Pickles...easy, but how will they taste?

Today I made pickles with a bunch of cucumbers that my friend gave me from her garden.  My cucumber plant only is producing about 2 cucumbers a week, so I doubt I will ever get enough to pickle my own cucumbers.

I followed the directions laid out in my Whole Living magazine but I'm a little anxious to find out how they are going to taste.  Before I started, I didn't even think about how many varieties of pickles there are.  I have no idea if the pickles I made are going to be sweet or dill.  I'm pretty sure they won't be any other variety since I didn't seek out a recipe.  The magazine says that the recipe is for Sour Pickles, but I used apple cider vinegar and the pickling spices smell very sweet.  We'll see.  It was fun and easy. 

Here's the video!

Canning Tomatoes and much more!

Oh my goodness! Today I learned and did so much!  I made my first attempt at canning tomatoes and learned about a local CSA that I'm gonna try out, a farm that gives out free mushroom compost, and a local elementary school that has an organic garden to teach the kids how to grow and cook organic!

I made a video of my canning adventure today!  Enjoy!

After I finished, I read that I was supposed to use bottled lemon juice and not fresh because it has a more consistent pH value. But hopefully it isn't a problem.  I guess we'll find out if the tomatoes spoil in the jar.

I also froze some yellow zucchini today.  I'm pretty much sick of zucchini at this point.  I plan on freezing most of what grows from now on.

Tomorrow I will be making pickles!

I had a great time today.  I'm proud of myself for learning so many new things and excited about how easy and fun it is to make little changes towards living more sustainably.

Creole Pork Round 2

Tonight I made Creole Pork for the second time.  It was delicious as ever.  This time I made a salsa from my vine ripened tomatoes, mini peppers, Italian parsley, and red onion.  This meal is a perfect summer dish. 

The tomatoes have arrived!

This is today's harvest.  The tomatoes have officially arrived.  There are at least twice this many on the vines that are still orange and twice that many that are still green.

Even though there are tons of tomatoes, I am concerned that my tomato plants are in distress.  First, I forgot that I was watering the plants and left the water on for 2 hours.  That turned a couple plants yellow.  They seem to be recovering though.  Then we had a heat wave this week.  The plants definitely struggled through that.  The grape tomato plant is so huge that it is breaking and leaves are dying.  But it is still producing so many tomatoes that I'm just letting it do it's thing. Next year, I'll give the tomatoes much better supports.  Some of the Early Bird tomatoes are getting this weird gray patch on the bottom of the fruit (see below) and the Mountain variety has these weird translucent patches on lots of the fruit (see below).  I have no idea what either of those are from. 

I love having so much fresh stuff from the garden.  For dinner tonight we put some turkey burgers and yellow zucchini on the grill.  Then I chopped up some just picked tomatoes and a cucumber with some red onion and Italian parsley.  So fresh.  So yummy!

Oh, and here's the pumpkin update.  It's doing fantastic!

No new pumpkins yet, but this one looks pretty healthy.  I wonder how long I keep it on the vine now that it's turning orange?  I guess I have some research to do!

First tomatoes and confused cucumbers

My tomato plants have gotten too big for their britches.  I learned a big lesson this year.  My tomato plants will need lots of support and more room next year.  I am starting to get ripe tomatoes now.  The yellow grapes are delicious.  The other ones are still just starting to get orange.

The cucumbers are doing great, but I just found these 2 hiding.  They had gotten tangled in their own vines and came out a little funky.  And the yellow zucchini parade continues. 

Today I will start prepping another area in our yard.  We have lemon trees that are on an eroding little hill.  We are going to use the landscaping ties from the garden to create a tiered retaining wall.  Then I will have a whole new area to plant.  I still haven't decided what will go in those little areas.  I would really like to have an herb garden, but herbs haven't worked so well for me.  It may end up being an area for flowers.  We'll see.  Here's the before picture.

Detox and Green Smoothies

This week I have decided to go raw in order to hit the reset button on my allergies.  Since Memorial Day weekend, my life has been super busy, stressful, hectic, and fun!  As a result, ever since then I have had hives.  We went camping and our routine went out the window from there.  I had four weekends in a row where I didn't have time to do my Sunday shopping and food prep for the week.  It got so bad that my hubby and I even ended up ordering pizzas for dinner a couple nights.

It is very easy to stay away from my most reactive allergies when I am only eating raw fruits and vegetables.  It gives my body a chance to calm and reset.  Summer is a great time to do this because the warm weather makes me crave fresh fruit and veggies anyways. 

This is the fourth time that I have gone raw.  The first time was 6 years ago.  I started with a 28 day cleanse and felt so good that I stayed raw for 9 months.  The second and third times lasted about 3 weeks each.  Each time I have scoured the internet looking for blogs and articles about the raw lifestyle seeking encouragement and support for the drastic change.  Each time I learn a little more about what works for people and what doesn't.  This time everywhere I searched people were talking about Green Smoothies.  I can't imagine that it's a new craze that I had never seen before in my years of learning about raw foods.  I guess this time I was just ready for the information.  Must be, because I LOVE my Green Smoothies!!!!

They are so refreshing and delicious!  Here is what I made this morning.  It's my favorite yet!

lemon (without rind)
frozen peaches
apple (without core)
slice ginger
spinach
spring mix

Ok I admit, it doesn't look so hot.  But YUM YUM!

Best raw zucchini salad ever!

I'm getting about 2-3 zucchinis a day now.  I've had to get creative with recipes. This is a raw zucchini salad that is delicious!

Recipe: 
Thinly slice 2 medium zucchini (mine are yellow) I used the slicer on my cheese grater.
Thinly slice 6 mini peppers (red, yellow, orange)
Thinly slice 1/4 of a large red onion
Chop 2 roma tomatoes.  (Put 1 in the salad, save the other)
Chop 1 clove of garlic
Put remaining chopped tomatoes with chopped garlic into a slap chopper to pulverize tomatoes.
Add to salad including juices.
Add 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
Add salt & pepper to taste.

Let marinate for 30 minutes to an hour.
YUM YUM!