Spooky Action Ranch Report | Week Twenty-five 2015
June 15th to June 21st
Tomato Harvest
I added my freshly seeded tomatoes to the pot of sauteing onions to get them to start stewing and drop their skins.
Our tomato plants have been producing a nice amount of tomatoes and it is time to bring in the harvest and process it for saving. I decided to make a tomato soup this go around, and wanted to have a nice hearty garden style soup to add to our cupboard.
To make this soup, I cut each tomato in half lengthwise and squeezed the seeds and juices into a separate bowl before tossing the rest of the tomato (skin and all) into a big pot already full of sauteing onions. As I worked on seeding the tomatoes, I also watch the stewing pot, and removed the skins from the pot as they started to slip of the tomato halves. The skins want to float and came up to the surface as I stirred.
I poured the tomato juice with seeds through a strainer into the pot. It will take some mashing with a wooden spoon to get all the juice out if it, but the added sweetness is well worth the work.
Once I had enough volume of seeds and juices, I poured this through a strainer and into my pot of stewing tomatoes. You have to work it a little bit to get all the juice out from around the seeds, but it is well worth it to get all the tasty goodness that is in that tomato juice.
I really wanted a sweet and hearty soup, so I let this stew and simmer for several hours, then seasoned it with some salt and pepper before putting it into the canner. The final product was absolutely delicious and I will really enjoy the wonderful sweetness of tomatoes when I open a can of this soup this winter!
‘Member the Stink Bugs?
This is a newly hatched batch of stink bugs.
Yes, our Stink bug population is still going strong. I found these guys among the cucumbers this week. Unfortunately, for them, there was a horrible accident and none of them survived. I dropped this whole leaf in a glass of water and was not able to retrieve it for at least an hour. I am afraid that these baby stink bugs had not yet learned how to swim. They will (not) be missed.
Garden in Full Bloom
We had a lovely day of rain this week and the garden is in full bloom. I thought you might enjoy these images of flowers from around the place.
I just could not resist taking pictures of all the lovely rain touched flowers in the garden. This is a Colossus Cow-pea bloom.
The cucumber blossoms were looking lovely too!
Even the tomatoes are still flowering despite the start of the summer heat.
We have marigolds in the garden to serve as a deterrent to some garden pests, most particularly the root knot nematodes, who don’t do well with the toxins produced by the plants roots. They sure do look lovely for hired assassins.
These light pink, almost lavender, roses are actually supposed to be blue. (I have a thing for Tennessee Williams and was hoping for some ‘Blue Roses’) but our soil is much to alkaline here for the true color to come out.
Nice pictures!