September Harvest

Great haul this week.

Heirloom tomato, guavas, hybrid tomato, Anaheim chile, hot chiles, and onion. Time to make salsa.

These cherry tomatoes will be used for a Caprese salad.

Darryl

Recipes for a Cheapskate: Tomatillo Salsa

While I don't have a crop of tomatoes yet, I do have a lot of chiles and onions.

It's time to make this season's first batch of salsa.

I pick a handful of chiles, using a pastry box to keep the varieties separate. Serrano is on the left and the unknown variety on the right is a very much hotter chile.

I have to go to the store to get a tomato and some tomatillos. I peel the sheath off of the tomatillos, peel a small onion from the garden, and toss in a mixture of my red chiles.

Now, I move out to the patio and light up some coals on the barbecue.

I get a perforated tray to put the small chiles on and roast them, the tomatillos, tomatoes, and a couple of ears of corn for kicks on the grill over indirect heat. I'll move over to direct heat towards the end to get some char on them.

Finally, it all goes into a blender where I add minced garlic and salt to taste. Then it's done.

Most of this I will freeze until later this summer when the bell peppers are ready to eat. Then, I'll mix this salsa with cream cheese to make stuffed bell peppers.

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Seasons of Bounty

After finishing the chores this weekend, I had some time to reflect on the upcoming harvest.   I nabbed some zucchini for the evening's barbecue. I think I'll get about a fruit a day from the plants the way they're going now.  What else can I see...

I counted 13 ears of corn on the 7 stalks in our 4-foot long cornfield. We'll have some with the coming weekend's barbecue...I'm going to smoke a tri-tip in my new smoker. I think there will be more than that as the season progresses, too.

The chiles are showing fruit...

...while the plumerias bloom.

Our heirloom tomato is climbing in its cage while the sweet onions are maturing to the right.

For a long time, I didn't think this jalapeño was going to make it but we'll have some good salsa after all.

The guava tree is in bloom, we're hoping for our first crop in three years.

On the flower front, this epidendrum is back in bloom...

Mr. Lincoln is going on his third bloom of the season, with backing from the Lincolnettes...

...and this unnamed yellow rose is on its second.

 

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Tomatoes, Onions, and Oranges...Oh My! This Week's Chores

Our tomatoes look like they're about at the end of the line. Good plants...they've given us about 20-30 pounds of delicious harvest this year. So do I pull them out now?

Here's what I harvested just now before starting...along with a couple of pearl onions that spontaneously grew in the onion plot that I harvested months ago. Not one to waste anything, I'll add all this to a salsa later. I have some good peppers to use, too.

Well, the weather's still hot. Around 100 today and it won't really get cold here in Southern California for a couple of more months.

How about instead of cutting them down, I just cut them back and see if they grow another crop?  As my friend Max Arteaga might say "Why Not!"

Also today, I notice that some of my cara cara navel oranges are splitting. Hopefully, the rest of the fruit on this primadonna of a plant will make it to harvest time in December.  I always have a hard time getting a good crop off of it...last year it was about 16 very delicious oranges. It is a dwarf plant.

Finishing off today's chores with mowing my sun-scorched lawn and sweeping the patio.

Happy gardening!

Darryl
Copyright 2012 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Recipes for a (lazy) Cheapskate - Super Easy Salsa

I've got a bunch of tomatoes from our garden that I better use quick or they'll go bad. Those first two are from the farmer's market and I'm going to harvest their seeds and then use them.

Today, I'm going to take some of them and make a basic salsa.

For spice, I roasted these jalapenos and yellow peppers on my barbecue last weekend.

After harvesting the seed, the remains of the heirlooms go in the blender. See those pieces on the bottom that look like peaches? That's actually the yellow tomato from above.

I toss in two more of the largest tomatoes from the garden, the chiles, a quarter of a white onion, and some salt. Set on the "sauce" setting and let 'er rip.

Here's the result.

After a taste test, I think I need a little more heat, so I put in one of these little fire chiles that my wife's aunt grows in her backyard. They are really hot. I wish I knew what they are called but I don't. I did harvest some seeds a few months ago and now have a few plants in my garden.

My son, Tim, comes over for a taste test.  What do you think, Tim?

If you'd like to try, just get some tomatoes, onions, chiles, and salt. Throw 'em in a blender and add salt and/or chiles until you get your desired heat and taste.

Darryl
Copyright 2012 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved