Garden Bounty

This year has been really dry and super hot here in Ohio as about everywhere else in the US.  Therefore, my little suburban garden has not performed the same as in other years.  Usually I harvest about 200-300 tomatoes, but so far this season I am up to only around 50.  It's still plenty to eat day to day and oh so delicious.

The herbs and cucumbers, on the other hand, are doing great.  I normally I don't get but a half dozen cucumbers or so, but this summer I have already had three times that many.  The Armenian cucumbers in particular are prolific and they grow large fast.  I have figured out that I can use them like zucchini in baking, so I am going to puree and freeze some Armenian cucumbers to use that way in the winter.

Close friends of hours who live about 90 minutes north of us are having a terrific tomato harvest this year and were kind enough to share a big bag of their bounty with us.  Due to their generosity, I was able to can some salsa last Saturday.

Salsa ingredients

 I did it the lazy way and just ran the onion, garlic, cilantro, jalapenos and bell pepper through the blender.

Then diced the tomatoes and added the salsa mix.

 Then stirred it all together.

I usually let my mixtures sit a little before I boil them.

Voila, salsa. It turned out quite a bit hotter than I anticipated, so we may have to get creative in how to use it over the winter.

We've also been enjoying simple summer dinners like pasta tossed with olive oil and homegrown basil, garlic, and cherry tomatoes.

I feel so fortunate that my parents and grandparents kept large kitchen gardens.  Even though I didn't help that much, I still learned how to appreciate, grow and preserve vegetables and herbs.  I hope I can pass this knowledge and passion on to my children in years to come.