I know, I know, but I gotta share......

We picked all of this just this morning!!!

All of this wonderful fruity, veggie goodness...

"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. 
Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad."
~Anonymous

...in all of its rich, colorful, healthy glory!!!

It was worth picking it all in a steady drizzle!!!

We (and our family) will enjoy this deliciousness in many forms this week!

Spicy jalapenos and sweet banana peppers

Savory-sweet bell peppers

Cherry tomatoes (and a few Romas and Big Boys)

All this incredible color and flavor!

All right outside our back door!

YUM!!!

By the way....I canNOT get enough of these banana peppers!!!

I am putting them in/on everything!!!

~*~*~*~*~

The tomatoes we picked today are just the start. Our 8 little plants grew in to 8 giant monsters just dripping with tomatoes! There are vines and fruit EVERYWHERE!!! And they are all starting to ripen. So, what's a city girl gardener to do?

Ball Enamel Waterbath Canning Set

Teach herself to can!

Yep! I'm a-gonna put up those 'maters just like my country diva sistas!

I have really enjoyed being able to give away bounty from our garden to our family and friends, but I don't want to give it all away! We worked hard! And I want us to enjoy that healthy bounty in to the colder months. The fall and winter is when I actually enjoy cooking! I love getting up early on a Saturday or Sunday morning and making a big pot of homemade sauce or soup. I buy cans of crushed, diced, or stewed tomatoes constantly. Why not enjoy my own, fresh, grown by us tomatoes?!

So, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, and dadgummit that means I gotta can! ;-)

In fact, I am so enthusiastic about learning this new skill that I braved HellMart on tax-free weekend here in MA to stock up on mason jars.

My plan is to mostly can crushed/diced tomatoes to use in sauces and soups, but I also make a pretty kick-ass salsa, and with our abundance of jalapenos I will can a bunch of salsa, too! Football season is almost here and we enjoy having our friends over for Patriots games. Chips & salsa and ice cold beer is the go-to game day snack! And the one other thing I plan on trying is making some pickles.

But, juuuuust in case I really get in to this canning thing, this book

The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

is also on its way to me!

~*~*~*~*~

My lack of blogging...and then when I do blog it is all gardens gardens gardens...would make it seem like there really is not much going on in my world. Hmmm. I guess that is kind of accurate. Gardening really has been the highlight of my summer so far, with the exception of a few fun things here and there.

BUT, good stuff is on the horizon, including:

~ a long-awaited trip to Bar Harbor

(which means many many many photos of my beloved New England!)

~ AUTUMN is almost here!!!

(which means TONS of stuff to blog about!!!)

~ speaking of Autumn, I have started work on this year's Fall Journal

(pics and a post to come SOON!)

~ My brother and I are going to our camp reunion!

(yeah, I have a "date" coming up with my brother! LOL)

~ Oh, did I mention AUTUMN is almost here?!?!?!?!

Cukes & zukes & Tahoes, oh my!

veggies picked 7.15.11

Seemingly overnight our garden is producing massive amounts of produce! Especially cucumbers and zucchini! Yesterday afternoon I went out and picked 20 cukes alone and couldn't even count all that was still growing and yet to start forming! 

The zucchini is going crazy, too, and they are playing games with us. We will go out there and find some normal sized ones ready to pick and scope out the others that are still growing. We move vines and leaves and think we are checking every inch....then a few hours later one of us will go out there again and seemingly out of nowhere one of those behemoths seem to appear. 

 I generally prefer we pick them when they are the size of the two on the right in the picture, but it seems that no matter how diligent we think we are, no matter how observant we think we are a few manage to hide and grow in to something you could club a person with! Just this morning Kevin found another ginormous one (not pictured).

 In addition to the cukes and zukes, we also picked loads of string beans (there are only a couple in this photo, for, ya know, artistic reasons...) and we picked a few sweet banana peppers!

Best. Cucumber. Evaaaa.

As soon as I brought the veggies in yesterday I had to enjoy a fresh cucumber. O.M.G. it seriously does make a HUGE difference when you grow them yourself (or purchase direct from a farm, CSA, or farmers market) verses purchasing them at a supermarket.

So speaking of SUVs....what? You mean we weren't speaking of those? Oh, ok....well, let's!

Wanna see my new baby???

 My new-to-me Chevy Tahoe!!! 

(yes that is me in the background that I blurred out because I looked like hell in the heat!!!)

We just got her (yes, its a "she") today! And I get to bring her home next Saturday! The dealership we got her from is over an hour from our house so it is much easier to go back on a Saturday than a weeknight after work.

