When Life gives you Tomatoes

We have been getting tomatoes from the garden lately and we decided to try a tomato sauce recipe with the ones we had plus a few extra from the store since not all of our tomatoes were ripe at the same time. We thought starting with a small batch was a good starting place since it was a new recipe.

Seasoned Tomato Sauce

INGREDIENTS

• • 12 cups chopped ripe tomatoes (about 6lbs)
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano (or 1tsp dried)
  • 2 tsp granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp salt

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INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine tomatoes, onion, garlic, oregano, sugar, pepper and bay leaves in a large stainless steel or enameled saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat and boil gently, uncovered, until very thick, about 1 1/4 hours; stir frequently. Press through a food mill or coarse sieve to remove seeds and skins. Add lemon juice and salt.
2. Ladle sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe tops clean. Put on lids. Process in a boiling water bath for 35 minutes. Remove and cool.
3. Makes about 4 cups

What I did a little different: We don't have a food mill to remove the seeds and skins so we started by blanching the tomatoes so we could peel them before we started. We just left the seeds in.

Blanch Your Tomatoes

• Fill a large 7- to 8-quart pot with 1 gallon water; bring water to boiling. 
• Using a sharp knife, cut a shallow X on the bottom of each tomato. This encourages the skin to split during blanching so you'll be able to slip off the skin easily with your fingers once the tomatoes have cooled. 
• Working in 1-pound batches, immerse tomatoes in the boiling water.
• Cook until the tomato skins split open.
• Using a slotted spoon, transfer tomatoes to a large bowl of ice water.

Between Harvests

From time to time I get really fed up with the weather, it seems like all it does is rain. The grass is constantly wet and I can't mow, which of course means it is taking over and that stresses me out plus the chicken run is a muddy mess, because no mater what I do, it rains and makes it worse. I JUST WANT SUN! 

Then the little voice in my head says "It could be way worse! We could be the state having wild fires!" OK OK you are so right little voice and I am so glad we aren't that state by the way. Plus it is making taking care of the garden easier so I should just count my blessings. Let me tell you what, the rain is doing wonders in the garden division. 

Our Blackberry bush started to produce this year! We got a hole 4 or so berries, but I'm sure next year will be awesome!

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Everything is really looking great which is awesome but then at the same time we are in the hurry up and wait part of the process again. We were so excited to have lettuce and strawberries earlier in the year and now that the strawberries have stopped producing we are just kind of hanging out and waiting for all of our other plants to come into harvest season. 

As you can see the tomatoes are doing amazingly well and are probably the next to be harvested we are just waiting for all of those beautiful things to turn red. 

Happy Gardening!

James and the giant peach

We planted a peach tree in the summer of 2013 and this year we got our first little peach from it. Hopefully next year we will get at least 2 peaches :)

Yummy Grass

Took the smaller chickens out for some fun in the grass. 

We also took out the babies to the garden and used them as weed control and as fertilizers.

The Fruits of our Labor

Our garden is doing great and we have already been eating the fruits of our labor! 

We have been picking strawberries like crazy, the last couple of weeks, and mainly eating them as soon as they are picked. This weekend we did something other than just eat them straight out of the garden, we had strawberry shortcake.

Shawn and Gabe have also been steeling lettuce every chance they get. I'm just glad that all of the boys are eating fresh food from the garden as their snack of choice! This is one of the things that we were wanting when we moved here and started this blog.

We added a new garden bed this year with multiple types of corn.

Garden

I wanted to update you on our Garden Projects and show you how well our seedlings are doing out in the garden.

Here is a picture of our new trellis for Green beans and Peas, you can also see the plastic that we have put down between the beds to get rid of the grass. We haven't gotten rocks put down yet but it is a start.

The Cucumbers are growing nicely

Peas, Lettuce and Green beans have all sprouted.

The Zucchini are getting bigger. We haven't ever grown Zucchini before so this is a new experience. I have done some research and there are different methods to growing them. 

1. just letting them grow as they please.

2. growing them vertically. whether that be using a tomato cage or stakes.

I am going to have to pick one soon because they are growing fast.

Garden Problems

Ok so here are a couple of garden problems that we are trying to fix this year.

1. That Pesky Grass

As you can see in this picture of our strawberry bed from last year the grass between the beds gets unruly and is quite the pain in the butt. Keeping up with Mowing between them and then weed eating, just so you can get to your plants, waists all of the time you could be gardening.

Anyway I found a couple of pictures on Pinterest and went "WOW, why didn't I think of that?"

Now you cant tell me that doesn't look like a more fun place to be.

So we started by laying down this plastic barrier between the beds. Hopefully this will block off all of the grass from growing in between the beds so we can lay down rocks.

2. Unhappy Green Beans

So here is another picture of our garden from last year. We planted Green Beans all along he trellis. Some of them did quite well and other were blocked by the corn and didn't get much light. also when they did get going good they ran out of trellis.

 So another Pinterest solution an archway!

So I am putting my arch from one side of the bed to the other instead of over the isle. While taking a note from another Pinterest idea and using the space underneath to grow lettuce, which likes the shade.

Wish us luck. I'll post more pictures as we get farther along!