What to do with all those lovely peppers coming in? Pickled peppers? Yes! Fermented hot sauce? Yes!
The orange and yellow Jalapeno peppers are being fermented. The green Jalapenos will be quick-pickled for the "picklefridge" in the garage.
How are you putting up peppers?
Y`all. This invaded my garden gram today.
I was suggested this AI monstrosity passed off as their "Bountiful harvest from my lush vegetable garden! 🍅🥕🌽 From leafy greens to ripe tomatoes, nature`s beauty nourishes both body and soul. #VegetableGarden #HarvestTime #Nature`sAbundance"
GAG.
Gardengram is sacred.
Some creators think we are stupid. From un-natural colorings, to AI-generated personal posts of "deep introspection", to images of their "bountiful harvest" we are slowly being invaded.
Are you one of us who can see through the BS? Tell me I am not alone.
#noai
What do you think about hot sauces? Are you a hot-as-you-can-get person?
A random mix of chili peppers, destined for fermented hot sauce this week. I will end up chopping them up (wearing gloves!), adding a ton of garlic, and then making a 3% salt brine and letting them ferment on the counter for just a few days. In our current heat, fermentation goes faster. Any Kahm yeast gets gingerly removed with a paper towel. I don`t normally get much of it (I use a really cool fermentation lid) but again I think it`s a heat thing.
She was afraid of nothin`, this swallowtail butterfly.
It`s squarely butterfly season here. They seemed to be late this year but now we are flush with them. And they are not afraid of me so I can get up close to take a photo.
I like to think she`s showing off her loveliness for us to enjoy, but really I think she was hungry. I get that.
My friend, @mytownhomestead, has many of these swallowtails in her garden too and takes lovely photos of them.
Is it butterfly season for you, too?
Every summer, we grow a ton of sun gold tomatoes - productive, less likely to split, and really delicious. The way we preserve them is making tomato confit -- very slowly roasted tomatoes, olive oil, bits of rosemary. Then frozen in deli cups for winter.
I served this to guests recently and they said it was like eating a bit of summer.
Are you preserving your summer tomatoes? @deannanakada does the most beautiful job of it! Just gorgeous.
Dehydrating "sun dried" tomatoes for winter today. It`s a bit of a labor of love as you must pierce them or slice them so they dry properly. And (learned the hard way) weighing them before and after is the best way to make sure you get enough water out of them. Leave too much water in them and they could mold or worse.
But the little sweetness they give to winter salads makes up for all the effort. I will miss summer. So much.
How are you preserving summer?
Somehow I missed Tomato Tuesday. I read somewhere it`s Wednesday currently.
We love fried green tomatoes here in the southern US. But I am too lazy to do all that. Instead, I slice them, toss in olive oil and a little salt. Then I top with parmesan cheese and garlic and broil them.
They come out tender, tangy and with a nice crust --- sans the standing over a hot pot of oil, thankyouverymuch. I don`t fool with that.
Do you eat green tomatoes too? How do you prepare them?
This is not what you want to see in your garden! Although, I kinda think this pest is interesting....
This photo was from 2 seasons ago when my pepper plants were hijacked by these guys --- hornworms.
My garden has evolved since then.
Now I have a lot of birds. Perhaps because I always have things going for them --- little protected spaces, plants going year round, a little run off from the drip irrigation. I do not set out food for them for lots of reasons.
And the birds preen my plants and take the bugs away.
During my morning swim today, I spotted a little wren that has taken up residence behind the giant cucumber. He sipped water out of a terracotta saucer, sang, and hopped up the steps to the upper terrace. I respected his privacy and didn`t film him. We are a mutual aid society. ❤️
How has your own garden evolved?
Fermenting tomatoes.
Have you ever fermented tomatoes for winter? I fermented a batch of tomatoes last year and they were great! We added these fermented tomatoes to salads here and there, and it helped keep us from ever having to buy a tomato from the store.
Fermenting tomatoes is just a small part of my strategy for staying out of grocery stores.
Do you have a favorite strategy for preserving tomatoes or for staying out of the grocery store?
Fermented hot sauce has been bottled and stored for the year. This is from the lemon and orange spice Jalapeño peppers and I think the color is lovely. What do you think?
