Food Processing Plant

I feel like I work in a food processing plant. It's what I do most days and often way into the night. I love my garden. I love fresh produce and finding ways to use that fresh produce in meals. I planted 1 zucchini plant. It started bearing fruit early and hasn't let up. Is there any way to just plant 1/2 a zucchini plant next time. For a while there David asked me every night at dinner if there was zucchini hidden in his meal. I have both shredded and diced zucchini in our freezer and I've actually really enjoyed finding ways to use it. I found a recipe for zucchini orange muffins and another for zucchini carrot muffins. I even made zucchini fritters one night. Tonight I made minestrone soup that had zucchini, onion, tomato, bell pepper and basil all from my garden.

 This is spaghetti sauce. I know everyone thought I was crazy planting 16 tomato plants. One plant died but I've used every last red tomato or given it away. I've done 18 quarts of spaghetti sauce so far. Isn't it pretty?

Adam and Matthew are my master produce pickers. This was one of their first harvests. They were so proud of it all. Matthew still picks green tomatoes occasionally but he has gotten better. Plus they are awesome helpers at scalding tomatoes. Adam is a pro at peeling the tomatoes. 

 Basil....oh I have tons of basil. This isn't even half of it. I have dried lots of it and then frozen more in water in ice cube trays for sauces. I love the smell of fresh basil. I like to pick it and just leave it in the kitchen to smell.

This is salsa. I've done 21 quarts of it and need to do more. Everything in that salsa came from my garden except the vinegar and cumin. I've also done 18 quarts of green enchilada sauce. My tomatillos weren't as prolific as they usually are. They look rather sickly but I still got enough to do plenty of enchilada sauce. But I planted 6 hoping to have plenty to give to my parents, sister and brother-in-law. It turns out I'm not very good at sharing. :)

Anaheim peppers...roasted. I used these roasted anaheims for a chile relleno dish that David hated and my parents and brother loved. I also use the anaheims in a pasta sauce. I love the little kick it gives the sauce. So I have bags and bags of frozen diced anaheim and serrano and bell peppers. And the serranos this year are HOT! David is loving it.

Each year I forget how time consuming it is to can and freeze and not just harvest the garden but then do something with all the produce. I thought I was going to pickle cucumbers this year but just ran out of stamina. Besides that is one vegetable that my boys eat and don't get tired of. One of our family's favorite thing is to give the produce away. Jacob and Adam love to take stuff to their primary teachers and piano teacher and neighbors and home teaching with dad. I really like giving it away. It makes people so happy to have fresh tomatoes. It makes me happy to give it to them.

We only ended up with 4 watermelons and only 1 that was really just fabulous. The plant started dying. But the cantaloupes are delicious. We got 6 huge cantaloupes. I was so proud. We just went and picked the pumpkins. We only have 4 orange ones and 2 green ones from two plants. We had tons of blossoms that I picked and gave to my mother in law. She cooks them with onion, peppers, garlic and epazote (I don't think we have that herb in the United States). Overall our harvest has been huge but compared to the past this growing season has been really different. It was just too wet of a spring and the frost will be any day now. I have so many green tomatoes out there still. I'm going to pick them before the frost and see if they will ripen up inside. I'm already planning next year's garden. I'm hooked to this time consuming hobby of mine.