What to do with too many cherry tomatoes

Or in my case pear tomatoes.

I grew 1 pear tomato plant last year, and it took off like a weed.



 I was so excited to see this plant in my local nursery,  since I remember loving them in my child hood. I bought it and planted it, and by the end of July last year it had grown into a monster. Seriously.

It was like 20 feet across and killing everything else in my garden. I didn't have the stones to prune it back or dug it up.  The only adversary it had were the cucumbers that were doing the same thing to the rest of my garden. It was like Mothra vs. Godzilla out there.

This year, because of my silliness I bought some seeds and planted more then one. Then the volunteers started showing up (Close to 40). I did pull most, but didn't have the heart to pull all of them. That weakness left me with yellow pear tomatoes in strange places in the garden, and about a million more tomatoes then I can eat/force on others  Give away before they go bad.  I finally had it with the plants killing my other tomatoes, and smothering my luffas (Which are by far the plant I am most excited about this year!!!  Who new you could grow those things??? Super cool) so I started hacking them down. I have tried to save my beautiful red heirloom tomato plant , which was being crowded.  Hopefully it will pull through. Now my second planting of green beans and pinto beans should stand a chance too.

This left me with a surplus of tomatoes, ripe and green. What to do with them? I hate to see food wasted, especially my organic homegrown produce.

 Well a wee bit o' research brought me three great ideas!

1:Dry them
Make oven "sun" dried tomatoes. If you have a solar dehydrator (Or are planing to make one like I am) use that. If you do not, (I haven't quite gotten around to making it yet... ) use the oven!  I sprayed a tensy tiny bit of olive oil on a pan, sliced the tomatoes and threw them on there mixed with a bit of salt.
I heated the oven to the lowest temp it would go. I let them sit in the oven for about 20 mins, then turned the oven off. Then 20  mins later I came and turned it back on. And repeated until they looked nice and dry.  Since this way of drying isn't perfect, I would recommend storing in the freezer(They don't take up much space). But that  way they have an intense delicious flavor and are ready for you to grab a few and add to anything!

2:Can them
I made pickled green tomatoes. When I tore down the unwanted plants, I had a TON of green tomatoes to deal with. I sliced them in half (time consuming, but easy and hopefully worth it) and pickled them 3 ways.

 Every recipe I could find called for sugar. I never have been a fan of many sweet savory things like bread and butter pickles,  so I improvised. Usually I would NOT recommend messing with a recipe for canning, since often the ingredients are part of the preservative. However, I know tomatoes are pretty acidic, and I have some canning experience, AND I processed them extra time, just to be safe.




I pickled them in my regular vinegar/water/pickling salt concoction with sliced onions and a few garlic cloves (also from the garden :)

I made another batch same as above but with jalapenos (I love spicy stuff).

Then I made a batch with the recipe I kept finding that included brown sugar, onions, vinegar, cinnamon and allspice.  Sounds weird to me (It looks kinda weird too) but I have had a bit of some my MIL made and it was decent. Like a sweet relish. Anyway, HH will probably eat it. Probably.....


3: Freeze them
I read that you can freeze clean whole cherry tomatoes. When you are ready to cook with them, just pull them out of the freezer and stick the bag in a little water, or run the tomato under water for a second and the peel will just slide right off! I am usually too lazy to peal tomatoes, especially if they are tiny. But if it just comes right off then awesome! I can't back this up with personal experience yet, however I will let you know for sure soon. Then toss them in whatever you are cooking and voila! I bet you could make a sauce with them too.



4:Fermenting them
I have not included this really since its more of an experiment. I love my naturally fermented kraut so why not give green tomato fermented pickles a shot? I had a free crock. And I was out of sanitized jars for canning ;) I layered in my tomatoes with the onion slices, a few sliced cucumbers and salt in the crock. I pressed them down and left them alone for a while. Eventually a brine was drawn out of the tomatoes, enough to cover the tops of them. I used a salt solution inside 2 ziploc bags (the salt solution is in case they both rip the brine won't be ruined) to press everything down and keep the tomatoes submerged. In about a month I'll let you know if they turn out!

Oh yeah, don't forget to save some seeds form the ripest prettiest tomatoes you get. Just squeeze the seeds into a jar, including the liquid. Allow to ferment for  a few days (It looks a little gross, so be sure   to let anyone else who might do dish know it is supposed to be that way so your seeds don't get tossed) then rinse and dry. Then store for next year, don't forget to write the type of plant it is on the package somewhere.

That way you have plenty of seeds so you can go through this mess again next year! Hehe...

Aphids!!!!

