zana16 | (no subject)

Crossposts: http://zana16.livejournal.com/448935.html

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I got the first tomatoes from my garden today. *smiles beatifically* Yummmmmm....

Sir Now Appearing has pointed out that we already have trouble eating the entire CSA box every week even without the garden producing. Having never successfully grown anything before, I honestly didn't expect to get anything much. And, well, the asparagus never did come up (though we would have had to wait a few years for it to establish anyways), and the lettuce and nasturtiums couldn't take the heat, and bugs got the eggplant, and the black raspberries are dead sticks in the ground, and yet STILL I am contemplating the coming harvest with mounting horror.

Example: I planted one squash plant. ONE. I wish to inquire of the management why there are THREE squash plants currently growing over the rest of back garden. I don't even like squash all that much.

(Unlike

thefourthvine, however, I did not plant a pumpkin - thank goodness. Pumpkins should come in cans like God intended.)

And while home-grown tomatoes are, admittedly, better than 99.9996% of any food in this world, perhaps it was not the best idea I ever had to put in 11 plants. I honestly thought most of them would die! They always did before! Perhaps there's something to this composting thing after all...

So, if you are local and you find bags of squash and tomatoes left on your doorstep in the middle of the night... Wasn't me. :)

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I had to laugh -- with you, not at you. When I plant a few seeds of something, they all die. When I plant lots to allow for that, they all make it, and take over! What I want to know is, where did all the lettuce springing up amongst the onions come from? I haven't planted lettuce in years!

(Here randomly via network, and envying your tomatoes.)

Three years running of nary a tomato on my plants, and I thought I had a soothing yet ultimately fruitless hobby. This year, despite their unhappiness that I had to replant about half of them, not a single one is dead! Mother Nature is a strange and inscrutable being.

Pumpkins should come in cans like God intended.
This is my quote of the day. Seriously.

:) When I was living in Paris, I searched the entire city over looking for canned pumpkin to have a proper American Thanksgiving. I never considered cooking an actual pumpkin. (Not that they had those, either...) Eventually we asked relatives to send us cans.

I started cooking with pumpkin by actually cooking pumpkin from scratch, so now the canned stuff doesn't taste right to me. Too bad, because canned is so much easier. My life is so hard.

:) I think that it's a function of what you're raised with. Dried apricots don't taste right to me because we used to make our own and they were SO GOOD.

...I need to know how to do this. Please tell me it doesn't involve a dehydrator.

Of course, the chances of any apricot in my house not being eaten by me immediately are rather low, but I'm willing to risk it.

Unfortunately, it does involve a dehydrator. They are the BEST dried apricots ever, though. I'm currently saving up for a dehydrator.

I don't even like squash all that much.

I suggest you learn to cook with squash blossoms, before the plants conspire and plot to eat you...

:) I'll have to do that. With one plant, I'd be fine, but the two mystery plants (and the squash no doubt coming in the CSA) are going to bury me alive.

The tomatoes are yours, but if you want I will be willing to adopt and remove from your place any excess squash. (And, also if you want, I can teach you to make tomato sauce. From scratch. It is messy and takes most of a day and requires the ability to can or freeze the results, but it can be very good.)

Why is your icon from the Caine Mutiny? I am so confused right now.

Do you have any tomato sauce tips you'd be willing to share with strangers? I've never quite gotten the hang of it :-/

Not intending to be Queeg! I just love strawberries.

Tomato sauce tips: puree the tomatoes, get rid of the skins, fibers and seeds early on, because they contain chemicals that add a bitter flavor. Tomatoes should be exactly ripe, not overripe or green. You can use ones that have been bug-bitten as long as you cut those parts off, but anything with fungus or rot (however small an area) shouldn't be used unless it's blossom end rot, which can be cut off. Put it in a large pot on the back of the stove, turn the temperature to low, and let it simmer until the liquid is cooked off, down to the thickness you want. You can add green or sweet red bell pepper (start it off in the puree process), lots of basil, some oregano or marjoram or whatever other herbs you use with tomato sauce. It's preferable not to add cheese to the sauce until you're about to use it; it doesn't keep well that way.

