trudy's Blog

Mators are getting ready
Jun 29, 2007 | 1:57 PM PST
Tags: tomatoes , basil , pesto , corn , leek , carrots , butter

Since my last entry I've canned up the case of mators I bought from the Produce stand,  made 22 pts an 6 pts of juice.  Not bad I didn't think.  The corn I got from my BIL made 15 1/2 pts, although I like using qt bags for them an they are a little more than a pint in them, then bagged 4 bags of corn on cob with 4-5 ears per bag.  I got one of those "SealaMeal" things back for Xmas an will be interesting to see how well things hold up.    Since most of the year I am cooking just for two I see no need in wasting food using qt jars or bags filled to the max. 

A friend of mine is suppose to get me some more corn tomorrow an I thought I'd just bag them up for corn on the cob.   Just in case my BIL gets busy an can't get me anymore corn I've got a backup plan.  My luck both will come thru an I'll have overload.  Suppose to work in the shop this week end as well, so I've got a busy weekend ahead of me.

Yesterday I picked quiet a few tomatoes from my garden an made some plain tomatoe sauce an more juice.  I couldn't believe how many more were ready this afternoon to be picked again.  So hopefully over the weekend I can find the time to do up some spaghetti sauce.  I like using pt jars for those to, then I add 1 pt of the plain tomatoe sauce with it along with garlic an basil pesto.  Usually turns out pretty good. 

While at the grocery store a little while ago (which I don't go often) I did have to restock on a few things an wound up buying a 5 lb bag of carrots.  We just love carrots with leeks cooked together.  It is better using fresh carrots right out of the garden but I don't have any other than the canned ones which will do fine in stews, but we like a little crunch left in them with this dish.  All I do is coat the bottom of a pan with EVOO an a little butter,  Cut the carrots up to where they aren't to small or to large add a little salt an pepper an cook them just enough for them to be done but leaving a little crunch in the center,  the last couple minutes of cook time add 1 cut up an cleaned, diced leek.   Man is it good!  I got this recipe from a friend of mine an have been making it ever since.  No one in my house cared much for plain cooked carrots til I started making this, even my picky DD.

Rethinking my watering methods
Jun 25, 2007 | 7:09 AM PST
Tags: corn , mators , garden , corn on the cob , sauce , soaker hoses

A couple days ago I decided to get started on my fall seeding.  I seeded broccoli, spanish onions, ga. collards, rutabega, kolhrabi.  I thinks thats all.  I also got to looking around at some of my flower beds an realized I still have some soaker hoses down.  I found 3 buried under the straw.  It clicked with me, actually just haven't thought about them in years.  I had put them down back when we got this property an was getting my beds established.  Anyway over the years there they sat.  So I got them all pulled out, checked them out by running water thru them.  Which amazingly I only had 2 spots that had to be cut off an mended, which I had the connections in my tool box on my truck.  Got that done an placed them in 1 watering station in the veggie garden.  My thinking here is why am I overhead watering when I don't need to,  no telling how much water is getting wasted by watering pathways, an the borders of the garden.  So far just by using 3 (which some had already had 2 connected together) which made them very long.  

While in the garden I picked some nice size mators which I'll save seeds from,  Paul Robeson, Black Krim, Red Brandywine, Picardy an Abe LIncoln.  Being how the other day the case of mators I got from the produce stand made 22 pts an about 6 pts of juice I may make something else outta these.  I need to can up some sauce an spaghetti sauce this year as well an I still need to can more plain mators into qt. jars but that'll be later on.  The qts come in hand for soups an chili come winter without running thru all the pts.  When I can mators I like to can enough to last for a couple years, so I can move to other things every other year.

 Yesterday afternoon we met our BIL in Albany to get the corn he pulled for me an enjoyed a nice supper, stopped by Wmart an got another 3 soaker hoses for station 2 of the garden.  Got home an got the corn spread out onto sheets so it wouldn't go thru a heat an today thats what me an DD will be working on,  Creaming corn!  We love fresh creamed corn.  He's harvesting 70 acres a day right now an by next week end he says he will be starting to harvest the white corn an it would be best for corn on the cob, so guess (I hope) next week end I'll get some of those. Well time to eat breakfast an get busy cleaning corn.  trudy