Clearly The Fates are out to get me. It rained for hours and hours last night. The garden is still very soggy from the 24-hour flood I subjected it to Saturday, and the tomato plants were looking pretty rough. Today, after the storm, it was even worse:
The plants are shriveling up — probably root rot, coupled with the late blight they already had. Luckily Del’s tomatoes are starting to put on, so I am still able to pick a few tomatoes each day.
The carrot sprouts from seed seem to have died, but the ones on the other bale are still alive. I may go ahead and replant in case I can get anything to come up.
Several more radishes have sprouted. I see one broccoli sprout, too. The kohlrabi isn’t up yet, nor is the celery or onion. I will wait a few more days and then get more onion seed. I’m pretty sure that seed tape was bad, as it’s from that batch I got at Tractor Supply and none of those packets of seeds did anything.
The blackberry starts are looking rough, but I’ve learned to let them go and see what happens:
The bean trellis is looking sickly and healthy, which is kind of weird to see. Almost all the leaves from chest down are gone on the left of the trellis and some vines are dying:
We ate beans for dinner last night — I mixed all three varieties together and boiled them in salty water. Sydney loved it! Canned beans can not compare to fresh beans. I love those Lima beans and I’ll grow them again. The Garden of Eden are not putting much on. I’m disappointed. I don’t even have beans to save for them. I hope they put on some more soon so I can get some beans to save. The scarlet runner has another two weeks before they’re ready, I think. I don’t even see many beans from those. I did finally get a few regular string beans from the three remaining Jade plants. They are fine. I think I like the Italian beans better.
Here are some pictures of tomato plants. That one is about dead, but it has a tomato coming finally, so I’ll let it be. The little catfaced tomato made me smile. It’s only about the size of a nickel:
I picked about 6 more tomatillos. The ones yesterday were so blue! The taste is much sweeter than I imagined. I really like these purple tomatillos.
Tomatillos keep a long time, so I am keeping them in a paper sack until I have enough to make more salsa verde. We LOVE the stuff I made out of the first batch of tomatillos. I will definitely grow them again.
The recipe we are using comes from AllRecipes.com. I blended first and then cooked the sauce, but to be perfectly honest, it was better uncooked.
When I first made the sauce it was green with little flecks of purple skin. After a day or so, the purple color bled into the sauce, so now it’s kind of a sickly purple-green. Tastes amazing though. I think I’ll probably just do green tomatillos next year.
Tomatillo Salsa Verde
- Prep 10 m
- Cook 15 m
- Ready In 25 m
Recipe By: Kimberly Binning “This authentic Mexican salsa verde has a fabulous flavor. Use it on chicken enchiladas or as a condiment for any dish that needs a little extra zip!”
Ingredients
- 1 pound tomatillos, husked
- 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 serrano chile peppers, minced
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
- 2 cups water
Directions
- Place tomatillos, onion, garlic, and chile pepper into a saucepan. Season with cilantro, oregano, cumin, and salt; pour in water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until the tomatillos are soft, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Using a blender, carefully puree the tomatillos and water in batches until smooth.
We are mainly eating this on eggs or with chips. Delicious!!!
