It is a mild (17 degrees C), rainy afternoon here today. The garlic is on week two of curing in the shed. I'm keen to get the bulbs trimmed up, labeled, and bagged, but there is plenty in the garden to occupy my attention until the garlic is ready to be processed.
After a few less-than-stellar years for our crabapple tree, this year it produced fruit tightly bunched along the branches, like grapes. I made two batches of crabapple jelly this week. The colour is so pretty!
In addition to the jelly, I was also able to can batches of Zesty Zucchini relish, Sweet Zucchini relish, Dixie relish, Dill relish, and Green Tomato Chow Chow. I have memories of the delicious chow my grandmother used to make and have wanted to try making it myself for years. The good news is that the recipe made a lot (10.5 half-pints) and it tastes great. The unfortunate news is that the recipe called for white wine vinegar which, it turns out, I am sensitive to (are sulphites the culprit?). I would love to make a second batch using another recipe. We'll see how many green tomatoes there are to work with come harvest time.
Here is a very similar recipe for green tomato chow chow to the one linked above:
A walk around the garden...
Bellestar - While the tomatoes aren't as large as I expected, the plants are very productive and are early (unlike some varieties, which are described as being early but aren't...I'm looking at you, Dwarf Arctic Rose!). Very compact plants, too. We are already picking Bellestars as they ripen to enjoy in salads, stews, and on sandwiches. The tomatoes are quite meaty. I think they'll be great for dehydrating, sauces, and canning.
Dwarf Audrey's Love - I am so glad I gave these a second chance! The plants are more productive than I expected and many of the tomatoes are larger than I expected. Almost no BER at all. The plants are compact, too, and seem to be doing well in containers.
Taxi - an early, productive determinate tomato variety. Round, bright yellow when ripe. Mild flavour, but it looks pretty in salads or on a vegetable tray.
Fiesta beans - a large variety of dry bush bean with runners. The plants and runners are larger/taller than I expected, about 2.5 feet in height.
Galeux D'Eysines - I don't know what happened this year with my tried, true, and (usually) reliable Galeux D'Eysines. We will only get 2 or 3 from the plants this year, and it seems like they are slow to develop. Typically, we get around 8! Funny how you come to just assume certain things will always do well. Hopefully, the Burpee's Butterbush (planted in various spots around the garden) and Lower Salmon River (that I planted as an afterthought in a partially shady section of the south garden) pull through and make up for the lack of Galeux D'Eysines.
Giant Musselburgh leeks - so glad I finally mulched these. They love it! A small patch of leeks for our personal use, this year. I learned the hard way, after planting loads of them in previous years, that they are somewhat labour-intensive to process for storage. Also, the majority of people I offered to share them with declined because they'd never cooked with leeks before and were reluctant to try to 'figure it out'. My city-dwelling friends and family were baffled when they heard this. At $7-9 per bunch of 3 at their grocery stores, they would have gladly scooped up the extra leeks!
Morning Glories
Peach Melba nasturtiums. The largest and healthiest of the nasturtium varieties in the garden this year.
Bathtub pansies
Leek patch pansies
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