We harvested our bell peppers yesterday. Unfortunately, out of the 50+ plants only about a dozen produced fruit. It’s possible over the next few days some of these green peppers will change ripen to a different color… or not… you never can tell about peppers.
Whatever they do, I plan to chop them up and freeze them using my flash freezing method. It’s handy to have frozen bell peppers for cooking any time of year.
I hope you all are having productive flower and vegetable gardens.
The first batch of tomato juice is finished and in the freezer. It’s now ready to be thawed either to be drank or used in cooking. I didn’t add anything to my juice: no sugar, no salt, no herbs. More tomatoes are ripe and ripening, so I’ll probably up to my elbows in juice making again soon.
I poured some fresh juice in a glass. It’s foamy and thick, so I added a spoon of water and the foam bubbles rose to the top where I dipped most of them off. I stirred in a bit of salt and it tasted quite good.
I’ve never froze tomato juice before so I don’t know how it’ll do; I figure it should do okay.
I’m happy to be finished for now. Hopefully I can get caught up on my blogging.
Wishing you all a terrific Tuesday.
I was surprised to find purple bell peppers that have already turned this season.
I was worried that we may only have one purple pepper plant out of the 50+ plants I started from seeds. I know of 2 plants, so far. Hopefully, they’ll be more.
An interesting point about the purple bell peppers is that they grow a yellowish pepper that turns purple. Most of the peppers I’ve ever grown have started out green and then turned another color.
I think it’s pretty neat what one learns about familiar veggies when you grow other colors/varieties of the same kind. I’m looking forward to harvesting other colors of bell peppers. I’ll put them in a basket and take some photos (and then eat some and freeze some.)
I hope you’re having success & enjoyment with
your Summertime gardening &/or hobby projects.
Edited in:
Another interesting thing about the purple pepper is that’s it’s cream color on the inside.
The asparagus beans have done well so far this year growing/running up the decorative corn and the twine. However, next year we plan to plant the asparagus beans in a row of their own and make a trellis for them to run on. It’s awfully crowded in the corn rows now that both are maturing and fully leafed out.
Our decorative corn stalks are getting their-ears-on. We’re hoping the deer doesn’t decide to sample the ears before they mature and we can harvest some.
We’ve been getting only a few regular green beans compliments of the deer. There’s wasn’t enough for a mess to cook or freeze, so we broke them up with the asparagus beans and froze them all together. We froze 4 1/2 quarts of asparagus/green beans. I think that’s pretty good. We’re already looking forward to cooking them. 😉
My 50+ bell pepper plants are beginning to put on fruit. I figure by the end of the month we’ll be covered in colorful bell peppers. I’ll be freezing them for soups, stir fries and other tasty dishes. If most of the plants put on fruit, I’ll probably be giving oodles of them away.
I added a much needed set of new screwdrivers to my tool collection. My husband is enjoying helping me fill my toolbox with new tools. I like having my toolbox of tools here in the house ready to use anytime day or night. I don’t know why I didn’t think to get my own set of tools decades ago.
I made a stacked tuna salad and it was so pretty I thought I’d share a photo of it.
A stacked tuna salad is layers as follows:
crushed corn chips,
tuna salad
chopped tomatoes
shredded mix cheese
with a cherry tomato on the top
The walnut tree is loaded heavy this year. My husband had to cut some of the heavily ladened limbs off. They were hanging low over the driveway and could do damage to our vehicles when they dropped walnuts or if the wind caused them to break.
I’ve always heard that a bountiful season for the nut trees means an extra cold winter. I truly hope not…
Just in case the walnut tree is predicting some bad winter weather,
I got busy and made me a new hat on my green Boye knitting loom. Hey, it never hurts to be prepared.
Happy July 1st to you all!
It’s hard to believe half of 2016 has passed already.
Have a safe and fun filled weekend!
I wish you all a wonderful July full of blogging & smiles.
Through the years, my brother has mentioned a tomato called a Cherokee Purple. The Cherokee Purple is a beef stake tomato, so it’s a dandy sliced up to put on a sandwich or hamburger. It sounded like it would be a good tomato to grow and eat, but I’d never seen any plants for sale around here.
This year, we found some Cherokee Purple tomato plants for sale. We bought two and planted them. They’re growing well and full of tomatoes. I’ve kept a close eye on the first tomato that began to grow and grew more larger each week. I put my glasses on it to show how large it was when I took photos of it.
I waited patiently and then…
I was so excited the other day to see that the tomato was changing color, ripening beautifully.
Once again, I put my glasses on it to show how large it was. I intended to make a post about this delicious wonder and then…
Sunday, my husband and I went to the garden and saw deer tracks going down by the tomato patch and my gorgeous ripening tomato had been snacked upon. 😦
I was sooo not happy, but there was no sense in getting to upset since we don’t have a fence around the garden. I took some photos and well, our first Cherokee Purple got it’s own post after all.
Storms visited our area yesterday gave the land a good hearty drink. Our garden sure appreciated it. The tomato vines are full of tomatoes so hopefully, we’ll be able to get to one or two Cherokee Purples before the deer does.
I hope you all are having a good week.
Further Reading:
Cherokee Purple Tomato
Joys Of Creating 