Summertime Salsatime
It’s harvest time!
Summertime is always an exciting one for gardeners- all of the hopes and schemes that you’ve made since winter are finally flourishing into reality.
The good…
This year we’ve had great luck with cucumbers, summer squash, tomatillos, beans, basil, and ground cherries.
The Bad…
Sadly, our tomatoes seem to have all died. Even though they had plenty of water, they all turned brown and wilted and the tomatoes never ripened before they rotted and fell off. We’re guessing from some kind of fungus. We ripped all of our tomatoes out in late spring and replaced them with store-bought plants for the same reason - but to no avail.
And the Ugly…
The tomato hornworms also didn’t help, although I don’t think that they were the main cause of our troubles. On the bright side- the enemy of my enemy is my friend! It looks like we have some friendly neighrboorhood parasitic wasps who are helping us solve the hornworm problem.
And fortunately, tomatoes are not hard to come by.
We bought 50 pounds of tomato seconds to build up our canned good supply for the winter. (This picture shows our kitchen shelf - some are on the shelf in the basement, too!) We’ve also canned cucumber relish, garden salsa, salsa verde, and roasted vegetable tomato sauce - one of my personal favorites!
Lock your doors!
So far we’ve been keeping up with the cucumbers and squash - although I’m always disappointed by how little squash actually goes into squash bread. Soon, though, we may be forced into the time honored tradition of sneaking squash into unlocked cars in the neighborhood. Be warned!