I love love LOVE her!!! 

Loved sitting in her, loved driving her, just love!!!

And I feel so blessed and grateful to have her!!!

So, that's my weekend...cukes and zukes and Tahoes!

Gardening check-in...the herb files!

So, in addition to our veggie garden that I am clearly enamored with right now (as you know if you read my last post...), I once again have my deck herb garden growing and flourishing and making the air around it smell oh so yummy!

Mmmmm....sage! One of my favorites! When I brush past it releasing its scent I immediately think of Thanksgiving and how I can't roast my turkey without lots of fresh sage!

 Wonderfully fragrant mint. All good Greeks have lots of mint!

 (r): Greek oregano

(l): Italian parsley

Greek and Italian...just like us!

 BASIL!!!!!!

Deliciously fragrant, aromatic, and so incredibly yummy sweet basil!!!

Sweet marjoram. Such a lovely scent and delicate taste. This is the first year I planted it. Can't wait to use it!

Not pictured: thyme, lavender, rosemary, and cilantro (which is giving me fits, again...grrr!).

Garden check-in...

The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.
~Hanna Rion

To say I am pleased with the progress our garden has made so far this season would be an understatement! Almost everything seems to be thriving and growing like crazy!!! And, today, we had our first harvest.....a big colander full of spicy arugula!!!

This is the first year we planted arugula and so far, so good! I wasn't sure of when to harvest it or really how to, either. I thought you just pull the whole thing up. YouTube to the rescue! I found, like, a bajillion videos on gardening and harvesting and such. I learned that as long as I kept trimming the leaves and pinch off an flowers that start to form my one plant will continue to produce!

And now we can enjoy fresh arugula for a few days till the next time it is ready to be trimmed!

I also learned that I needed to thin out my radishes, so, did that, too...

 It is hard to tell in these pics but there is a row of carrots growing in between the rows of radishes.

Yes, I am very pleased with our garden this year! I love the whole raised bed concept. Keeps everything neat and orderly, and weeding is a breeze! We don't get even a small fraction of the amount of weeds we got as when we planted in the ground the last couple years!

Want to see everything else?!? It has all grown so much since last I posted about our garden!

 There's "Farmer Kev" looking all rugged and dirty! ;-)

 Somehow we bought one too many cuke plants so we planted this one in a large pot and hoped for the best. It is doing so well!!!

 Spaghetti squash and acorn squash!

 The leaves are getting HUGE!

 No, that ugly blue barrel is not a permanent part of our garden! 

 String beans (that are not properly trellised yet...)

 Big old reliable zucchini with their ginormous leaves!

 Cucumber plants!

 Deliciously fragrant tomato plants!!! For those of you that garden, have you ever noticed how fragrant tomato leaves are?!

 These Burpee tomato cages are hands down our best garden purchase this year. Well, they are tied with the raised beds. Really, though, the cages we got the last few years at Home Depot or local garden centers never held up. Tomato vines get thick! So I bit the bullet and bought the Burpee cages, which, yes, cost, like triple what I paid at other places, but I was replacing the one I bought every year anyway so this, to me, was well worth it!

 I obviously can't get enough of our tomato plants!

 Bell peppers...red, orange, and green! Since I took this pic earlier today all the plants are now caged.

 Peppers....jalapeno and sweet banana!

 Doesn't he look like he is trying to figure out a way to take a bite out of the plants?!

 "I think she is still watching me...."

 "Whaaat?! I am so innocent...."

 'Maters, 'maters, 'maters!

 Feeding...

 L@@K!!! Cutie little cherry tomatoes!!!!!!!

 I actually did a little dance when I saw these!!!

 Blossoms waiting to turn in to tomatoes!

 The way I keep gushing about tomatoes you would think I loved them and ate them all the time. The truth is, I don't really like raw tomatoes. I rarely every eat them in salad and if I do it is because they were chopped up pretty small and I didn't notice them. I never ask for them on sandwiches. I know many gardeners think that one of gardening's greatest pleasure is walking out to their yard, plucking a sun-warmed tomato from the vine, and biting in to it like and apple. Ewww! I could never! But...I love to cook with them! I love to make sauces, and salsa, and use them in frittatas, and one homemade pizzas, and in quiche, and really anything. Oh! I will actually eat Insalata Caprese, though...go figure!

Anyhoo, I obviously had a little too much fun photographing our growing garden so I will just leave you with several more photos for your enjoyment!

Are you gardening this year?! I would love to hear all about it, and of course, see pics!!!