Dastardly darn dreadful drags known as aphids are attempting to destroy my corn!!! I thought the ants were eating the corn, but after a little research I discover that the ants are actually eating the aphids that are devouring the corn.

Never saw myself rooting for ants....

So we mixed up an insecticidal soap. We used :

2 gallons of water
1/2 cup home made liquid soap
2 Tbls hot sauce

Use hot water, mix together, and allow to cool before spraying on the garden.

Spray on a well watered garden, leave on for 1 hour, then rinse off the plants.

It is pretty darn effective and non toxic.

Maybe the corn will still thrive?

My corn is crooked, how about yours?

I realized too late that our painstakingly planned garden is about 5 feet too far to the right. Which caused part of it to be in partial shade. Which caused part of it to lean.

Most prominently the corn. Oops. Well, that will have to wait until next fall to fix.


So as of tomorrow I will officially have 3 jobs.

Yep. I am tired all ready.

Granted, only one will be full time. But still, sheesh....

Hopefully though this will enable us to live like no one else later.

On to nicer things.

My plum tree is ripe for the picking, here comes plum jam!!! Yay!

I also will give a good amount to our friend who leads a similar simple lifestyle, and who is always generous with us .

I also picked the first produce from my garden.... And the winner is green beans! They are the first plant to produce!

Get it? Produce? Hardy har... See, I can still have fun, ;-)

I will talk to you again soon. Wish me luck for work tomorrow :-)

Attack of the blobs!!!

I was trying to puzzle out what was eating all my plants. They look like the rabbitts have been munching on them, however they also have small holes in the middle of the leaves.

Then I saw the perpetrator..... SLUGS

I have never had a slug problem before in my garden. But I think that was because I had never had an organic garden before.

SO I promptly started searching out the slugs and pinching them off. At first I was just throwing them away from the garden, then I realized, they will just slide on back.  So I started squishing them. Yes, yuck, but by then I was so angry at all the damage they had done, that I did not mind.

It grossed out HH when I told him what I was up to squatting by the garden so intensely.

Turning over the leaves on each plant revealed more damage then I had ever suspected! There were munching marks on all of them. I'll be surprised if half of my plants recover from this. (Ugg!!! SO much work for not)

Sure these are just the cotyledons (fancy word for the first leaves :), but there is lots of damage on all the other leaves too. Stupid slugs....

In John Seymour's book The Simple Life and How To Live It he mentions that slugs like beer, so you are supposed to bury a saucer of beer right at ground level, and the slugs come to it then drown themselves. 

I am off to get the slugs drunk right now. Wish me luck!

A different way

So my honeysuckle infused oil did not work out the way I was hoping. I think the oil I used had too strong a scent to really pick up the honeysuckle.

So I made a po-dunk still.

Yup.

Hehe...

I understand the basic mechanics of a still  (Umm, mostly).
So I used my tea kettle, put a decorative can on the end to gather the steam, which has a pour spout to direct the condensed steam into my dish. Then I put a bag of ice on the can to help the steam condense quickly. The honeysuckle blooms are inside the pot simmering (try not to boil, it destroys some of the nice-ness) releasing their oils and infusing the steam.

Yup, po-dunk but it worked!!!

Now I just need a lot more and I can make my own honeysuckle lotion! Hopefully I will get a little better at it and I can extract the oil from my honeysuckle scented oil/water.

Yesterday we....

Got to working in the garden!!!

I am so excited. We picked up some wood chips and some compost (the last time I will buy compost, next year I will have enough of my own :) and now the truck is ready to be unloaded onto by new garden plots!

The book whose ideas I am using said to make square-ish plots. But once I got this done I decided that wide rows will work just as well. If not I can always change it later.  

I threw my back out digging (stupid back) so the truck is waiting until today to be unloaded. Hopefully the ibuprofen will keep it under control. Anyone have any better ideas for my back? 

You would be my hero! I am listening if you do!!!

HH suggested I take one of his back pills and lay down to stretch it out. Since it was soooo beautiful yesterday, I brought out a blanket and laid down in the grass to stretch. 

Freakin awesome. I don't advise sunbathing (no wrinkles and skin cancer here baby) but a little(little) time in the sun can be good for you. Especially if it is filtered through the leaves, and you are being cooled by a gentle breeze..... Yum... Almost as good as going to the beach. Almost.....

Where I was

Who I was with

Harvey did come sit on my blanket for a while. He naturally assumed I had laid it down for him, since he is the boss of this house (hardy har). But soon decided I was crazy and preferred to sit in the grass in the shade. 

I felt bad that Handsome Husband was still working and I was not. But I enjoyed the view anyway ;)

The picture doesn't do justice to him. But you gotta love a man with muscle!

