A Garden Update & Canning Romas

We're beginning to wind down after a very mild and busy summer. We've had our share of illnesses around this house, more than I'd like to repeat, but we survived. Between sick kids, playing at the cottage, and normal every day events, this little blog gets put on the back burner quite a bit. I think it's about time for a garden update!

If you've been following along this year, you might remember my original post about putting our garden in.  This is the fourth year of our garden, and usually we try something new every year. This year we kept it pretty basic, but have yielded bushels of Roma tomatoes, Big Boys, Early Girls (or fashionably late girls in our case...), bell peppers, jalapenos, banana peppers, and resilient broccoli.

On the contrary, our snap peas and beans didn't do so well.

I'm pretty proud of myself this year, as it's the first that I've canned multiple foods all by myself!

 I'm growing up so fast... 

In the Spring, some friends and I took our little ones raspberry picking. That weekend I canned 4 little jars of Raspberry Lavender-Mint Jam using this awesome book my mom got for me:

"CANNING FOR A NEW GENERATION"

 I've also been referencing it to can our scads of tomatoes. Last year my mom and I canned a dozen quarts or so of whole tomatoes. With a brief refresher from her on the simple steps, I canned 14 more quarts. My hubby loves them for his "Deer Camp Chili", which he makes several times each fall, and enough to feed an army.

In a nutshell, here are a few simple steps to canning whole tomatoes.

 

Every jar sealed, however I had one jar crack open. What a mess! 

For the first time I also made a tomato basil sauce with fresh basil from my mom's herb garden. I looove the smell of fresh basil! I sampled the sauce while it was still really hot, so here's hoping it has good flavor and thickness on a prepared dish. This was a modified recipe of All Purpose Tomato Sauce from "CANNING FOR A NEW GENERATION".

As a side note, if you run out of time to process your jars the same day you prepare all of the tomatoes like I did, store the jars of tomatoes in the refrigerator until you can process them. Just be sure to place the jars in the canning pot, then fill with cold water and bring to a boil to ensure your jars to crack under the temperature change. It takes longer for it to boil, but I wasn't about to stay up until 1 A.M. processing tomatoes. And no, the jar that broke actually wasn't one I had in the fridge.

Preserving might seem overwhelming, but if you work with someone who is experienced, you learn quickly, and it makes the job go a lot faster!

What have you canned this year?

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Our Vegetable Garden

Every Memorial Day weekend, for the past 4 years, we've planted our vegetable garden at my mom's house, usually in the sweltering heat!  This year was a little different. We had to wait until late morning to get started because the temperatures were so low (40's here...). Once it was about 50* we started digging in the dirt.

Last Fall, after we removed our old plants, Jeff tilled the garden down, and added in a few big tractor scoops of horse manure to add nutrients to the soil for this year. Then a few weeks ago he added more manure, and tilled it in again. It was such beautiful dirt! Don't you agree?

After turning it over one last time, we were ready to start planting. Some of our favorite crops to grow are roma tomatoes, sugar snap peas, green beans and bell peppers. A couple of years ago we grew brussels sprouts and potatoes, too, but I don't think we were patient enough for them. We'll have to try again next year. This year we have our staples, plus broccoli, zucchini & summer squash (which we're planting in boxes this year so that they don't take over the garden, as in years past). The girls started with marigolds on the border of the garden to keep the rabbits out, and luckily we had a little boy helpful enough to transport them to the garden in his gator.

 Then we worked our way from left to right planning and planting, starting with the bush beans on the outside. Next came the peas, with a fence about 4' tall to climb up. Two years ago we planted seeds on one side, but last year we planted seeds on both. This worked out great, since we usually snack on fresh peas while weeding the garden! :)

We had a few feet left in front of the pea fence, so we filled it in with more bean seeds. You can never have enough beans, especially since they're so easy to freeze... not that we've ever had enough to freeze. Maybe this year we will, since we don't have any babies to make baby food for.

 

Next came the tomato plants. My mom bought these new containers to grow them in, as opposed to just using a cage. They supposedly keep the bugs out, or something... It's too early to tell which method is better. We planted 6 Roma Tomato plants, a couple of Early Girls, and a couple of Big Boys. Last year we canned a TON of Romas from the garden. I can't wait to do it again!

Next we have our Bell Peppers and Hot Peppers. Both of my boys love to snack on bell peppers, and they're always great in salads, homemade pizzas, or kebabs on the grill.

We still have to plant the broccoli close to the path. Luckily for the garden it's supposed to rain all week here, but that means we'll be stuck inside... Soon enough we'll be out in the garden every other night weeding after dinner in the sun, right?

Check back for updates on Farming in the City!

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