Cantaloupe and Sweet Potatoes

I can't believe how much the cantaloupe vines and sweet potato plants have grown!  Maybe it has something to do with that wonderful manure compost I put in this bed before planting.  I'm not sure, but it has to be something because this is what this bed looked like when I first planted it...

 ...and this is what it looks like now!

I wasn't sure any of these sweet potato slips or the three volunteer cantaloupe plants would even make it in this God-awful heat.  Not only did they survive, but they are thriving!  Look at the cantaloupe on these vines!  There are fifteen (15!) of these babies on the vines, just this size and a lot more little ones waiting to grow.  It's amazing!

There's a ton of little ones out there too!  Don't ask me yet what I'm going to *do* with all these melons that will likely be ready at the same time!  I suspect some of my friends will have a cantaloupe mysteriously appear on their doorstep!  I also envision cantaloupe ice cream, cantaloupe bread, maybe cantaloupe preserves... :-)

And I've never grown sweet potatoes before so I wasn't sure what to expect.  But the plants are gorgeous!  The foliage is purple and green with very large leaves.

The potatoes should be ready to harvest 90-100 days after planting, which puts the harvest date around mid September.  I can't wait for that!  And I sure wish I could get a glimpse of what's going on underground in this bed!  Oh well, that's part of the fun of gardening...the waiting, the anticipating and the joy of the harvest!

Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce

My tomato plants are producing like crazy these days!  Of course, I have nine plants so what can I expect?! :)

The problem is they ripen faster than I can use them and I had a bunch that were bordering on overripe and having to be thrown to the deer!  I simply couldn't let that happen.  So I decided to make fire roasted tomato sauce.

It's a very simple, basic recipe.

Preheat oven to 400F.   Pick some fresh basil and thyme from your garden.  Or you can use dried herbs if that's what you have.  It'll work just fine. 

 
Core and seed the large tomatoes. Then set them in a large colander in the sink for about 30 minutes or so to drain the excess water.

 Toss tomatoes in a large bowl with extra virgin olive oil.

Place tomatoes, skin side down, on a foil lined baking sheet that's been coated with extra virgin olive oil,  Using foil lined pans makes clean up so much easier!  I sometimes throw in a few cloves of garlic that have been tossed with olive oil to roast along side the tomatoes. 

Roast in hot oven for 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours, until tomatoes are cooked and the skins are nicely charred.

Remove from oven and let cool.  Remove the skins...they really should slip right off.

Working in batches if necessary, place roasted tomatoes (and any juice left on the baking sheet) in food processor (or blender) with the pulp from the roasted garlic cloves and some fresh herbs.  Puree until mixture is your desired consistency.  I don't like my sauce too chunky, so I puree it very well.

Pour into freezer bags in 2 cup increments and freeze till needed.

I'll use this as a base for any type of tomato sauce, meat sauce, in soups, etc.  I don't season it until I'm ready to use the puree in something I'm cooking.

This is a great way to use very ripe summer tomatoes and I'm sure (absolutely sure!)  I'll be making many more batches of this sauce this summer.

Tomatoes are Ripening

It took long enough...geez!  I've been picking cherry tomatoes for a couple of weeks now, but the large tomatoes have certainly taken their sweet time ripening.  But oh was it worth the wait!! 

I have Martian Giants

Costaluto Genovese (an heirloom)

And the very prolific Chadwick Cherry

You can bet these tasty summer treats will be on the dinner menu every night! :)   I've got a few yummy recipes that I will share soon!

Summer Squash Bites the Dust

Well, it happens nearly every year...the squash vine borers destroyed my squash plants :-(  But this year the bugs got them a little earlier than usual.  I managed to pick some scallopini squash before they petered out, but not as much as I would have liked.  Look at the damage those little buggers (no pun intended) inflicted on my plants.  Just awful...

I'm very disappointed that I had to pull all these diseased plants.  But this experience is very much an integral part of every gardener's life and we must accept it as it comes.  I know I could have injected the vines with BT, but I don't know a lot about that product and to be honest, I really didn't have the time.  So I pulled the plants and in the process I discovered 2 little toads living deep within this garden bed.  Pretty neat little critters who are most beneficial to have.

A lovely little lizard was also scampering about.  These guys are so fast and I was lucky to catch this shot.

One good thing came out of this experience.  By pulling all the diseased squash plants, I made lots of room for my green and yellow beans to spread out and have more room to grow.  Not a bad trade off I guess :)

Today's Haul

Just a quick post to show what I pulled from the garden today:  Some lovely Italian white eggplant, several golden scallopino summer squash, my first Genovese tomato and my first Lemon Boy tomato. 

 I see a pasta salad in my future dinner plans this week :)

Sweet Potatoes

OK...here is another first for me...sweet potatoes!

My husband and I love them but I've never tried to grow them before.  So I thought, well, why not give it a shot.  I have an empty garden bed just waiting to grow something!

I bought my slips online from a Tennessee company called, George's Plant Farm.  They seemed like a reputable company, had good reviews and so I took a chance and ordered 12 slips of the Vardeman variety.  The description said  "Ideal garden and small space, bush type. Vines good for small gardens."  Well, that's me!

So when the plants arrived, I set them in a glass of water on the windowsill for about a week, letting them perk up and grow a few more stronger roots.  Then this morning, I dug a few holes in my garden and set the plants.  And I guess we'll just see.  It's so hot these days that I hope the plants don't burn up.

little blurry image...sorry :/

From what I've read, sweet potatoes need a long growing season (90-120 days)...well, we've got that!

As I was getting that garden bed ready, I noticed three cantaloupe seedlings beginning to germinate!  I planted those weeks ago and nothing germinated so I thought I had a bad batch of seeds (GRRRR) and dug them all up.  Well, I guess there were a few that were determined to grow, so that's cool!

As I was working, I noticed this little guy watching me intently, remaining very still.  I'm not sure what kind of lizard it is, but he's pretty cool.  I love seeing these little critters in and around my garden.  They eat all the nasty bugs that feed on my plants.  He's more than welcome to stay and hang out :)

Anyway, this garden bed will be very interesting to watch as these little sweet potato and cantaloupe seedlings begin to grow!

I love experimenting with new stuff!  So far this year, all the new varieties of vegetables I've planted are doing well, even my peppers!  As always, I'll keep you posted!