Tomatoes are in season

Picked 124 pounds of tomatoes today, which we then processed into 35 quarts of bottled juice. We shred the tomatoes through a salsa screen, which leaves the tomato pulp in larger pieces but still removes most of the skin and cores. It's nice to see the pantry filling up again after last year's poor harvest. We were down to about a dozen jars of tomato juice from 2009 and 2010.

Busy Gardening

Sorry for the long pause between posts. The garden has kept us busy. The past two weeks we picked enough tomatoes to bottle a few jars, and this past weekend we made salsa with tomatoes, onions, garlic, and cilantro all from the garden. Our peppers are not doing well so we had to buy those.

Tomato tally thus far is about 75 pounds. We are also getting golden zucchini about twice a week, and green beans once a week. Tonight we bottled a few pints of green beans and are looking forward to more - they are so good fresh from the garden steamed with a bit of salt and butter.

We have also been busy with the Apricot tree. Picked about 60 pounds from the one tree and made lots of jam and fruit leather. Pictures are on the way.

May is here



First golden zucchini




First tomatoes of the season



May marks the season of full production in our garden. Last weekend we picked the first handfuls of tomatoes, and notes that the apricots are turning from green to yellow. We also enjoyed a couple of golden zucchini - a welcome addition to the dinner table after the first batch of plants failed to thrive. The popcorn we planted where the peas and broccoli were has also sprouted so we'll hopefully have some corn this summer.

Photos of the garden from early April to the end of April show a huge change has taken place, from a few scattered plants to a sea of different shades of green. This is the time when it is fun and rewarding to see all of the different plants doing their thing - different colors of green and different stages of producing fruit. We even enjoyed shredded beef chimichangas seasoned with fresh garlic, onion, sage, rosemary, and cilantro. So rewarding to have all of that fresh in the backyard.



Beginning of April





End of April