Sunday, July 29, 2012

There are good birds and bad birds

This week highlights one of the not-so-pretty sides of gardening: fruit destroyed by birds. The figs you see here were just starting to ripen one day, destroyed by birds and subsequently overrun by ants (we have astounding numbers of ants, EVERYWHERE) the next. The 100 degree heat didn't help. Luckily there were enough figs on the tree to give us a nice bucketful as well, but I hate to see these losses.

The apples? Well, just another year of feeding apples to birds in my yard. I do have a net over the tiny young tree, so it's apples are safe, so far. It would be wonderful to actually harvest a mature apple and bite into it in my own yard! I know now why Hitchcock choose these flying terrors for his movie.

But, it is not all bad. The ladies in the chicken coop love the ruined figs, and one of the dogs loves the ruined green apples.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

There are good birds and bad birds

This week highlights one of the not-so-pretty sides of gardening: fruit destroyed by birds. The figs you see here were just starting to ripen one day, destroyed by birds and subsequently overrun by ants (we have astounding numbers of ants, EVERYWHERE) the next. The 100 degree heat didn't help. Luckily there were enough figs on the tree to give us a nice bucketful as well, but I hate to see these losses.

The apples? Well, just another year of feeding apples to birds in my yard. I do have a net over the tiny young tree, so it's apples are safe, so far. It would be wonderful to actually harvest a mature apple and bite into it in my own yard! I know now why Hitchcock choose these flying terrors for his movie.

But, it is not all bad. The ladies in the chicken coop love the ruined figs, and one of the dogs loves the ruined green apples.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

The rest of the story

By figuring out a good way to support the plants, and a netting system that keeps out the birds and most of the voles, I have ended up with the best crop of tomatoes from four plants that I have had in years. So, while those cherry tomatoes were roasting (see prior post), I figured it made sense to also show you the best way to peel those full sized tomatoes that were starting to stack up. You bring a pot of water to a boil, drop in a few tomatoes, and leave them for about 30 seconds. You will see the skin start to split on some of them. Lift them right out with a slotted spoon and let them cool a bit. Cut out the core and the peel just slips right off, often in one piece!

I add one more step: I slice them down the middle, in the direction you would cut to made a nice sandwich slice, and then squeeze out some of the excess water and seeds, Here you see the peels, seeds and cores ready to go to the chickens or the worm composter, and the beautiful tomatoes, ready to use. I went ahead and canned these: six nice pints of crushed tomatoes for future use, plus made a bit of sauce and added some to stock I had to start a soup.

Roasted cherries

Noticed the pile of cherry tomatoes on the cutting board, and knew there were many more on the vines. For an easy solution to this overload, I sliced the already picked ones in half, laid them one layer thick on parchment in a sheet pan, drizzled olive oil, salt and pepper over them, and placed them in the countertop convection oven on 425. Turned them around after about 15 minutes and turned it town, then left them alone for a few minutes more till they turned nice and chewy and caramelized, as you see below.

The only problem is that they are almost too sweet. Not sure yet how I will use them, but I know I will do this again if we get more than we can eat right away.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Simply perfect

While cooking, I realized that our entire, spectacular, simple breakfast came from our own yard. The basil filled eggs, from the garden beds and coop, balanced perfectly with the caramelized tomato slices. As my husband said: "the only way to get more local would be to eat it on the porch.". Not a bad idea ...

Friday, July 6, 2012

Tomato time

I tried something new with my tomatoes this year, an idea I stole from the commercial farmers. Instead of cages, I ran a line of twine from a brace at the base of my beds to the frame 5 feet above the bed, and trained each plant up one string. I pinched out side suckers and left flower clusters. It was a huge success, but try as I might I can't get a photo that shows the system off. One string did break while supporting a huge load of fruit, so next year I will use a braid of twine instead of one string. Netting over the entire bed, using the same frame, keeps the birds off the tomatoes.

The basil produced another flush as well, most of which I puréed with olive oil and froze in ice cube trays. Some, however, combined with the tomato crop and some cheese for a yummy lunch tower, drizzled with good olive oil.