Growing bell peppers has always challenged my gardening skills and patience. I am about done for the year - they are lovely to grow, but finicky little things! Too hot, they won`t produce. Too cool, they won`t set flowers. My garden outlook report has really helped me understand this as a gardener.
And of course, the hornworms.
Thankfully, we now have a tremendous number of birds visiting our terraces and they eat the critters that eat my produce.
These got sliced and put into the freezer for wintertime fajitas.
Are you growing bell peppers?
I have been boasting about my cucumber hauls lately, but some days it`s just a single overgrown pickler.
I think it`s time to succession plant another set of plants. This is my clue the plants are tired....
How are yours?
Succession planting cucumbers has been so life-changing for my garden! Just as one plant is dying back, another is flush with new cucumbers. Shown is the first picking of the Japanese "Suyo Long" from @bakercreekseeds - 4 cucumbers off that massive plant in the background and it`s just getting started.
In the basket on the left are the new cucumbers, and hidden down there on the right are the last of the pickler cucumbers I grew for the pickling season. I MIGHT even be able to sneak in one last round of quick growing cucumbers such as a Persian variety.
In this way, I no longer fight to keep plants alive. I just let them be themselves. 🙂 No more do I fret over a little yellowed leaf or a splotch.
Steph @soiled_again gets it. She`s doing wonderfully well succession planting her cucumbers this season. ❤️
How did your cucumber-fest go this summer? Any lessons learned? Did I miss commenting on your beautiful harvest? LMK and I will pay your page a visit! 🙂
Peach season is upon us! I guess I could buy canned peaches but husband Eric can`t eat sugar, so I can mine without sugar or with only a scant amount of "good" (no such thing, really) sugar.
But really, this is all I am doing this year. I am trying to just eat more seasonally and enjoy each fruit as they come in. This month, peaches. Next month, pears. And so on....
How do you feel about putting up vs. eating seasonally? Do you do both?
A little harvest basket this morning. Kaffir lime leaves for Thai curries, a bit of lime basil, some lemon balm. The Thai chilis take center stage with a couple of the pink Okinawan okra settled next to.
The lime leaves go to the freezer, the lime basil and lemon balm get air dried along with the chilies. And the okra goes in our dinner. 🙂
Salad was my gateway.
When I first started gardening, it was a bowl like this that hooked me during summer: cucumbers, onions, and fully red tomatoes from steps outside my door. I would do anything for it. ANYTHING.
And I guess that`s why I put so much work into it. Water, mulch, fertilizer, prune, repeat.
But I still missed the mark sometimes. It was hard to get the garden working in concert with itself. I wanted it running so I had all the things I wanted at the right times. I wanted to be "that woman" - breezy, effortless.
But I think I am finally getting it!
Eggplants, cucumbers, basils. The Chinese eggplant is still going strong, and our final round of cucumbers (Japanese suyo from @bakercreekseeds) and my own stock of Thai basil picked today.
It`s a bit chilly out so I don`t expect we will get much more, but that`s ok. I need the room for the fall plants. I`m going big on leeks, carrots, daikon radishes. I always plant plenty of lettuces, napa cabbage, tatsoi. This year I will be growing radicchio for the first time in the south...
Pickled okra and cucumbers went up last night. I have more okra than we can currently eat so I am pickling small batches.
More cucumbers going into pickle relish today, perhaps some pickled red Torpea onions, and then my summer pickling will probably wind down a bit.
Are you to the end of your pickling season too? How did it go?
A small harvest of red okra for tonight`s supper of Thai red fish curry and roasted okra. We love okra when it`s home grown because the texture is much improved over commercially grown okra (seeds and slime much diminished). This was harvested from two big plants - @blackgirlcitygarden and @soiled_again are both growing lovely okra as well!
Are you growing okra? What`s your favorite way to prepare them?
Growing cucumbers is so much fun. The giant cucumber is still producing armloads full of juicy cucumbers!
We love growing slicing cucumbers. They are a part of nearly every meal in summertime here.
And growing cucumbers in succession has been so rewarding. I have several successions of cucumbers growing currently.
Are you growing cucumbers in succession? If yes, how`s it going? If not, why not?
