It is prime tomato season around here. Just about every type I have is turning ripe. From Box Car Willie, Mortgage Lifter, Stupice, Juan Flamee, and Celebrity. The only one that hasn't produced a ripe mater for me is Kellogg's Breakfast. It's a really sweet, yellow, large heirloom variety that does not produce an abundant crop for me, but what it produces is terrific. So sweet it could be called a dessert tomato!
On the 4th I picked a bucket of tomatoes and some green peppers and made up 16 1/2 pints of salsa. That will just about get me through football season this winter. Most of my recipes for canning come from 'The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving', or the instruction manual that came with my canner. One has to use caution when canning stuff. The method and recipe must be just so, to prevent spoilage and ruining your product and endangering your health.
Tonight I am making 4 quarts of spaghetti sauce. It is quite time consuming, but the end result of having a nice dinner made with things you grew in your own garden is worth it. The taste of homemade spaghetti sauce, made from garden fresh ingredients is something everyone should experience.
We are starting to get fresh corn from the garden. I grew an heirloom variety named Stowell's evergreen this year. The yield on this variety is not what you will get from hybrids, but the corn is quite tasty, with fair sized ears. We have had more than our share of thunderstorms this summer and they have done a number on the corn. I would guess that 25% of the stalks in my garden are lying on the ground. And I am starting to have regular visits from the deer. They got to my soy bean, green beans and corn. And today I found what appeared to be a tomato that a deer had taken a bite from. I am considering asking Santa for an electric fence set up for Xmas this year. I went to the trouble of planting some green beans outside the fenced area of the garden this year, just as a way to satisfy the deer so they wouldn't bother the garden. No such luck!
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