Seed Saving Fail

I was sooo sure I was planting cucumbers as companions to my green beans.

A not-cucumber

It appears I need a better system for labeling my saved seeds.

It was a nutmeg melon, tasty with fresh blueberries

So instead of a salad, it made dessert. Not an unfair trade, but I surely do lament no pickles this year.

Seed Saving Fail © July 2015 by Leigh
at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

It's Time To Defrost Those Tomatoes

Last jar of 2012 pizza sauce. 

I'm down to my last jar of pizza sauce; it's time to make more! Ordinarily, I would have started canning pizza sauce in July or August. But I did not have a very good tomato harvest this summer, likely due to too much rain and very little sun. We had enough for fresh eating but extras for preserving amounted to only a few every other day. I popped these into the freezer for a future sauce making and canning session.

Frozen Amish Paste tomatoes from this summer's pickings. 

A couple of year's ago I discovered that peeling frozen tomatoes is so much easier than the boiling water/ice dunk method. Now, however, I have my Roma juicer/squeezer, so I use it instead. It's easier still!

Tomato juice cooking down with homegrown thyme, oregano, & rosemary

Also easy, is cooking down the juice in a crock pot. It never scorches and uses less electricity than my electric stove. I add everything during the cooking down stage except salt. I add salt to the canning jars when I fill them. I figure if salt ever becomes scarce, I at least have my canned goods seasoned to taste. Also I add my lemon juice or citric acid as I fill the jars. On that note, I wanted to mention an interesting post over at Thoughts from Frank and Fern, "Why Acidify Tomatoes?"

Sadly, I only had one crock pot's worth of juice, making my sauce seem all the more precious. And since this is a several day process, the crock pot spends the night in my spare fridge in the pantry.

Except, horror of horrors......

Is this a good time to mention I can be a tad clumsy?

What can I say? Except that I discovered Aldi's now carries organic tomato sauce (marinara or tomato basil) for about $2 a jar. Looks like a stock-up trip is in order.

It's Time To Defrost Those Tomatoes © October 2013 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Not Pumpkins

If there's a book of gardening bloopers, this one may be a candidate.

Last spring I bought lots of seeds, because so many new-to-me varieties looked really good. Planting was sporadic because of all the rain and I didn't get everything planted that I wanted. I made a sketch on graph paper of what I planted, when, and where. Then I lost my garden plan.

As the garden began to flourish, I puzzled over one mystery squash, trying to remember what I had planted. As the squashes began to take shape and grow large, I figured they must be spaghetti squash. But they never turned yellow like spaghetti squash. Instead, they turned orange.

They looked like pumpkins but I knew I didn't plant pumpkins this year. I planted orange cushaw instead. I chopped up some of these orange not-pumpkins and fed the to the goats. They loved them. There's no great loss without some small gain, as Ma Ingalls used to say.

One day, while staring at the bed of these now large, mature squashes, it dawned on me that these were Tatume summer squash. I bought them from Baker Creek, after reading how well they did in the Mexican and Texan summer heat. They are supposed to be picked while small and tender, but by the time I realized what they were, it was too late!

This is the size at which they ought to be picked.

Well, almost. I managed to find two small ones and saute them in a little olive oil with a few of our multiplier onions and fresh sweet basil from the garden. This is my favorite way to eat summer squash.

They were delicious! Sweet and tender. Oh, how I lamented all the good summer squash eating we'd missed. Plus, they grew better than the crookneck and pattypan types I'd grown in the past.

On the bright side, I'll have plenty of seeds for next year, and the goats will have good eating too. I may even experiment and see what I can do with mature summer squash. Who knows? I may figure out a tasty way to salvage the lot.

Not Pumpkins © October 2013 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/