Pickin' the Garden

When we returned home from a week in Colorado the garden was ready to be picked. Tomatoes, squash, onions, potatoes, bell peppers galore! Sadly we had our first cold (upper 30's) last night so I fear it everything doesn't hurry and ripen soon it will be too late. We have eaten tons of tomatoes, cherry and regular ones. They are soooo tasty! We also pulled up the onions and potatoes (about 30lbs).

This is what we picked the day we got home.

I've been drying herbs and putting them in jars. The herb scent is so much stronger than the store bought stuff.

We can't eat all of the squash so I've been pureeing it for baby food for Paul and also using it to make Squash Rolls, the best rolls ever!

To make the baby food I use this awesome Babycook that my mom bought me when Josiah was just starting to eat baby food. You just chop of the veggies/fruit, let the cooker steam it.

Pour them from the basket back into the bowl and then puree until smooth. Easy as pie and no big mess!

Fresh, organic squash, Paul loves it!

Then I pour the rest into ice cube trays; freeze until frozen, pop them out and put in freezer bags.

ONIONS galore!

With these I let them dry out, cut the tops off, and put them in old panty hose and hung them in the garage. Justin was like, "WHAT are you doing?!" ha ha! Now we have onions to last for quite some time. How cool is that?!

This is the one dwarf sunflower plant that grew. The other mammothly tall sunflower plants were becoming like trees so I had to cut them down. This one didn't get but 2 feet tall, but the flower was so big! The grasshoppers had eaten most of the flower part off already. Right now it's drying in the garage so the seeds will fall off.

And lastly, these are white scalloped squash. I had never seen or heard of these before until Justin mentioned that we buy some seeds for them. His uncle grew them when he was a kid and these were his favorite squash to eat. We've been slicing it, coating it in cornmeal and frying it. YUM!

This summer's garden has been so much fun. I have learned a great deal about what works, what doesn't, what to plant next to what, what not to do and what I should have done. It's been a fabulous learning experience and can't wait for next year!