Category: Preserving

Roasted Green Tomato Salsa

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Last night, I turned almost two pounds of green tomatoes into this roasted green tomato salsa. It is absolutely delicious, but has a thicker consistency than normal salsa, almost like a spread. I might have over-mixed it. Or perhaps my tomatoes were just not as juicy as others. I refrigerated the salsa, and I think before I use it, I might cut up some fresh tomatoes for juiciness and extra brightness, and to add more texture. I still have about a pound and a half of green tomatoes that will ripen on the counter – the end of my 2024 garden tomatoes.

Mise-en-place (plus two cloves of garlic, olive oil and salt)

Pickled Green Tomatoes

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Just before adding the brine (vinegar, water, peppercorns, garlic, sugar, kosher salt)

Two days ago, I harvested many of the green tomatoes that were still on the vines in our new vegetable/flower bed outside the community garden as we had a light frost that night. They were all of a smallish variety (I think it was Mountain Magic), with the fruit being very uniform perfect little globes of about 1.5 inch in diameter. Last night I quick-pickled them and filled two jars. I always use this recipe but omit the turmeric and the dill. They keep in the fridge for a few months. I am looking forward to adding the pickles to sandwiches (sharp cheddar/apple/grainy mustard, pickled tomatoes is a great combo – yum!).

Thai Hot Sauce

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This morning, I harvested my Thai hot peppers from the back porch and made Thai hot sauce. I used this recipe, but did not strain the sauce. I only had about half a cup of peppers, much less than anticipated, so I made a tiny jar full of sauce. I know the sauce is very potent, so it will last me a while. It will keep forever (my last batch lasted two years in the fridge).

Ready for the fridge
Mise-en-place
Peppers after a light char in the 450F oven
All blended and ready to be heated up again before being bottled

(More) Thai Basil Pesto

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Yesterday, I harvested all remaining Thai basil, which was a ton. Back in March, I had started seeding six cells, which I then thinned to three or four seedlings. It took me more than two hours to prepare all the basil leaves for pesto. In the end I had exactly six cups of packed leaves and made a triple batch of the pesto recipe. I froze two servings in Ziplock bags for the winter (I now have three servings in the freezer as I had made a double batch back in August). Looking forward to Thai Pesto Noodle Bowls tonight. Overall, my six cells of Thai basil produced a total of 12 packed cups of leaves for six batches of pesto. A nice yield!

The Thai basil “wall”

Thai Basil Pesto

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Last night, I harvested a bunch of Thai basil from my plot and made this delicious Thai basil pesto. It uses toasted sesame oil and peanuts, and gets a little kick from red pepper flakes. The kids and I had one of our favorite meals last night – crispy pork bowls topped with Thai pesto. I used this recipe for the pork. So good! I made a second batch of Thai pesto but left out the vinegar and lime juice, and froze it for future use.

Thai basil harvest (about a third of what is in the plot at the moment)
Mise en place (kind of). I used my Ninja blender, which works really well for pesto.

Garlic Braid

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I cleaned and braided my softneck garlic this afternoon. With only 13 heads, this is the smallest braid ever. But those heads are big. But then, I still have four heads from last year’s harvest. The braid will hang in my pantry for storage. I will consume my hardnecks first, plus four or five smaller (and “injured”) softnecks that did not make it into the braid. I also saved the two largest heads separately as seed garlic to go in the ground in late October/early November. The hardneck garlic is still just hanging in the back hallway. I want to give it a bit more time for curing before I clean it and put it away as it has been very hot and humid these past few weeks.

July Update

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Spaghetti squash, Black-Eyed Susan, Thai basil – from the communal flower bed

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been harvesting a lot of zucchini, kale, herbs and flowers. I even donated two zucchini to our new donation basket, which we attached outside the garden gate. Today, I harvested the first two cucumbers, which I intend to pickle. My tomatoes are all still green, and sadly, the bunnies keep eating the baby winter squash :(. The basil is thriving, I might make the first batches of pesto very soon. Everything is doing well, we have had a long heat wave and a few crazy thunderstorms, so the gardens are lush.

Cherry tomatoes from the communal flower bed.

Garlic Harvest 2024

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This morning, I harvested my garlic. It was a good week or two earlier than in previous years, but it seemed ready. An empty-nester now, I grew less than in previous years and harvested 19 softnecks and 12 hardnecks. I will leave them on a tarp to dry for a few days (on my back porch out of the sun) and then brush off the soil and hang them in my back hallway to fully cure. After they have fully cured (in three to four weeks), I will clean them well and braid the softnecks and destem the hardnecks. I will use up the latter first as they do not keep as well as softnecks.

Update: The next day, in the late evening, I cleaned them lightly and hung them to dry. There are four bundles, the two shown below are the hardnecks.

Hardneck garlic left to cure

June Harvests

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Earlier this week I harvested my garlic scapes and turned them into garlic scape pesto. I (loosely) used this recipe, but omitted the cheese as I plan to also use the pesto on fish or for other purposes where cheese might not work. I am loving the sunflower seeds in the pesto. They made it super creamy and tasty. As always, I froze the pesto in ice cube trays and transferred the frozen cubes into Ziploc bags for storage.

Last leeks plus rhubarb

I also had several harvests of rhubarb, all of which were turned into strawberry-rhubarb compote to go over vanilla ice cream. The rhubarb plant is still young, so I did not want to over-harvest, but I got quite a good amount of stalks.

Peas 🙁

This is the first year that I did not get to harvest a single pea. I was very successful in protecting the peas from the rabbits by fencing them in, but they sadly were no match for the birds. I ripped out all plants this week. I will need to think about what I want to plant there now. Beans? Beets or carrots? More greens?