It seems like every year so far a well meaning nosy person has told me my plants wont work for some reason. This year I was told that since I did not have all my seedlings up and into solid plants already that I needed to give up on them and buy plants. Actually, that's what they tell me every year.

So far all my seed tomato plants and my purchased tomato plants have yielded about the same amount, and at the same time. Ha.

By the way, my first seed saving attempt has been a success so far! The yellow pear tomato seeds I saved last year are already up and going!!!

YESS!!!! Its that time :)

I LOVE my garden. Let me say that again.... I LOVE TO GARDEN.

Gotta love good dirty fun :)

This year finds me better educated on proper gardening and growing techniques, so I am even more excited! I have ordered seeds from a seed catalog, so I have a greater variety then I have ever had before.

I am starting my seeds later this year then last. But I know more this year so hopefully I will not kill most of then again.  I bought seed starting pots and organic seed starting mix. (Next year I'll save egg cartons instead of the pots, didn't think about it this year). I used some popsicle  sticks I had sitting around to label them.

On my grow list this year: (It is pretty aggressive for me)

Cherry tomatoes
Pear tomatoes
Beefsteak tomatoes
Cucumbers
yellow summer squash
zucchini
luffas
bell peppers
jalapenos
banana peppers
pinto beans
green beans
kale
amaranth(leaf variety, not grain. That'll be for next year)
broccoli
cauliflower
Brussels sprouts
artichokes
lettuce
pumpkins
basil
sage
corn
okra
Cilantro
Potatoes

I think that's it... Maybe.

I am super excited. I was intensely satisfying playing in dirt. I for one, relish a bit of dirt under the nails...

My father in law was sweet enough to get me some bails of hay for the walk ways through the garden. I never thought I'd be excited to have someone surprise me with hay. But, hey, what can I say... Hardy har

I also got some lime and sulfur (organic) to help me fix my soil. This is the kind of thing I had no idea about last year. My idea of gardening was throw it in the ground, cover with dirt. Now it is supposed to grow, right? Ha.... Oh the inexperienced gardener... Haha, from the lofty heights of a 3rd year gardener  ;) But I have learned a lot. Really. I swear.

I can't wait to start seeing the little green bits poking out of the soil!

What are you growing this year?

The evil trees are gone...

When we moved into our house we discovered lots of beautiful plants the the previous owner had planted. It was pretty cool. Everything had become extremely overgrown during the time it took to handle her estate. By the time we moved in there were surprises every day!

We had some awesome plants pop up like our hibiscus

And our fruit trees....

But there were two trees that we could not figure out what they were. They had giant thorns all over them. 

My experience with thorny plants led me to believe that it could be a really cool plant( roses, berry bushes, they all have thorns). After all, the old lady wouldn't have planted them if they did not have a cool or productive purpose, right?

I convinced my husband that we needed to leave them and see what they produced. Be it pretty flowers or maybe some sort of berry, I would have been ecstatic. 

The first year all we got were some leaves. So for the last three years we have been mowing around them, trying not to get stabbed by the trees. I would have cut them down sooner, but we had a problem with our neighbor thinking our yard was his personal 4 wheeler track. So we decided thorns might help discourage him.....through the years they kept on making more and more thorns!

Finally our neighbor moved so we decided it was time to cut them down. Yay! (And the peasants rejoiced)

And so ends the evil trees (Bwhahaha...)

Anyone know what they are? I still have no clue. If they are something useful in some way I will probably kick myself, but until then I am glad they are gone!

 

New beginnings!

Getting ready for the Spring!

HH came home Saturday from work and was upset that I dug up 3 2x5 spots in his beloved grass. When I explained that the vegetables that will be grown int he additional space will feed us, and the grass simply takes, he declared "We are married and have to talk about these decisions first!!!"

Hehe... after he had time to cool down he realized we have a huge yard (almost 2 acres) and MOST of it is grass. Also the corner of the yard he had so graciously granted me to put the extra garden happens to be in shade most of the day.

The book stated to make permanent walk ways so you never step on the garden and compact the soil.
Also to lay something over the walk way to help prevent compaction form the sides. I will cover these with hay soon. 

Oh silly husbands! He is the one, after all, who gave me a gardening book as a valentine (I was thrilled to see how well he knows me :). And it was this book that inspired me to expand!!!

I am working on the deep bed method. They still need to be built up some, but its a start!

I also will be starting school back in the Summer! I know I have mentioned on here that I am wholly unsatisfied with my current career.  HH pointed out that it will be a while before we can afford to live off the land (I have to be able to buy the land first, and the acreage I want will not come too cheap).  With paychecks in my line of work being so irregular, and his not reliable, it is time for one of us to make a change.

