Tomatoes. 8.31.21

Some of the tomatoes. In this batch, there is Amish Paste, various cherry tomatoes, Dwarf CC McGee, Golden Siberian King, Improved Dwarf Champion, and a few others.

The Dwarf CC McGee was one of the most tasty. Sort of a tropical fruit flavor.  So I saved seeds from this one.

A pot of sauce tomatoes about to become sauce. The pear shaped ones are nonhybrid Romas. Most of the elongated ones are hybrid Romas. Those were also quite long.  I think those were the most productive. The Amish Paste were a little too juicy for boiling down, and not as productive. Their flavor was good. The Tyren hybrid were productive, later (most not ripe yet), maybe a little too dry, like green peppers inside with almost no juice, and have green shoulders.

Tomato Pie. 8.31.21

 I made a tomato pie.  The original recipe was from a "Cast Iron Skillet Classics" recipe magazine, but I made a lot of changes.  Recipe is below, how I made it.

Prepare  a crust for 1 crust pie.  I like to blind bake the pie crust.  I use the butter flavor crisco recipe on package.  For one crust pie, I do half- recipe but increase everything by 25% so I can use larger pie plate.  Also, I put 1/4 cup pastry flour into the measuring cup before adding the all purpose flour.  That makes it more flaky.  The original recipe did not blind bake, so either way should work.

I blind baked the crust at 375 F while the tomatoes are resting on the paper towels. (this takes some planning and is a separate recipe).  I don't let the crust cool, rather I start assembling the pie while the crust is still hot out of the oven.  To blind bake, I first refrigerated the crust 30 min, poked lots of holes using a fork, lined with foil and placed pie weights on the foil.  After baking 20 min, I removed the foil and pie weights and baked 5 more minutes.

I used a mixture of slicing tomatoes and sauce tomatoes, which are meatier.

2 1/2 pounds tomatoes sliced 1/4 inch thick

2 teaspoons salt

1 cup grated gruyere cheese (what I found this time at store was a blend with cheddar).

1 cup grated Pepper Jack cheese

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 cup chopped onion.

Place tomato slices on paper towels.  Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the salt.  Let them sit 30 min.  The salt draws out a lot of the water.  I also lightly pressed some paper towel on top of the tomatoes to wick out more water.

In a bowl, stir together the egg, mayo, cheeses, Italian herbs, the other tsp of salt, pepper.

Sprinkle the onions across the bottom.  Add 1/3 of cheese mixture.  Layer with 1/2 of the tomatoes.  Spread on second 1/3 of cheese mixture.  Layer with remainder of tomatoes, then spread on the rest of the cheese.  "Spread" is a hopeful term - more like gently mush it around but don't worry about spreading evenly.

Cover the crust edges with aluminum foil so they don't burn.  Bake the pie at 375 for 50 min.  I actually check at 45 min and then every 5 min until it looks set.

I like to blend ceasar or garlic butter croutons to make bread crumbs, mix about 2 tbsp of those with 2 tbsp parmesan cheese, sprinkle on top of the pie and bake 5 more minutes.

I think this pie is even better the next day, cold.   

Cherry Pie. 8.31.21

I made a pie, using a batch of tart cherries from June. It was worth the effort. By freezing the filling with all of the ingredients already, assembling the pie is much easier and faster.

8.31.2021

The second planting ("Ambrosia") is almost gone. I've been harvesting it for about two weeks. Excellent production and flavor,,

I liked these very much. From planting seed, to harvest, was about 90 days. I froze 9 ears, blanched and sliced off the cob. There are still two blocks to ripen fully - "Delectable". I already cut one ear. The kernels weren't fully developed yet, but it was quite good.

Marigolds From Home Saved Seeds. 8.17.2021

Last fall I saved seeds from a marigold plant that grew volunteer in my kitchen garden. I imagine it descended from marigolds that I grew a year or two previously. These grew nicely, look uniform and look like their parent. Very nice plant and flowers. I will save seeds to grow lots more next year.

