Twiggybet1's Blog

Rainy weather lately
Oct 2, 2007 | 10:00 PM PST
Tags: tomatoes , zucchini , beets , peppers

Well, It's been a week since my last blog.  I have been one busy bee, I managed to can my beets, bake a couple batches of zucchini bread, make my salsa, empty the compost pile, keep up with the vegetables and run all my errands that had to be done.  Whew!  And dinner with the in-laws was very nice.  I sent home some zucchini with them, and they brought me some fresh apples. 

It has been rainy the last couple of days, so I haven't been able to spend as much time in the garden as I would have liked lately.  But all that rain seems to have extended the life of my tomato plants - can you believe they are putting out still more blossoms?!? The rain seems to have revived some of my green bean plants, too.  I still have quite a few hot peppers and the zucchini shows no signs of giving up any time soon. 

I am getting anxious to get the winter squash.  It is such a long wait for those to ripen, and it looks like I will have enough to last me until next year.  I also can't hardly wait to dig the sweet potatoes, but the vines are still growing like crazy.  You can't tell with those how much you'll get until you dig them.  The suspense is driving me up a wall!

We are supposed to have nice, warm weather this coming weekend, so I hope to spend a lot of time out there. 

So many plans, so little time...
Sep 24, 2007 | 9:56 PM PST
Tags: tomato , zuchini , beets , carrots , peppers

Well, it's Monday evening, and I am thinking about all I need to do this week.  I didn't even set foot in the garden today, I had to catch up on other things.  I have been itching to get out there and finish emptying the compost pile.  I was interrupted in this task by unexpected (though not unwelcome) company.  Another 20 minutes or so and I'll have it done. 

This week is going to be a busy one in my kitchen and garden.  I have enough tomatoes left for 1 more batch of salsa.  The last batch I made I used habanero peppers, and it came out quite hot, too hot for some of the family.  So for this last batch I think I'll use my Anaheim chilis, and it should be somewhat milder. 

I still have at least a peck of habanero peppers, so I want to make some hot pepper jelly and some hot sauce for buffalo wings.  I imagine that the hot sauce will be pretty much mine (no one is asking for it) but I have a few requests for the hot pepper jelly, so I think I'll get some little jars so I can give them as gifts for Christmas.

I have a bushel basket full of zuchini.  I plan to make several batches of zuchini bread and freeze them.  I think the baked bread freezes much better than the vegetable.  At least that has been my personal experience.  I plan to make mini loaves of both spice and chocolate zuchini bread, with a glaze topping possibly.  Maybe not.  We'll see.  I have never froze them glazed.

Once I finish with the tomatoes, peppers, and zuchini, then I can concentrate on canning and pickling my beets.  My hubby likes his pickled beets, especially in greek salads.  He doesn't much care for regular beets, though.  And then I can get my carrots up.  Or I think I could mulch them and let them winter over, if we don't have a very severe winter.  But that is unpredictable, so I better pull them.  I don't know if I want to can them or not, I guess we'll see how many I get. 

I would like to get all this done before the week-end.  I plan to have my in-laws over, and would prefer not to have baskets of vegetables cluttering up the kitchen!  Now lets see if I can get it all done!