the very edge of the heirloom beds, I'm terrified since there's about 50 fruit on there almost a pound each. At least it is moving slower than it did through the Amish Paste bed. It will just be a race to ripen this year, I guess. I'm not holding any hope for that wonderful late season of wheelbarrows full of tomatoes for canning!

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  10. Maybe I need to move to VA. Fingers crossed the blight is under control and you can use that canner to it's fullest!

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