For years and years we maintained a large garden.......I canned/froze/cooked the bounty. In my previous life I was quite the foodie. We've made more than a few attempts to get a decent garden going here but the soil is so lousy AND full of rocks....not stones....rocks. The only real option would be to build raised beds....both 'the husband' and myself have terrible backs so that thought was quickly forgotten.
We ('the husband') has several large pots on the South facing side of our home which have yielded a ton of tomatoes this year. Perfectly shaped ones...no end rot or anything. Yeah!
This location is also perfect for growing basil....a personal favorite of mine. Also after several false starts, I now have a well established area on the North side of our house where my sage is thriving.
One way we continue to enjoy both basil and sage all year is to wash and dry the leaves in a salad spinner. They are then chopped in the food processor and transferred to a freezer container. This allows me to have fresh herbs stored in the freezer all year long. It's easy to remove just the amount you need, using a spoon or fork.
When I have a bumper crop of basil like now, I also make pesto.
The mixture is measured into miniature muffin tins or ice cube trays. Once frozen, they are popped out and the cubes are then stored in the freezer in freezer zip lock bags. You can also use a small ice cream type scoop and plop individual amounts onto a cookie sheet and freeze. When hard, these too can be transferred to a freezer bag for storage. This is such a great convenience for a light meal of pesto pasta, homemade french bread, and a salad!
4 comments:
Your tomatoes look great. There is NOTHING like an August tomato, warm from the garden- a little salt and you can eat it out of hand. We thought moving to Florida that we'd have wonderful tomatoes- but no, the soil is so sandy that we did not have success at all. Good you found a solution to the rocky soil there.
And she cooks too! Who knew! Multi talented, I'd say!
I envy you your fresh beautiful tomatoes. I successfully grew tomatoes when we lived in Tacoma, WA. Had the perfect sunny yet protect spot and more than we could eat fresh. I found a wonderful "gourmet" recipe to turn the excess ripe tomatoes into a simple tomato sauce that could be frozen for later use over pasta. I don't miss much about gardening, but I do miss fresh tomatoes.
Great bounty and lovely tomatoes! I wish mine looked that good. Enjoy. Hope you're feeling better.
Post a Comment