Summer's Bounty

Shout out to all tomato lovers! Thankfully, this year's tomato harvest hasn't been a total bust for me like it has for all the commercial growers. Unfortunately, their problems came from a panic and salmonella scare. I had some water, groundhog, and hornworm issues, and grow tomatoes that have smallish harvests, but overall, some pretty good quantities.

The tomatoes I grow are heirloom and some have limited production, but others do just fine for my needs and some have small numbers but big fruits.

I figure you can get standard types in the store and most farm stands, so why not grow the unique and varied heirloom types that have a myriad of flavors and colors. Also, growing without pesticides means more opportunity to be plagued by pests, diseases and fungus. All in a summer's work! I'd rather lose three plants to any of those things than ingest pesticides if I don't have to, right?!

So, today I filmed another segment for LHOV on our local station with Tab. We talked about what to do with all those tomatoes and other abundant produce from your garden.
I made gazpacho, salsa, bruschetta topping and mojitos.

Wait, did I say MOJITO???? Where does that fit in? Well, it's a refreshing Summer libation (that can be alcohol-free if you wish) that makes use of all that crazy, spreading, garden-choking mint!
And I thought it went well with all the things I made.

That may not have been conveyed int he segment, but hopefully nobody minds if it doesn't seem cohesive!

Anyway, here are the recipes for the items I made today. Keep in mind I am not good at measuring and with things like these: salsa, gazpacho, etc., you have to do a lot of it to taste until you get it how you like it. Some people like their salsa mild, some like it screaming hot. Some people like a tart Mojito, some like it super minty and some like it really sweet.

So play with these until you them just right, or have a guinea pig handy to try them out on. That way, if you get the salsa too hot, you don't have to suffer!

Have fun and enjoy and remember, it doesn't have to be PERFECT!!!!!


SALSA!! OLE'!

• 2-4 tomatoes depending on the serving size you would like, diced with peel and seeds


• 1 red onion of medium size, diced


• a bunch of cilantro, torn and chopped (just the leaves)


• 2-4 cloves of garlic, minced and mashed (to get the juices going)


• one 5.5 oz can of low sodium V-8


• 1 -3 sweet bell peppers: I like to use a variety of colors and use about a 1/2 of each one and save the rest for something else. Seed and dice


• 1 jalapeno (seeded and diced) or other hot pepper that's available; you can add heat other ways if they are not available, or use canned minced green chilies


• 1/2 to a tsp. of cumin powder


• 1/4 to a 1/2 tsp. of ancho chili powder


• 1-2 dashes of chipotle chili powder


• pinch to a 1/ tsp. of cayenne


• Jane's Crazy Mixed-Up Salt (in the spice section of your grocery) to taste!


• 2 grinds of fresh pepper (the multi-colored peppercorns are the best)

Mix everything in a bowl. That was hard. Whew. I'm pooped. Pass me a margarita. Okay, so start small on the seasoning and hot pepper amounts and work your way up. Use generous amounts of cilantro and use as much V-8 until you get the consistency you want. I like it chunky, but enough V-8 sauces it enough to hold it all together and get your chip wet without being too watery. Watery salsa is not fun. It's a drag actually, so this solves the problem. And you get your 8 servings of vegetables on a chip and nobody hits you in the head.

If you want to be healthy, there is a yummy multi-grain sea salt tortilla chip out there and Plocky's makes a good one too that is multi-grain, but pricey and found in gourmet stores. Frito-Lay now makes a baked Scoop!, so that's good news for all of us.

The rest of the recipes from this segment will be in the next post!

Back, Jack, do it Again.....

Steely Dan is in my head as I come in from planting the second round. I have not usually planted a second garden in one growing season, but since our summers are so much longer now and since I had so much destruction from squash bugs and Mr. Groundhog, I feel like I didn't get as much out of it as I deserved.

Last year I came back from a trip and was so sad to see everything obliterated with no promise of any harvest for the next several hot summer-like months.

I wasn't finished eating Caprese salad! I hadn't even made gazpacho once. My peppers had just started taking off. Hadn't they?

I am lucky enough to have a Kenneth, my garden guru who gives me (sometimes unsolicited) advice, guidance and helps with some of the big work. I use a small Stihl tiller for weeding and in between jobs, but for the massive tilling at the beginning and end of the season, an industrial size tiller is required and I just don't have the skill or strength to operate one.

So when I told Kenneth to go ahead and till up the garden, I didn't expect EVERYTHING to be gone when I came back. There were sad little red tomatoes laying on the ground! My blueberry vines were gone! Where was my Autumn Sedum and my wildflowers and sunflowers the birds had been enjoying?

SO, LESSON LEARNED! Specify next time! Needless to say, plants are amazing and my blueberries came back as did the rest. It amazes me every year that even after being pummeled into oblivion, onions, fennel, even parsley and tomatoes come back the following year.

As I write this, I am working on another zucchini bread (yes, I am addicted to it) with my last 2 zucchinis.

The tomatoes have been hit and miss this year, but some are producing better than others.