I may have a puree machine in the basement; I can check if you want, and you can borrow it if it's there.

Oh goodness, please don't even look in the basement on my account; I'm like half a country away if you're with the mid-atlantic crowd.

Thanks for the tips, though. It's usually my parents that end up making sauce, since they're the ones that grow tomatoes, and it usually comes out tasting pretty ok but just a touch too watery. I think it's an issue of patience. Maybe I'll see if I can see if I can steal some tomatoes and give it another shot myself.

I'm near DC.

Homemade tomato sauce is *always* too watery. The remedy is to mix in a can of tomato paste, which thickens it just enough to make it stick to the pasta. Also, if it's not sweet enough add a pinch of baking soda, not sugar. Sugar can mess with the other flavors in sauce; baking soda will remove the bitterness without doing that.

Yay! I will not be beseiged by squash!

And I'm going to take you up on the tomato sauce lesson. Tomato sauce is yummy! I'll need to learn to can -- I've made jam before, but that was long enough ago that I've forgotten.

If you are not canning, you can freeze it -- but it will take up a bit of space in your freezer. This is something to think through before starting. :)

Let me know when there are squash and I will wander over. And remind me about the puree machine, okay? I am not an expert at canning, though, so you will need to consult another source on that. We did it in such huge batches, back at home, that I'm sure the apparatus is entirely different from what is done now. The one bit of wisdom I can give you is this: don't try sealing cans in a pressure cooker. Doing that nearly killed my grandmother when the pressure escape value got jammed and the cooker exploded.

Eeep! I do not own a pressure cooker (they scare me) so I will definitely not seal cans there.

Canning is better than freezer cause our freezer is jam-packed. ...I stockpile food as a safety blanket; it is a problem.

Canning outfits do exist that are not part of a pressure cooker -- the process involves submerging the glass jars in boiling water for a specified amount of time, taking them out and letting them cool until the space inside the jar creates a vacuum holding the lid on, and then taking off the metal ring because it's not needed any more. I can consult on that. The part I don't remember is how long things need to be heated.

And I have a 6-quart pressure cooker that I cook with all the time; it is not the kind that could be used for canning. The kind that contributed to Grandma's accident was the old sort that had hooks from the sides holding the top on, and the pressure broke a hook. Next time you are over I will show you my safety-style pressure cooker (not in action), fyi.

I understand stockpiling food; the question is what kind of food and in what form to stockpile it. We can talk about this when I see you next. Are you busy next Sunday afternoon or Monday?

Sunday afternoon/evening is free, I'm pretty sure, and I'd love to see you. Would you like to come to my place, or shall I come to yours, or would you prefer to go out...?

C'mon over (and bring any squash you wish to have me adopt) and you can see Toby and we can watch stuff, go out for something to eat, dive through the cookbooks for canning info, things like that. Does that work for you? Steve says we still have the puree machine, so we can look that over too (though it may need *massive* amounts of cleaning; hasn't been used in a decade.)

Sounds good! We have no actual squash (yet), just large plants that are growing at an alarming rate. But as soon as we do...

What kind of squash? I have this weird hang-up with squash in that I'm convinced that I hate it in pretty much any of its forms, but every time I both to actually cook and eat some squash I'm reminded that my opinions are incorrect. Give it a chance! And if that fails, make some soup; you can hide anything in a soup. Good luck gardening!

The one I planted was a zucchini; I figured all gardeners moan about having too much zucchini, so perhaps I'd actually get something out of the garden if nothing else grew. The other two are opportunistic, and I have no idea what they are! Some seeds must have been in our compost and sprouted, I guess.

Soup is a good plan. Also, I figure I can make lots of zucchini bread for my office. :)

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