Climbing Rose From A Dormant Cutting. 8.17.2021

Late winter, I stuck climbing rose prunings into the ends of rows in my onion raised bed, as row markers. Almost all of them took. I was surprised to see this one bloom. This was too easy for words. I didn't do anything special. Just stick the prunings into the ground, then any other care was what the onions got. I'm surprised it bloomed. This rose plant will need a few years to reach much size, but it's off to a good start.

More Peaches :-) 8.17.2021

Here are more peaches from the chicken yard peach tree. I can ed four jars from the last batch. I'l like to can twice that, and make a pie. There are still more on the tree, so it's possible.

Volunteer Four O'Clocks. 8.17.2021

 Multiple Four O'Clocks came up in the pathways between raised beds.  I didn't have the heart to pull them out.  I'm glad I didn't.

These were raised a few years ago from saved seeds, then self seeded again. I think I'll choose my favorites and save seeds to start in a different location next year.

Saving Tomato Seeds. 8.17.2021

 As the tomato season peaks, I want to be sure to save seeds from the varieties that I like.  I don't need a lot.  So far, I'm saving Extreme Bush, BrandyFred, Volunteer Yellow Cherry F3 generation, Golden King of Siberia, Classic Beefsteak, and Ukraine Purple.

After slicing the tomato, I use a spoon or butter knife to pick a dozen or so seeds from the flesh.  Then I place them into a labeled glass gar with about 1/2 cup of water, cover with a paper towel held in place by a rubber band.  Then I eat the tomato.

Then I let them ferment for two or three days. The fermentation reduces disease and germination inhibitors in the seed coat.

Then I rinse the seeds in a seive and place them onto a labeled paper coffee filter to dry.

After a few days to dry, I'll place these into envelopes and store in the pantry until time to plant them next Spring.

Finishing "Eight Shirts" Quilt. 8.16.2016.

 I finished my first full sized quilt.  It's 72" by "72".  I used fabric from a dark blue shirt for the binding.

Early Sunglow Hybrid Sweetcorn. 8.11.2021.

I was prepared to not like this variety. It took a little longer than Trinity, both planted May 9. So first harvest was about 90 days. Park's Seeds markets this one at 62 days, but that's doubtless in a much warmer climate than here. Early Sunglow is a "Regular Sweet" (SU) type, an older type that is not "Super Sweet". I think the "Super Sweet" types are mushy and just taste like sugar, not corn. The third type, "se+" or sugary enhanced, is good (See post on "Trinity"). I think I bought the seeds from Burpee, but I'm fed up with them for the following reasons - on the sweetcorn, they dont list days to harvest; they don't list the type of hybrid; they add cookies to your computer; last year I bought their "Bodaceous" tomato variety and it tasted like cardboard. 

 Actually, I discovered I like Early Sunglow better than Trinity. It has a more "corn" flavor and is still nice and sweet when harvested fresh. These ears are not as deeply yellow as the catalog pictures. Maybe they need more time to fully ripen, ot the photos are "enhanced", or it's my climate. Whatever, these are quite good. Also in the photo - Serrano and Jalapeño peppers, an "Alibi" cucumber, Golden Queen of Siberia heirloom tomato, and various cherry tomatoes.

Sweetcorn "Trinity". 8.11.2021

I like "Trinity"- good flavor, ears are good size, well-filled with big sweet kernels. I've been harvesting this one for a couple of weeks now.

Golden King of Siberia Tomato. 8.11.2021

 Golden King of Siberia is a Russian heirloom variety.  This is the first year that I have grown it.  Nice, big  beefheart type tomato.  Flavor is mild, tomato-flavor.  Not super sweet or super tart. I like it, will save seeds. Also in the photo, Ukranian Purple and various cherry tomato varieties.

