Sunday, July 19, 2015

The Bounty Begins

The tomato plants I purchased this Spring are producing like crazy and the smaller roma size tomatoes are ripening already.  These were purchased at 1/2 of a foot high because I had missed the boat on planting seeds in time.  I am so glad I did - they are going absolutely crazy with our hot dry weather and regular waterings.  The left larger tomato is beefsteak  -  I had to remove five green ones as they were crowding each other out.  I gave four to Mom to ripen on her own and there are at least 30 more on the plant.  I wish I would have kept the plastic stick for the other kind - some kind of zebra plum tomato (*update - they are zebra plum tomatoes lol - I apparently have a memory afterall)- anyone know what kind it is? Hubby absolutely loves barely ripe tomatoes with cottage cheese so I picked these 3 for his snacking purposes.  Apparently they ripen from the inside out.  We both ate one and they are scrumptious.  After supplying both my and Mom's household with tomatoes this summer if we still have too many I will can some.  All this from two  plants!  My one jalapeno plant is also producing like crazy.  This is the third jalapeno harvested and there is another one that will be ready in a few days.  These plants definitely are paying for themselves.


In other news the only place I can buy vegetable seconds, those ones that the supermarkets refuse to carry because they are misshapen or discolored is my local farm market and they sell those at a discount.  It turns out that one of the largest Canadian supermarket chains, Loblaws, has started selling vegetable seconds in their Eastern stores.  Bravo - this is a huge advance in both reducing food waste and making vegetables more economical.  Let consumers choose if they need that perfect pepper or cucumber or if they are ok if their carrots are gnarly.  In the real world everyone with a garden knows that not every vegetable comes off the vine or out of the ground looking perfect.

Living out of a minifridge has been interesting.  I had to put some condiments like BBQ sauce in little jars with my large container going into Mom's fridge.  We have to be extremely careful not to buy anything that needs to be in the fridge that is large.  Thank goodness I have that minifreezer for our frozen goods or all my food budgeting would be going out the window.  On the renovation/household repair front hubby is re-staining parts of our fence where there has been weathering in order to keep it in good shape.  My job is to keep puppy occupied :)  I can handle that as I hate fence staining.  It is a hot nasty hornet filled job and he started at 8 am this Sunday morning to beat the heat as it is supposed to get to 30 degrees Celcius again today (approx 86 Fahrenheit). After that things will be put on hold for a week as we have a lot of company business booked into the upcoming week.  Have a great Sunday!

26 comments:

  1. I am about ready to pick some green beans here and 1 squash. The deer found the side of one of my Roma tomato plants with fruit on it that was almost ripe...darn it!....so the tomato watch continues.

    I was about weeding for 2 hours this morning in 94F degree weather. I'll be a burnt mess come evening....what WAS I thinking? lolz

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    1. I am lucky, most gardeners here have to worry about the deer (we have loads, our town has signs all over about them) eating flowers and plants but they don't like our street - a keyhole with no trees that they can hide behind, plus our backyard is fully wood fenced for the dog. I only have to worry about the damn bugs.

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  2. If you have too many,send 'em over! We've not been able to plant anything this year.
    We grew heritage tomatoes for a few years and they were fabulous..the best tomatoes we've ever eaten.
    Jane x

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    1. Too bad you don't live closer or I would unload a huge amount on you. I counted 60 coming on the beefsteak tomato plant. We had to buy gigantic bamboo sticks from the dollar store as it overtook the regular tomato cage really fast.

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  3. I buy mutant veggies all of the time. If you're going to chop them, what difference does it make? Now, I have no luck growing veggies. I'm not a very good gardener and an even worse farmer!

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    1. I have never seen mutant veggies in our stores before - it would definitely be a treat.

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  4. I am with your husband on the tomatoes and cottage cheese and throw in a green pepper! I don't think there IS a place to but fruit/veggie 'seconds' around here! All our fruit stands disappeared years ago!
    Home improvements are messy things!!! Worth it in the long run but that's why I put off some things. Just too tired to think about all that MESS!!

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    1. We have a lot of growers here on Vancouver Island but there is really only one decent produce stand that opens every May and closes in October right after their pumpkin harvest.

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  5. I used to love to grow veggies. I have noticed in my new development that nobody grows a veggie garden, at least not that I can see. I think it's just too freaking hot. Maybe I will try a raised bed or container gardening one year. We have a lot of squirrels though so it could be a challenge. There are two growing seasons here. I just need to find out what/when they are.

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    1. Maybe one of your fellow local bloggers is a gardener? I just have a tiny area that hubby built a raised bed. The plants seem to like it more than my container gardening from past years.

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  6. "In the real world everyone with a garden knows that not every vegetable comes off the vine or out of the ground looking perfect."-Or in Sonya's world/garden, you get nothing and would be happy for ugly produce. LOL
    You make me jealous of the weather and the veg!

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    1. Mine are often deformed - these just looked pretty normal so I made sure to take a picture. We have been praying for rain. One can only take so many long hot days. Our lawn is turning into a dustbowl. It finally rained this past weekend - yay!

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  7. Our garden is doing great. Can up some carrots and pickle beets. If everything works out we should be doing up some plain can beets.
    Coffee is on

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    1. I love it when you put effort in and the plants actually produce. Other years have not been worth it.

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  8. Home grown tomatoes are the best! when they don't ripen (our Summers are notoriously grim) I make a mean South Indian green tomato curry or knock up a few jars of chutney! x

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    1. That sounds amazing! I can't keep up to all the ones ripening, gifted Mom some more this morning. Thinking of dropping some off at the neighbors.

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  9. I hope the Loblaws chain of stores start that in Ontario as well then.

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    1. I agree - hoping they start doing it in Western Canada so we can take advantage.

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  10. So jealous! I gave up my gardening plans this year, too busy. Can't wait to grow again. Your bounty is beautiful :)

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    1. I really have done nothing other than water these plants - and part of the year that was on an automatic sprinkler system (they are right by the lawn). Now we can't use the automatic sprinkler system due to water restrictions but I am still allowed to hand water so a tiny bit more work :)

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  11. Our plantings went kaput when life spun out of control. Wouldn't you know those things need water and such! Now I am just thankful for the local produce I can buy at many of the small truck farms around town. Still homegrown, just not grown at my home. Oh well

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    1. Hey, straight off the farm counts in my book. We have a local farm market we buy from and I love going there and seeing them pull up in a tractor full of produce dropping it at the stand.

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  12. Nice!! I especially covet your jalapeno peppers! I only get about one hour of sunshine per day so can't really grow anything here. On the plus side with all the shade my house is nice and cool:)

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    1. I've tried growing regular green peppers before (only one tiny one grew, not worth the investment) but never jalapenos, these are pretty milld and perfect on pizza or in spicy eggs. I will definitely grow them again.

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  13. Great return on your veggie investment! I didn't even get to buy a tomato plant...but I sowed bush beans and those are producing well, I also have some arugula, perennial and annual growing...Good salads!

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    1. We have had a really early hot summer so it is definitely the year of the tomato. Salads rock in summer when you use things out of your own garden.

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