Sun Dried Tomatoes

Sun dried tomatoes, sounds delicious right?



Not exactly. At least not in San Antonio in August.


Our cherry tomatoes stopped setting fruit in late June (when the daytime temperatures were consistently above 90° and the nighttime temps were above 75°).

Ending the season in June is fine with me. By then, I've had all the tomatoes I can eat (and give away) and I start to loathe the idea of going outside and poking around the humid jungle looking for mediocre fruit.

The trouble is that when the season ends, the mess remains. For a few weeks now, Travis has been removing one tomato plant at a time, but this weekend we teamed up and bushwhacked the entire bed.



We encountered tons of flying leaf footed bugs (bastards!) as well as scale and spider mite damage.


Look at this little nymph injecting its digestive juices and ruining the fruit. These picture are from early July when the bug population was lower and the tomatoes weren't struggling as much. By yesterday, there were thousands of bugs in the bed, not to mention mosquitoes eating us alive while we worked.


For a more immersive look at the mess, check out Travis' video.

Veggies in the Sun

Cucumbers


Figs


Cherry tomatoes


Eggplant blossom
Here's to a fruitful summer weekend. Enjoy!

A Hot Harvest

My husband was the original garden blogger in our family, but school, work and other hobbies have sucked away most of his blog time. Occasionally he still pens an entry, like today's, which I am reposting from his blog.


The hedge to the right is, in fact, my cherry tomatoes! - All organic folks!

Black Beauty eggplant

My Celebrity tomatoes wear pantyhose to make them look less appetizing to mockingbirds who are easily turned off by this early '90s women's underwear-accessory fashion.

Eggplant, banana peppers, TAM-1 jalapenos, cucumbers, and Large Red Cherry tomatoes.

Homemade Salsa

My coworker's mom used my tomatoes and jalapenos to make this delicious salsa. Biases aside, it was the best I've ever had. One of the first things I noticed when Diana delivered the jars was the salsa's bright red color. The red was much more saturated than store bought salsa. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought it was made of strawberries.


I have three serving dishes like this one that are overflowing with tomatoes. I've already given away as much produce as my neighbors and coworkers will accept so I'm going to try making salsa myself.

Here's the recipe.
Fresh and Easy Blender Salsa
6-8 ripe tomatoes, quartered
1 jalapeno, sliced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 onion diced (optional)
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste
1 handful cilantro, chopped (optional)
Blend or food process ingredients to the desired consistency.
Makes two 16 oz jars.

Veggie Harvest

There's nothing like home grown veggies to make you popular at work.

About every third day, we pick a basketful of cucumbers, tomatoes, banana peppers and jalapenos.


Travis is dwarfed by our tomato jungle. We have about twelve plants that are being supported by six Texas Tomato Cages. I highly recommend the cages. They are worth every penny. They're incredibly sturdy and fold flat for storage. Can you imagine if we tried to used the little pepper cages on the left for our tomatoes?


We trained our cucumbers on a four foot circular section of pig fence but they quickly outgrew it so we increased the structure's height by zip tying our overflow compost bin on top. The cucumbers love it. And by luck, we've found their ideal growing location in our garden. The plants are in full sun, but the fence shelters them from the baking late afternoon heat.


Tsatsiki is a Greek yogurt dip that is usually served with pita bread and gyro. It's one of the many cucumber recipes we've been experimenting with. Our version tasted good, very refreshing, but it was a lot thinner than the spread they serve at the Greek restaurant.

Tsatsiki - Greek Cucumber Spread
1 peeled, shredded cucumber - set in a colander to let the extra moisture drip out
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup sour cream
1-2+ teaspoons chopped garlic
Fresh mint
Fresh Dill
Mix all the ingredients together with an electric mixer.