2013 gardening attempts

I just saw the photo - boy do those taters look good! I just boiled my potatoes this morning for potato salad.

I'm drooling at the thought of potato salad.......but I can't have any. Stupid prediabetes... 

I'm not a big fan of mayonnaise-y salads, but I do love a mustard potato salad made with lots of veg, some vinegar and mustard with a bit of oil stirred in like a mayo. German potato salad (with bacon fat and vinegar) is my FAVORITE.

In store-bought potato salads, I almost always buy the mustard variety, because the mayonnaise ones are just swimming in it. But I use my mom's simple recipe (it was probably on the Hellman's mayo jar way back when), and it's divine! I like German potato salad too, but have never tried to make it. This time, to break up the monotony of waiting for the taters to cool, I boiled them before work yesterday, then put them in the fridge to cool during the day. Then I peeled and cut them up and assembled the salad last night. This morning, I put them into the serving bowl, topped them with sliced boiled egg and a sprinkling of paprika, and we're ready for dinner the cookout this afternoon!

PERFECT!!!

Sounds divine!

Tomatoes are starting to come fast and furious. I get a handful of little ones every day. I counted 8 big ones that are pink today. They'll need a few more days to get good and ripe. Something is eating the dark purple ones, so I might pick those a little early.

The dark purple ones are GREAT!!!. I've got some cat grass in a small pot. I've
put it in the laundry room window since it was starting burn up. I've been giving it
a little water everyday. Still it's not looking real good.

My tomatoes are late in forming. I only now have three tiny green tomatoes on one plant. Hopefully they will get in gear now!

Mine seemed slow too. I think it was the cool spring. But, now that summer weather is here, I think your fruits will start behaving.

Catnip was slow in starting this year too, and the farmers market hasn't much to offer yet. Cool wet spring definitely had an impact on how fast the produce is appearing this year.

We had a nice yellow summer squash and a little Early Girl tomato with dinner last night. Nothing like fresh produce.

No there isn't. That sounds so good.

The tomatoes are officially started. I ate about 100 while I was picking. More should be ready this weekend. Hmm... Wonder what recipes I'll pull out.

OMG, I'd love to have some of those cherry tomatoes! I envy you.....
Homemade spaghetti sauce is a good use for an overabundance of tomatoes....and you can actually can it for winter too. My mom did that the year our tomatoes produced laundry basket after laundry basket of fruits. And we only had 8 plants but I swear we got at least a dozen basketsfull of tomatoes from them.

Salsa, pico.     

OOO! Good ideas. Right now, I'm just slicing and eating because they are new. But, I'll have to do some preserving. I'm not really sure about canning, but maybe I'll give it a try. Lots of steam involved in that.

Ball's blue book is the Bible on canning.

I'll have to look into it. I'm getting a lot of beans from the CSA too. It'd be nice to preserve them. I usually freeze them, but some canned would be nice too.

I hear a pressure canner doesn't heat up the kitchen as much as old fashioned water canning does. Of course, I can't afford to buy one of those, but I'd love to make some sugarfree jam and spaghetti sauce and can it when fruit and tomatoes get cheaper here.

Watch out Becky, if you get that heat wave the weatherman said you were going to get your tomatoes might cook on the vine!

We're in for it. It's heating up. Pretty usual for this time of year. We get some really brutal hot spells. Fortunately, tomatoes love the heat. The melon plant is going crazy too. It has some tiny melons set.

Mmmmmm....my mouth is watering at the thought of fresh melon!

I bought an enormous one from a local farmer. He parks his truck on the main street, and leaves the window cracked. You pick your melon and slide your money into a box on the passenger seat. I'm going to cut into it tonight. I wish I had made it to the blueberry farm this past weekend. That would have made such a yummy combo. Maybe I'll blueberry this coming weekend. I've got to get the fresh stuff while it's here.

OMG, fresh blueberries!  

Ate my first home grown green bell pepper for a mid-morning snack today. It was very good! I have jalapenos, sweet banana peppers and some sort of small bell pepper variety planted this year, but haven't harvested any yet.