Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Salsa!

It's late summer, and the harvest is building. Yesterday we picked several pounds of figs. I have a Black Turkey Fig, it's about 8 years old, and this year it's absolutely full of figs. I covered it with netting to keep the birds from taking everything. I don't mind sharing a few with them, but they've been taking every ripe fig!

There were enough tomatoes last week to make salsa. Well, I have to admit that I used two gallon bags of frozen tomatoes from last fall. I had a great harvest last summer, but also my son's wedding, the illness, death and memorial for my Mother-in-law and a whole lot of other things that kept me from canning. So I took the frozen ones, added fresh tomatoes and peppers from the garden, and made a nice batch of salsa. I ended up with 8 pints of salsa to can for the winter. It isn't much, and cooking salsa down takes most of the day. But it's still satisfying to know I have more homemade sauce ready, and can enjoy it all winter long.

The sunflowers are looking so wonderful! I'll post some more pics, I just have really enjoyed them in the garden. I have to admit that typically I only plant vegetables, trying to get as much yield out of the garden as possible. But last year and this one I added easy-growing flowers, like sunflowers. One of them is over 12 feet tall, with a huge flower that is now turning into a seed machine. The rest are smaller, but with lots of flowers on each stalk. They've pollinized each other, so I have one that is a hybrid from the maroon and a yellow- it has the most beautiful flowers! they are maroon at the center, turning to orange and then a blazing yellow on the outer edges of the petals. Fabulous! I hope to save some of the seeds, maybe I can get more that color next year. No guarantee though, it may have bred with the yellows this year, and all the flowers will be yellow next year, who knows.

Click picture below to see album!

Christmas 2008

Carthage Jail & Nauvoo Temple