I would like to say I am excited about this venture, but, eh.... so so.
It will be 2 years before I am eligible to get  a job in the new field. I know that is not a very long time, but it feels like an eternity!

I really just want to work on the land and sell  things I make and some produce. I figure the money I save us will make up for the loss of income. That is a bit of a dream at this point, but we all have to have dreams, right?

HH sees that as me being a stay at home. We always said who ever was making the most money when we had kids, the other one would stay at home (Yes, I would be fine with a stay at home husband).
Well, we are planning on (hopefully) starting our family soon and suddenly that has changed... Hmm... baby jitters? For the baby that's still just a twinkle in our eyes? Silly husband...

I will admit that since I have always worked, the idea of not working scares the pee-waddlen out of me!!! To be so reliant on another. It is hard to relinquish that control. To this day I still bartend one night a week because of the irregular nature of my paychecks, I like the added security of having a job where I can bring home cash in pocket at anytime.

Did any of you make the transition from 2 incomes to one? How did that work for you? Emotionally and financially?

Snack- To Buy or make?

I wanted a snack yesterday. I didn't really have anything munch-able on hand so I though I would make something. What do I have?

 Some flour, a can of chickpeas, oil, some garlic and a bottle of lemon juice. Most of these are staples I always have on hand. 

What can I make? Hummus!!! I love hummus. (with pita of course)

Why not just run to the store and grab it? It would take all of 30 mins to drive to the store, get in and out and back home.

Well in 30 minutes I can make it (yes even the pita) and it will be healthier, much tastier and MUCH less expensive.

The pita:
Flour-2.5 c
Water-1 c warm
yeast-1 T
oil -2 T
Salt-1.5 t
Sugar-1 T

Mix 1 c flour, salt sugar and yeast together in a  mixing bowl. Add oil and water, mix well. Add the rest of the flour, mix well. Separate into 8 balls and leave on floured surface 20 mins or so to soften.

Pre-heat oven to 500 F with pan inside.

~Meanwhile~
Drain can of chickpeas, add to food processor. Then add a dash of salt, one or two garlic cloves, a dash of lemon juice, and a tablespoon of oil. Blend well (adjust seasoning to taste, I like extra garlic and lemon)

If you have stonewear pan, stick it in the oven while it is preheating. If not use a cast iron skillet turned up side down.

Flatten dough balls to just under finger thickness. Put on heated pan in oven for 5ish minutes.

Tada!

Price difference? Well, hummus at the store would run you about 3.99, with pita at 1.50ish.

Mine was less then a dollar for everything! 4.49 in savings? Yes please!

Humpty Dumpty

I have 3 adorable pots that have faces on them. I love the whimsical touch it adds to my garden.
Well, I broke one.

All the kings horses and all the kings men...

HH made fun of me when I collected the pieces and planned on putting the pot back together again. He said "surly we can just buy another!". Yes we can, and don't call me Shirley.

But I don't want to. I am attempting to live with buying less stuff.  In doing that sometimes it will require that I repair worn or broken items.

So I brought it in, and got to work.

Looking better already

Now they are all happy together! Might not be as usable anymore, but I never used them much anyway! Ha. I am glad he's back!

Working time and steps

I once sent out a self promotion post card with this picture on it

with something along the lines of "Is your agent sleeping on the job?" on it.... Then after I sent it out, HH was kind enough to point out that to a stranger, that looks enough like me to maybe have the wrong affect... Oops

I am lucky enough to have the kind of job where I can schedule myself. And spend time on my blog during the day. However I also do not have a regular paycheck and can run around like crazy for months and have my paycheck depend on another persons whim (not cool).

HH is in construction. That business tends to  be feast  or famine. With both of us self employed it makes it difficult to budget.   This has been one of the main motivators towards self sufficiency. I already know how to self motivate, how to live on very little money (now how to do that with out a credit card I am still working on). What I want know is to thrive that way. How to have very little waste coming out of my home, and only the basics coming in.

Not only will this be healthy for us, with less chemicals and preservatives coming into our food. It will be healthier for the environment with less shipping and packaging. It will also be better on our budget with only a minimum amount of money being spent.  All around better.

Some of the ways I have started trying to reach this goal:

Budgeting and paying off debt: Have you heard of Dave Ramsey? I think everyone should read his book The Total Money Makeover . It is life changing. (You can cheat and listen to the audio book from the library like I did, its free:) Now if you read/listen to this book and feel inclined to argue with Dave, don't. All the broke people I know that have read this book that are still broke, and will remain that way, had to tell me how Dave was wrong.  I am sorry, but I think I will listen to the millionaire whose main advice is live within or under your means, don't borrow money and is not trying to sell me anything. Not the broke people who can not give up fast food for a month to pay off a bill. Check him out. He is awesome (Not shy about his faith either, which I think is great).