Dwarf Tomato "Extreme Bush". 8.11.2021

So far Extreme Bush is the most productive of my container friendly, dwarf tomatoes. As a determinate variety, I don't expect a long season for this variety. It's been producing for a few weeks. The tomatoes are a good slicing size. Not beefsteak, but still a nice medium size tomato. Flavor is excellent - like Better Boy, like a good midwestern tomato-flavored tomato. I will save seeds from "Extreme Bush" tomatoes for next year's kitchen garden.

Peaches. 8.11.2021

Picked the first crop of the season from this peach tree. It's a seed-grown tree from "Oregon Curl Free", a variety promoted as resistant to the dreaded peach leaf curl disease that, in the maritine Pacific NW, is to peach trees what COVID is to humans. This tree doesn't get peach leaf curl disease at all, which is sort of amazing, and is better than it's parent. Anyway, there are lots more on the tree.

Pickled Eggs. 8.7.2021

I made a batch of pickled eggs. The recipe was from "The Delicious Table". The amount of eggs was right for two quart jars (18 eggs), but the vinegar solution is enough that I can use the extra to make some refridgerator dill pickles, soon. The ingredients are cider vinegar, water, peppercorns, pickling spice, salt, Jalapeños, garlic, eggs.

Kitchen Garden Harvest. 8.7.2021

 Pretty good crop I think.  It's keeping us out of the grocery store for this round of coronavirus.  The sweet corn is "Trinity". The beans are Ning's special NE Chinese beans.

Digging Potatoes. 8.7.2021

 I dug some more of the potatoes.  They seem to keep better in the ground, so I only dig what I need for a couple of weeks.  I should eat less of them.  I'm starting to look like a potato.  But they ate very good and cook nicely.

Resizing a Vintage Shirt. 8.7.2021

I found a vintage shirt that I liked. Back in the age of the dinosaurs, I owned a shirt with exactly the same fabric, only in green. This looks like batik but is printed cotton.  This one was way too big, but the chances of finding one in my size are remote. So I used a shirt that fit well, as a pattern, took this one partly apart, cut it using the other shirt as my guide, and sewed it back together. I thought about just cutting the body of the shirt narrower, but the sleeves wouldnt look right. So I took off the sleeves, and cut them the same as my better fitting shirt. Then I cut the body of of the shirt narrower too.

Before cutting, I sewed the new seams and tried it on to check the fit.

The hardest part was sewing on the sleeves. I had made the shoulders 1 1/2 inches narrower on both sides, and the body of the shirt about 2 inches narrower. The arm holes are curved. I made multiple tries before getting it right. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the shirt and now I can wear a walk down memory lane.

I'm also pretty happy with the seams. The original shirt had flat felled seams, which dont have any rough edges insidecor out. I could have zig zagged the new seams, but they wouldn't look as smooth or as nice. Flat felled edges are not too hard, and my result was OK for a novice.

Kitchen Garden Harvest. 8.4.2021

This is a good time of year for the kitchen garden. The tomatoes on the right are from the dwarf variety, "Clare Valley Pink". Not a vigorous plant, and not many tomatoes, but they are good flavor. The oblong tomatoes are "Purple Russian". Very good production and very good flavor. The zucchinis are from the Burpee hybrid, I forget the name. The cukes are various types, mostly sneaky ones that evade detection until they are quite large. The apple is "Gravenstein", the only ripe one on the tree.

Zucchini makes a nice meal, cut into fries, sprinkled with garlic salt, pepper, some hot pepper and season salt, and olive oil then air fried for 8 min at 375. I mixed in some green beans too, but the zucchini is better.

Purple Russian tomato.

Clare Valley Pink tomato. I think this plant is off the irrigation line, which might explain why it didnt grow much.

Dahlias. 8.4.2021

Not much to say about these. They brighten the room!

Rufus is the Best Dog on Earth! 8.2.2021

Flowers. 8.1.21

Four O'clocks and poppies, all volunteer. Daylilies that I grew from my own hybridizing a few years back. And squashes, quite fragrant and honeybees love them.

Dahlias and Nasturtiums. Also more volunteer poppies. The nasturtiums are volunteer too. The dahlias are saved from last year.