What can you plant the second time around? The opinions vary and it seems that everybody I ask has a different set of guidelines about what can go in and what can't.

So I went down to the seed and supply store and lo and behold found tomatoes, squash and cucumber seedlings, plus all the seeds were still out. So I bought some of everything.

I still had seeds left from the beginning of the season, so I decided to use some of those, too.

This is what I have planted so far from seed:

• Peas: sugar snow and sugar snap


• Beets: Choggia, Bull's Blood, Scarlett


• Okra: red and spineless


• Cilantro


• Beans: bush, pole and runner


• Zucchini: black


• Broccoli: Nutri-bud and purple


• Broccoli Rabe (also called rapini)


• Spinach: long-leaf


• Lettuce: Four Seasons ( a red-tipped leafy)

I planted seedlings, too:

• Tomatoes: Longkeeper, Roma and some heirlooms are coming by mail


• Summer squash: Straight-neck yellow


• Cucumbers: Hybrid and a burpless


• Mini peppers

I haven't planted the pumpkin seeds I got yet, as I thought it was too late, but there are some you can plant this late in the season.

I'm looking forward to my other seedlings coming, including spinach, zucchini, and tomatoes because I always like to have some back-up plants in case the seeds do something weird.

You can still order plants from Tasteful Garden and seeds from Seeds of Change and plant them, but I would suggest getting them in as soon as possible.

There are charts online that will give you a general guideline of what you can plant and when. It depends on your agricultural zone and your average first frost date. This information can be found at your cooperative extension office.Here is a link that has a good chart for the schedule: http://www.yankeegardener.com/resource/fall-veg.html

Well, my zucchini bread is finished and smells great, so I'm off!

Good luck and happy gardening!

Summer Bounty

It's mid-summer and most of us are deep in the throes of harvesting our gardens. Some items are going gangbusters while others are not doing so well. It depends upon where you are in the country, but here in the mid-Atlantic, there was a cool, wet Spring, followed immeditely by July-like weather.

Tomatoes have been great this year and the peach harvest will be good for orchards. I had a short squash season, thanks to many squash bugs and a greedy grounhog. cucumbers also suffered this year from some wilt and brown scale. My sprinkler malfunction was the final nail in the coffin of my cucubrit family.

For those of you looking for ideas for their abundant harvests, I have posted a couple of my favorite summer recipes. It is just not summer for me without Caprese salad and zuchinni bread. Last year I probably made zuchinni bread 6 times!

Here they are:

CAPRESE SALAD:

Cover a plate with torn romaine lettuce or mixed greens. Top with sliced tomatoes cut into halves. Hand-shred fresh mozzarella and sprinkle generously over tomatoes. You may use the sealed log-type mozzarella found in the gourmet cheese department or the mozzarella balls that are in a tub of water, such as cigliene. The ones in water taste the best. Next drizzle the salad with a bit of extra virgin olive oil and a splash of balsamic. Sprinkle with a little salt (I like Jane’s Crazy Mixed-up Salt found in the spice section) and a couple turns of your pepper grinder. Top with a generous amount of hand-torn fresh basil. This is the best part and makes it look extra fresh and pretty. You can leave out the base layer of lettuce for a more traditional Caprese salad, but this makes it much more of a meal. Serve with some sliced hard salami or soprasetta, toss in some garden fresh cucumbers for crunch and you have a refreshing summer meal!


ZUCHINNI BREAD:

This does not tast like squash, contrary to popular belief!

Zucchini BreadAdapted from Baking Illustrated

I made one change and that is a dash of nutmeg and a sprinkle of cinammon.

• 2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting



• 1 pound zucchini, washed and dried, ends and stems removed, cut in half lengthwise and seeded if using large zucchini, each half cut into 1-inch pieces
  

3/4 cups (5 1/4 ounces) sugar

1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped coarse

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup plain yogurt

2 large eggs, beaten lightly

1 tablespoon lemon juice

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, melted and cooled

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan; dust with flour, tapping out the excess.

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, process the zucchini and 2 tablespoons of the sugar until the zucchini is coarsely shredded, twelve to fifteen 1-second pulses. Transfer the mixture to a fine-mesh strainer set at least 2 inches over a bowl and allow to drain for 30 minutes. Alternatively, you can shred the halved zucchini (don't cut into 1-inch pieces) on the large holes of a box grater, toss with the 2 tablespoons of sugar, and drain.

• Meanwhile, spread the nuts on a baking sheet and toast until fragrant, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer the nuts to a cooling rack and cool completely. Transfer the nuts to a large bowl; add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, and whisk until combined. Set aside.

• Whisk together the remaining 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of sugar, yogurt, eggs, lemon juice, and melted butter in a 2-cup glass measure until combined. Set aside.

• After the zucchini has drained, squeeze the zucchini with several layers of paper towels to absorb excess moisture. Stir the zucchini and the yogurt mixture into the flour mixture until just moistened. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface with a rubber spatula.

• Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, 55 to 60 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool for at least one hour before serving. (The bread can be wrapped with plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.)