Cooking From Scratch:   I do not buy mixes or pre-made items unless they are practically free (couponing). Even then I have learned from past mistakes, don't get something because it is free. If you are not going to use it it just creates clutter, guilt and waste.  I purchase a good amount of flower, which I am about to start buying in bulk. I buy milk, butter, cheese, eggs (once I get my chickens no more buying eggs!I can't wait). Most everything else can be made from these and other pantry staples.  Why would I buy a package of cookie dough for 2.50$ when I can make from scratch a better tasting, healthier version for less then a dollar? Or cheaper?  Yes, I admit when I am on my way home from working all day, exhausted, it is really tempting to grab something cheap and easy for dinner. But is it really cheap? If they are able to sell something inexpensively enough to subdue my guilt for spending the money, imagine how cheap and inferior the ingredients are to begin with? Yikes..... I hope to produce a baby with my body in the near future, and would prefer that funky stuff to not be in residence too....
I am going to start freezer cooking, meal planning and making home made ready-mixes to fix this. I will document that here if you want to try too.

Reducing Energy Waste: There are many ways we can reduce our energy consumption with out making drastic changes. Here in the South, solar power is not very practical, it rains too much. Nor do I have the budget right now to really modify my home.  How do I save on energy? I wait to run my dishwasher at off-peak energy times (same with clothes washer and dryer). I use the light cycle and make sure it is packed as full as I can get it. I bought insulating curtains and open them to let in the suns warmth when I can during the day, and close them at sunset to keep it in at night (my windows are older then I am, but its not in the budget currently to replace them).  I turn down the heat and air conditioner. In the winter, keep it slightly colder then you would like and put on a sweater. In the summer keep it slightly warmer and drink plenty of cool water.  Our grandparents didn't have constant temperature control their whole lives and were just fine. I think we can live with it too.

I'm going to hang up one of these too. Sun dried clothes and sheets smell fantastic! And it whitens whites naturally.

Modifying our Entertainment Budget: We like to be entertained (who doesn't?). And for years we have gone to the movies, eaten out, and gone to various nightclubs whenever we felt like it. We had fun. Lots of it. Now, my pay is less then it was, it is catching up with us. I have limited our going to the movies only for special occasions, and we eat before we get there. We only go out to eat on special occasions, and preferably with a gift card. We do not go to bars or nightclubs anymore.  I also limited the amount we spend on rental movies and video games (my husbands weakness) to fit with in a weekly budget. This and our grocery budget are where we are struggling to stay on course the most.  However, have you noticed most free activities are healthy too? Hiking, riding our bikes, playing games together (works out the brain ;)  Two birds, one stone. Yep...

These are just some simple steps towards self sufficiency that I think we all can take, with out actually changing too much. Hopefully I can do even more in the months to come!

Complaints, Harvey and Winter Planting

I work full time. However I am self employed and make my own schedule. Or some days it feels like it makes me.  I always have my phone, and always am ready to jump-to it if someone calls. No fun. I long for the days when I can spend my time working outside, with nature. Not indoors with people who are just wasting my time (and money and energy).

Any ways, that's my rant for the day!

On to happier things!!!

This is Harvey

He is asleep on a pile of clothes, its one of his favorite places 

He likes to sleep. A lot. And he has decided he is a cat. 


If you drive by my house and see an 85lb bulldog in a window, that's him. He gets into all sorts of trouble and I will be sharing those stories on here! 

Winter greens

We have been having a very warm winter here in Alabama. Usually January, February and March are about the only time we feel real cold. That combined with the warmth have caused my brain to think its spring (yes I am referring to  it as its own person, who knows where else I could put the blame).

So I thought since it is so pleasant, and my earlier attempts at a winter garden we kind of a flop, I would plant some more. 

Here are the collards I planted. And see that little weed looking thing next to it? Yep, that's my spinach. (another failed attempt)

Garlic: Did you know according to custom you are supposed to plant garlic on the shortest day of the year and reap it on the longest? 

Yikes, I need to weed.....

I did mine the wrong way. This year I'll do a little better. I already missed the shortest day, but I will at least plant it on a short day, if not the shortest! I think I'll be buying some organic garlic cloves soon. Hopefully I will be able to grow enough I can save my own cloves to plant next year. 

I hope to be able to save a lot of my own seeds this year. I have saved some pumpkin and tomato seeds, we will find out in the spring how well I did.