I finally broke down and picked one of the two big pumpkins. It weighed in at 53 pounds. It’s not the most scientific method of weighing it, but it’s good enough for me. I think that makes it the heaviest pumpkin we’ve grown yet. I’m still hopeful that the other pumpkin will weigh in even heavier, but I really don’t know if it will.
Back in business
Two weeks ago I was convinced we were going to see our earliest frost ever. Old Man Winter was knocking at the door, ready to take away the garden. Something must have distracted him, because we’ve had a couple weeks of good warm weather, and the garden shows it.
We’ve started picking pumpkins and squash. This is turning out to be a great year for both. I’m really anxious to pick the two giant pumpkins and get them weighed, especially now that the Utah State Fair is going. But I’m happy to have a few extra weeks for them to mature before we have to pick them. I’ll be sure to post some photos when we do.
The Habanero Peppers have started turning orange, but I’m still trying to find creative ways to use them. I took a few to work last week and three different people ate one with much less whimpering and crying than I expected. That gave me the courage to try eating one myself. Later, as I finished my slow sipping of about a half-gallon of milk, I remembered that those guys at my work *love* hot things. When we get lunch at the Thai place, they usually ask for their dishes as “very hot” and “8 stars”. I should have known better. But the flavor was really sweet, until the fire knocked me down.
I was determined to find a way to use them that normal people could enjoy. Today I found one: Habanero Peach Salsa. It really tastes great, and it has, the way I describe it, an after burner. It’s really quite enjoyable.
Of course, Habaneros are not the only thing we have in abundance. So today we made Tomatillo Salsa, Tomato Salsa, and Jalapeno Cheddar Bread to go along with the Habanero Peach Salsa. Charmaine is having a few of her co-workers over for a party, so we hope they like it.
Too Cold for Squash
Our temperatures are on a wild ride. Yesterday, the high was 92. Today we’re not supposed to get above 60. That’s a significant change. They predicted it wouldn’t get below 40 last night, but my dead squash and tomato plants say it was quite a bit cooler. If this trend continues, there won’t be any squash leaves by the end of the week. I don’t remember ever getting a frost so early. It’s hard to produce squash with such a short growing season.
Perspective
It isn’t always obvious how big one plant is compared to another. This week I thought I would try to add some perspective, by inserting a can of Mountain Dew into some of the shots. Hopefully that gives you an idea of the scale.
This was another stellar week for harvesting. We had to call in the neighbors to help. We can’t keep up anymore. Sure, we could keep canning things, but that’s a lot of work too. It’s nice to have people we can just give things to, knowing that it will be used.
Picked this week:
300 Roma Tomatoes
300 Cherry Tomatoes (I’m too lazy to pick more than 300/week)
40 Orange Plum Tomatoes
20 Yellow Pear Tomatoes (I’m too lazy to pick very many)
10 Armenian Cucumbers
25 Eggplant (It was a great week for eggplant)
40 Banana Peppers
30 Anaheim/Big Jim Peppers
30 Jalapeno Peppers
15 Bell Peppers
5 Poblano Peppers
20 Blackberries (They’re just about done for the year)
8 Onions
2 bunches of Grapes
Garden Goodness
Now that the garden is in full swing we are in the process of deciding what to do with everything that we have grown. This week we bottled peppers, and tomatoes. It’s only our second time bottling and our first time with our own stuff. It’s been an interesting learning process, reading, buying items and reading some more. I’m not sure if bottling is any cheaper than just buying can goods. The initial investment it’s that bad but it does take time and energy to produce a bottle of tomatoes and big can of tomatoes at Costco is so cheap. The real test will be it they taste any better than the can tomatoes.
Today I decided to use a bunch of the tomatoes to make what we call tomato cook down, I also made jalapeno cheddar bread. I just bought a new enamel dutch oven to try baking it in and it work out really well. The only issue with the dutch oven is that I had to remove the handle to the lid. The handle can only be heated to 350 degrees which is a problem when you are baking bread at 450. I can understand having a plastic handle when cooking on the stove top way less likely to burn your hand but for me it doesn’t work. After some research on the internet It appears that a lot of other people have had to same problem. The dutch oven that I purchased was only $55, prices for the oven range from 50-70 depending on the store that it is purchased at.
