In addition to hiking, biking, swimming, and going to a wedding during the long weekend…..
….I did a bunch of other things around the house during Labor Day, including lots of yard work.
My garden exploded from the 90+ degree heat.
I had so many tomatoes ripen at once I didn’t know what to do with them. I gave some to a coworker who said they were delicious (and they are–I eat them as snacks).
I made a lot of tomato salads over the weekend. After my swim on Sunday, I made a tomato/basil/mozzarella salad a long with baked salmon for lunch. Then for dinner we grilled up steaks, corn on the cob and I made another salad.
The salads for dinner were tomatoes, mozzarella and cucumbers this time. It’s time to find recipes for freezable tomato dishes!
I also have tons of zucchini. A friend gave me the great idea to shred and freeze it. So that’s what I did.
I shredded three zucchinis and froze about 3.5 cups of it. It will be great for this winter when I want to make things like zucchini bread or zucchini cakes. I have two bags in the freezer now. I will probably add a few more ziplocks by the end of summer. I mean, you can only eat so much zucchini!!
We also had a Groupon about to expire . We went to North Portland to the garden store to get some supplies. First I got over 2 pounds of Sluggo. I think I have enough to get me through for a few months.
Then I got 1 pound of bat guano fertilizer for the vegetable garden. It was expensive but primo.
Michael got the cheapo alfalfa fertilizer for our grass. It was like 50 cents a pound and he got 10 pounds. Hopefully this will restore our dying grass. I picked up a packet of lettuce seeds to see if I can start growing lettuce again for the fall. The lady at the garden store suggested I stagger planting the seeds by a few weeks. So as soon as the 90 degree weather calms down (I give it a week) I’ll plant the first batch of seeds mixed with the bat guano fertilizer. Yum, tasty, huh?
Add to the long list of weekend duties: car shopping for Michael and getting together with some friends to plan our weekend camping trip coming up. It will be nice to get away and not have to do chores/errands for a change. Now on to the fun stuff:
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QUESTION: If you have a vegetable garden, what do you do with all the EXTRA produce?
Mayumi
Those vegetables from your garden look beautiful!! We’ve been growing our garden every spring & summer for the last three years. We try to can/freeze extra veges as much as we can by making pickles, sun dried tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili, soup, etc…. But, by the end of summer, we usually cannot keep up with how fast the vegetables grow! So we end up bringing them to our gym, neighbors, and co-workers to share. They’re most often well received 🙂
Lisa Eirene
I’ve given away a lot of produce this year–lettuce, herbs and zucchini. Everyone is really happy too! 🙂
kalin
if you peel the tomatoes and chop/crush them you can just freeze them as is, and use ’em later to make pasta sauce, chili, jambalya, etc…
i usually peel the big ones, and eat the small ones, since peeling a few big ones gives me the same amount of tomato as peeling a ton of little ones 🙂
Lisa Eirene
I will definitely be freezing some sauce or something by the end of September.
Roz@weightingfor50
Hi Lisa. LOVE the veggie shots. And great idea about shredding and freezing the zucchini. Glad your days are busy, but good. Have a great Friday
Lisa Eirene
Thanks Roz. The garden definitely keeps me busy!
Lesley
I have an idea for all of that zucchini…I’ve been making a big egg scramble with my garden zucchini lately. It’s absolutely great and filling and pretty darn healthy! If you’re into eggs, it’s great.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/health/nutrition/21recipehealth.html
Lisa Eirene
Thanks for the link! That’s a fantastic idea and I never thought about doing that with eggs.
jane Cartelli
My neighbor and I share. She gives me her brussels sprouts and passion fruit, figs and tomatoes and I give her sweet peas, cucumber, basil and green beans.
Jane~
Keepingthepoundsoff.com
Lisa Eirene
I wish we had some neighbors that we could share with.