Heirloom tomatoes and, of course, more zucchini

It never ceases to amaze me just how abundant a backyard garden can be. I just love spending time in the backyard garden but even more I love watching E in the backyard. He wanders around snacking here and there, watching spiders and other critters.

This time of year becomes a blur of veggies and fruit to be processed and tucked away for later use. I love working with each as it ripens and then moving on to the next harvest. Lately I have been up to my ears in tomatoes and these show no sign of slowing down.I especially like the colour of these heirloom tomatoes and want to be sure to grow them again next year. I'm pretty sure it is an Old German tomato. My planting chart (which my son made for me) shows each plant by initial and I think this one is marked O.G so it must be (unless it is an R.M which means I have no idea what it is or it could be the one that looks like it is marked scribble, scribble).They are so pretty and tasty as well so they will make the cut of the ones that we save the seeds of.The freezers are quickly filling up, I have no saved yogurt containers left and have had to move on to jars. Today I will start making tomato sauce with whatever ripens this week. I love having jars of this handy in the coldroom for quick dinners. I seem to be doing well at using up all our zucchini this year and it is completely due to the fantastic book Simply in Season. Yesterday I made the Zucchini yeast rolls and they are delicious. I went on a bit of a baking spree because I got a 20 kg bag of flour from Grainworks and wanted to use up all my old flour first. We had Katherine's recipe cinnamon raisin bread for elevenses.

Then the zucchini rolls for lunch. We ate them with some Gort's spiced gouda, tomato and cukes from the garden and some red pepper that I had roasted. Yum! And what do you have at dinner time with the rest of the zucchini rolls? Why, zucchini garden chowder, of course. (also from Simply in Season)

Those last days of Summer

Every year we take a weeklong camping holiday in the summer. (the boys and I do our own camping as well but the week with Dad along is always the best) It is a time to get away - not just from the city but also from our endless round of work and busyness, phones, computers, garden chores, etc. We always have lots of fun and adventuring but we also use it as a time of reflection. A time to think about and talk about what things we would like to change in our lives. I find that just by being away from our usual routine it becomes much easier to discuss "openly and dispassionately" those ruts and habits that we can get stuck in.

So each year we come back feeling renewed with all sorts of hopes and plans for the year. We choose a few key areas where we would like to improve our lives and plan to work on those. ( and more often than not we also often come home with all sorts of grand plans to move to the country and live an even more "down-to-earth" life) Mostly what we are looking for is balance - the balance between work and play; town and wilderness; the need for an income and the need for peace, quiet and time; adventuring and relaxing; time with family and time for self; our need for simplicity and the reality of the sometimes crazy world we live in. That is a lot to balance...and it is taking us a while to find our way, but I think we are getting closer. And life looks pretty good about now.(on the way home I said that since we hadn't seen any moose this trip maybe we would see some big horn sheep. A few minutes later there they were right on the side of the road. I snapped this one in mid leap) The boys are getting older which at times makes me incredibly melancholy but, at other times, fills me with a sense of mmmm...peace, I guess, as I realize that I have more time to once again remember and think about who I am...and what I love.Or to have time to find new loves...like kayaking a beautiful mountain lake at sunset and then again first thing in the morn.

Ahhh, life is good.

Best cucumber

This has to be the best cuke I have ever grown. I usually end up with cukes looking more like the lower one in the picture - except for when I grow Armenian which are lovely (but are a little behind this year). This year I have had several long smooth skinned ones like the top one. They are delicious with very small seeds and not at all bitter. Now, if I can just remember what kind they were.

Turkish orange eggplant

This is a Turkish orange eggplant. I was given the seed by a friend and it grew into this lovely thing. The eggplants are so pretty that I am not quite sure how I will eat them. They are only a little bigger than a golfball.
Aren't they gorgeous, Mary-Sue? Thank you. (I had to post some pictures so that I would be sure that you would get to see them)

Preserving stewed tomatoes

These last few days have been a flurry of preserving.

I can't say how pleased I am with the heirloom tomatoes this year. I think my favourite so far is the Franchi pear tomato...well, my favourite for canning, for eating my new favourite is the silvery fir.I got started on stocking up on stewed tomatoes. This is my favourite thing to have in the freezer and we simply cannot have enough of them. This year we have one large freezer which will be dedicated solely to stewed tomatoes. I use them in almost everything that I cook - soups, sauces, casseroles, etc. I cook up peppers, onions, garlic and zucchini from the garden while I skin the tomatoes. Add them together and cook for awhile. I usually add some parsley and salt to all and sometimes basil. If I was an organized sort of person I would mark some Italian and some Mexican and add the appropriate herbs - cilantro, basil, etc.- but, sadly, I'm not that sort of person. Although now that I've written that I am going to endeavor to be organized and do that because it sounds like a really good sort of idea.Here is the first batch ready for the freezer. They are frozen in plastic yogurt tubs. Last year in an anti-plastic fit I started off freezing them in glass jars and quickly realized that they take a lot more room that way so I went back to yogurt tubs. The other thing I learned was that with the glass jars I had to take them out ahead of time to thaw (like I said, I am not that organized, dinner time would often find me stabbing at the frozen contents of a jar trying to break chunks off to thaw more quickly) whereas with the plastic containers I can run them under hot water and pop the frozen lump into a pan. I also fill plastic freezer bags and then freeze them flat on a cookie sheet. That way I can stack loads of them in the freezer.

I really recommend doing this if you have the time. The taste of this garden ripe goodness is what makes our meals.

Things are just peachy

E and I were out picking peaches off of our tree the other day. We stopped to take some pictures because the colours of ripe peaches are just so beautiful; they make me think of sunrise and sunset.I asked him if he could think of a good, simple recipe that he could make for dessert. Of course he took this to mean that he should invent a recipe of his own.He immediately had an idea. We should take a peach, take the pit out, fill the pit hole with chocolate and then roast it until the chocolate melted (I think he had roasting over a fire in mind but since we had the oven going to cook our first squash of the season we just popped them in there for 10 minutes or so).

Well...what can I say? My son is brilliant. They were simple and delicious.Look out Jamie Oliver!

Salsa season

It is the beginning of salsa season here. We made the first little batch on Wednesday and it was delicious. Throughout the years of canning while I've had children they have mostly just gone and played out of the way so I could get on with it. I've had them help by bringing jars or lids to me; picking produce from the garden; transferring jars down to the coldroom and sorting and organizing the coldroom shelves but not much with the actual prep and canning.This year I asked W for more help. I admit to an ulterior motive or two. I want them to know how to preserve, partly for their own good (I consider it an important life skill) but also to be able to carry on certain recipes that I always make - my aunt's pickles, my mom's antipasto, my salsa. My other motive was that I recalled reading, in The Shelter of Each Other, that all family members used to gather in the kitchen to help with the yearly food preservation (out of necessity) and that some women found it a time when they really connected with their older sons. I had read that the monotony of the prep. work and the time it took could really bring out a space and the time for good conversation between mothers and their adolescent sons.W and I have always enjoyed an easy, open relationship but I often feel as he gets a bit older and has more of his own interests that we don't spend the same amount of time together and just don't have as much one-on-one time to really connect. It takes time to get to deeper conversations...and it takes time to prepare produce for canning. So, I got busy scalding tomatoes and peaches for the salsa and he prepped and chopped onions, peppers and garlic. And I waited...and he talked...and I listened. I love hearing about what is important to him and how he shares it.And I am so glad that we love salsa and that we will need to make lots more before the Summer is over.