Summer Garden 2012

The summer veggie garden is winding down. The tomatoes are pretty much done for the season. Yet the peppers are just getting started.

My veggie garden was better this year than it was last year, but still not the best it could be. The soil at La Casa is pretty clay-ey and veggies often struggle to grow, even with plenty of amendments and fertilizing. So I tried more containers this year and that's where I had my greatest success.

I have several "salad bowls" going. I plant lettuce seeds every other week and that keeps us in salads. I also had great success with growing basil from seed-- something that fellow gardeners tell me is difficult to do. However, I learned long ago not to rest on my gardening laurels. My first veggie garden at La Casa produced a prodigious yield of basil and tomatoes and I smugly proclaimed myself a gardening genius. The next two harvests were downright pathetic and I was suitably chastised. Pride goeth before a fall...

It is probably just psychological, but I swear I feel especially energized when I eat a salad made from La Casa's garden produce. So I have started the winter garden, sowing radish, carrot, beet, arugula, spinach and lettuce seeds in a raised bed of my own design to keep the goodness growing.

Flexible

My first batch of yogurt in the bargain yogurt maker turned out beautifully! Slighly tart, satisfyingly firm, it was just right. I have been eating it for breakfast with fruit or jam and granola mixed in. I'll make another batch this weekend.

My pantry is evolving more towards having items that have multiple purposes. The gallon of milk can be used for cereal, for adding to coffee or for making yogurt. The flour in the fridge can be made into pizza dough or zucchini bread or used to thicken a sauce. The vinegar provides brine for pickles as well as an effective cleaning agent. This way I minimize the number of items I have in the cupboards while maximizing the potential uses. It may take a bit more time, but I really like the flexibility.

Another way in which I am evolving towards flexibility is in cooking. My errands yesterday took longer than expected so I didn't have sufficient time to make the dinner I had planned. I flipped through my dinner binder and found a quicker recipe. Then I swapped out the tarragon for basil, the white wine for red, the Northern beans for kidney beans and added bell peppers. The result was just as delicious as the original and it was good to use up what was already on hand instead of making a dash to the grocery store.

Digital Housekeeping

During this break I am tackling many organizational projects, going through stuff and tossing that which is no longer needed. Earlier in the week I tackled the hall closet which had become jungle-like in its configuration of boxes and random items. I removed everything from the closet, went through all the boxes, ruthlessly culled items and as soon as I emptied a box, I ran to the recycling bin, broke down the box and tossed it in before I could weaken. The closet looks incredible now.

There is another form of clutter that I think we are all afflicted with these days. The problem is this clutter is largely invisible. I am talking about the files we accumulate on our computers. I save images and interesting articles that I will read some day and then promptly forget about them.

So today I am sitting with my laptop, opening files that haven't been touched in a decade, organizing articles and images, deleting mystery files and occasionally unearthing gems. Unfortunately, when this organizing task is done, there will be no visible sign of it. But it will still give me a secret satisfaction, knowing that my laptop's hard drive is as organized as the rest of the house.

Romapalooza!

A local pick your own farm has an event every Labor Day weekend where people can come and pick Roma tomatoes for 25 cents a pound. I've done this event three times (I call it Rompalooza), each time picking more tomatoes.

The first year my mother and I picked 30 lbs and made red sauce, which I froze. Last year I picked 62 lbs of Romas and canned 18 jars of red sauce and whole tomatoes. This year, with the help of my mom and a friend, I picked 79 lbs and canned 44 jars of red sauce, salsa and whole tomatoes. That, I think, is my limit. We did three five hour canning sessions over the long weekend and I was pretty much sick of tomatoes by the end of it.

Ah, but come winter time, it will be such a treat to open a jar and inhale the summery goodness of rich, ripe Romas! They will be a delightful addition to pasta, to stews, to pizzas and to chips. I've given away a few jars and love to be able to say, "I picked and canned these, I hope you enjoy them".

Pick your own at Underwood Farms: http://www.underwoodfamilyfarms.com/

A great article on Romapalooza: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/sep/02/hundreds-pick-their-own-tomatoes-in-moorpark/

A yummy canned salsa recipe: http://www.countryhomecanning.com/Salsa_Canning_Recipe.html

I should have been thinking of winning lotto numbers

One day when Mama de la Casa was visiting us, we went thrifting. I took her to a thrift store I really like but haven't been to in a while. We were wandering the aisles when I suddenly mentioned that I had been thinking of getting a yogurt maker. I've tried making yogurt in the oven, with uneven success and I thought an actual yogurt maker might help me achieve more consistent results. I turned a corner and lo and behold, there was a yogurt maker for $3.00! It was amazing! I wish I had been thinking of winning lottery numbers!

I scooped up the yogurt maker along with a few other treasures and brought them home. I went on line and found the owner's manual for the yogurt maker. This is yet another reason why I love the Internet-- I didn't have to let the lack of a manual deter me from getting a bargain.

I'll be making my first batch of yogurt this weekend and will be sure to report how it turns out. I have plenty of jam, fresh fruit and walnuts to mix in to it.

Do you have any great thrifting stories? I'd love to hear them!