Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Zucchini for a nose and tomatoes for eyes

Lilian asked about my garden. Ah yes. A couple days ago I gave it a heavy pruning. The Painter and I have taken to walking the neighborhood with a LARGE aluminum bowl full of tomatoes and zucchini to distribute to any neighbors willing to have them. Three times in the past week, mind you! I've been harvesting 2-3 pounds of tomatoes, and a similar amount of zucchini, each day. I have 30 (count them 30!) canned quarts of tomatoes, as well as about 4 quarts of ratatouille, 4 quarts of spaghetti meat sauce, 3 quarts of goulash, several quarts of soups (vegetable-barley, and chicken-vegetable), and a few canned carrots and zucchini. The freezer contains four or five gallon ziplocs of parboiled zucchini and another couple gallon ziplocs of beans. The fridge is overflowing with carrots, as well as pickled zucchini and green tomatoes. The worms in my worm bin have been eating too well, so I thought the neighbors ought to benefit from my harvest a bit.

And, as a boon, we've gotten some great lemons and grapefruits in the bargain (in exchange from grateful neighbors). We've got some limes of our own, and the oranges threaten to ripen within the next month. So... I gave the tomatoes a heavy pruning (and bought a few more cages to tame the wild ones. The pepper plants are finally starting to produce (but not yet in overwhelming numbers). There are occasional cucumbers, which are nice. And there's a small honeydew about 4 inches in diameter at this point that looks yummy.

Last night we had some grilled fish, and the four acorn squash the garden gave forth (the vines died back, so I suppose that's all). They were delicious. Tonight, I made a fresh gazpacho (zucchini, tomato, cucumber, peppers, a little bit of onion and garlic, some lemon and lime juice, a dash of sour cream, and a sprinkling of cilantro) for dinner. The Painter, quite to my surprise devoured it, and said Daddy, it's good! I was charmed (even though The Inventor had only a taste).

Other than a drawer full of young zucchini (I figure if I pick them small they might be more manageable) and a counter full of tomatoes, we're mostly caught up with our eatings. Except, I think tomorrow I'll find a use for beans.

1 comment:

Lilian said...

Wow, that's amazing. I'm reading this almost a month later, so if you can do another update, that'll be nice :) We may buy a home with a HUGE vegetable garden, of course we'll enjoy it only for a month before Fall sets in, but I'll have to ask tons of questions about gardening for next year if we buy that house! ;)