Garden work has transitioned from mulching and weeding to harvesting and
preserving. That means the much anticipated seasonal firsts. These always
taste the best! The links will take you to the recipes.
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July is blueberry month!
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Freshly ground homegrown whole wheat flour.
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Our first sampling of this year's wheat was in fresh blueberry pancakes!
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This year's wheat seems to taste better than last year's. We definitely had
more consistent growth with better formed heads and grains.
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Of the tomatoes, the Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes ripened first.
They
make a very fun snacking food while in the garden.
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Scrambled eggs with cherry toms and goat cheese = delicious lunch!
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Of "regular" tomatoes I planted two types: Eva Ball (round red ones) and Black Krim (purplish beefsteak looking ones.)
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Tomatoes: Black Krim in the front, Eva Ball in the back.
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Both have excellent flavor. The Black Krim are perfect to slice for sandwiches
and burgers. The Eva Ball, I believe, were developed for canning. I don't can
whole tomatoes, but they will help make good pizza sauce. What tomatoes we
don't eat (all kinds) go into the freezer for a future sauce making and
canning session.
Of course, I had to make some of these too...
I don't deep fry anything, but just a thin layer of oil in the pan gets the desired crispiness.
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Cucumbers followed shortly after the tomatoes.
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Speaking of cheese, it's cheesemaking season too.
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I've dug the first potatoes and picked the first green beans.
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| Oven roasted potatoes and green beans.
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| First okra picking. |
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| Roasted okra, potatoes, and multiplier onions. |
I've been doing a little dehydrating too. You may recall that
last month I canned lambs quarter. It's still growing but in smaller amounts. So I've been drying the leaves
to add to winter soups.
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Lambs quarter finishing up the the dehydrator.
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So July has been busy! I expect it will remain that way until September when
the harvest finally slows down.
How about you? How has your July been so far?
28 comments:
Wow, you must be pulling it in by the tons! So many garden goodies!
I am envious of your blueberry harvest, but hoping ours will be similar in the next few years.
Enjoy the bounty!
Daisy, we were fortunate that someone had planted blueberry bushes and fig trees here years ago. They are well established and manage to thrive even when our weather doesn't cooperate!
I've never been one for canning whole tomatoes either. The entire reason I can stuff is for the easy convenience later on so must of my canned foods literally just need to be heated up. I do can some crushed tomatoes for the occasional pot of chili but I still like cooking out some of the water before canning so there is less to cook out later.
My sister-in-law makes a mean green tomato pie that she destroys my diet with.
We are starting to get cherry tomatoes and a handful of okra. We've been digging up a hill of potatoes every time we go down for the last several weeks. We also got a handful of purple zucchini too. I haven't preserved anything yet this year but the time is probably quickly approaching.
What an amazing harvest Leigh! The wheat comment is especially interesting to me; if I could ever find the grain that will grow here, I would be interested to run the experiment.
Some tomatoes here (I should take a picture - I have never gotten actual tomatoes, just a tomato in the past) and peppers. Sweet potatoes and black eyed peas are putting on leaves to beat the band, so hopefully there is yield.
I never thought of making mozzarella and the freezing it immediately - but we only ever use it grated anyway.
I have never had fried green tomato anything, but based on your and Ed's comments, I may have to investigate.
Ed, chili is a good exception to not canning whole tomatoes. I finally got Dan to try (and like!) chili last winter, so I think there will be more of it on the menu.
I know you've struggled with too much rain for your garden, so I hope your harvest is a good one in spite of that!
P.S. Any chance your SIL would share her green tomato pie recipe???
TB, fried green tomatoes are something I never heard of until I moved to the south. Here, they are a delicious tradition!
Sounds like you have some things doing well in your garden. Wheat grows almost everywhere, so you should try a "pancake patch" (Gene Logsdon's term!) some year.
Mozzarella freezes quite well, I find. Even in chunks. I guess because of it's stretchiness. With goats, of course, making it is another seasonal activity.
Looks great! We're getting our first pickling cukes, Kale, chives, basil and tons of eggs! Cool that you have your own wheat, wat's the flavor like? One of these years I need to buy a solar over and try that.
Nancy, if you get halfway decent sun, I highly recommend a solar oven. Everything cooked in it seems to taste better!
I think I have it. If I can remember when I get upstairs, I will post it for you.
Well I looked and I don't so I guess my memories faulty. I'm pretty sure we asked her for it but either we lost it or she wouldn't give it to us because it was a family secret. Next time I see her, I'll see if I can find out which of those it was and get a copy if it turned out we lost it.
Excellent!
On the porch with coffee in hand enjoying the Tate report 😊
For some reason I have a sudden craving for blueberry pancakes.
Great garden bounty, Leigh! So happy to hear the good news about that wheat! Very awesome project growing and processing your own flour! We are steady processing as things are ready. We just roasted and put up 20 Anaheim Green Chili, which I will be posting about soon. Have a wonderful week end!
due to late frosts, my zucchini and cucumbers are late. However, the green beans have been stellar producers this year. Great harvests from the radishes, onions and natural dye plants too. Blueberries won't ripen until August here and I'm looking forward to that. It was a good year for gooseberries and there are lots of unripe blackberries on the brambles. Yay mid summer!
Oh my, all those blueberry pictures look wonderful. Ours are still little green orbs. It will be a while yet until we have some of our own. But we did have blueberry pancakes this morning as you did. Ours were made with einkorn flour (not homegrown :o(). I envy you your ripe tomatoes. But I never met a fried green tomato I liked. Too much a northern gal, I guess. Your first potatoes are large! And the picture of the oven roasted potatoes and green beans is making me hungry even though we just finished eating! I could gobble them up.
Goatldi, blueberry pancakes are a Sunday breakfast tradition. But the year's best is with fresh blueberries! The freshest wheat makes a difference too. :)
Wyomingheart, it's a busy time of year for gardeners. :) I'm looking forward to you post!
Nina, I'm glad to year your zucchini and cukes are just late instead of destroyed! I envy your gooseberries. It's too hot here to grow them.
Mama Pea, I never tried fried green tomatoes until I moved to the south. Now, it's a dilemma every summer, do I pick those first green tomatoes to fry, or wait for the first ripe tomato!
I've never tried einkorn flour. Is it tasty? I may have to see if I can grow a pancake patch.
Your fried green tomato recipe is different from mine, I bread mine in corn meal. I've oven fried them before with great results. Course I need green tomatoes for any of that...maybe at the farmer's market but they're here on Sunday during church. :p
Beautiful pics, Leigh. What a bounty of home grown goodness. That fresh ground wheat sure gets my attention! I bet it is so delicious. What do you do with the okra? We like fried green tomatoes, but that won't happen until we have a good few ripe ones first!
That would be great, Ed. I appreciate your efforts!
Renee, I think it's better with cornmeal, but I was out so flour was it! Next time - cornmeal!
Rosalea, mostly I coat the okra with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cornmeal, and then oven "fry" it. That's our favorite way to eat okra. It freezes well too, so it makes a nice side dish in winter months.
What brand of solar oven do you use? Thanks!
Nancy, I have a Sun Oven. It was a little pricey, but I think the features make it worth it. Plus, it gets hotter than a lot of them do.
Biblical plague of grasshoppers here in west Texas. They ate everything I planted as it came up. Had tomatoes inside and when I put them outside the grasshoppers are eating any tomatoes that bloom. Put potatoes in ground two weeks ago. they are eating anything that pokes up out of the ground. But your stuff really looks good!!
Matt, that's devastating! How discouraging. :(
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