I just realized that my chanterelle picture didn't post yesterday.  Here is what should have gone with the post.

 

I added a new one too, so you can see how pretty they really are.

 

HAPPY SUMMER!!!

 

Wow!!!  Look at that!!!  What a beauty.  I am just bragging that this tomato grew in our garden.

 

I saved seeds from an heirloom pineapple tomato last summer, and planted some of the seeds in March.  They have been in the garden since May, and are really producing a bunch of tomatoes.  They aren't all this big, but there have been a few giants like this.  

 

Isn't it gorgeous?  We sliced it and put it on our eggplant pizza.  YUMMEE!!!

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

See the difference?  These mushrooms look friendly.  That's because I know that they are.  

 

These are chanterelles growing near our apple trees.  When we have a week or so of wet weather in summer, the yard sprouts chanterelles.  They come up all over, probably where trees are decomposing under the ground.  I love it when they appear.   

 

They are a little work to clean, but sometimes they come up in the grass and are already clean.  I don't mind cleaning them, though, because they are so good cooked with our green beans from the garden.  They have to be cooked, not eaten raw, but that is true with most mushrooms.

 

But, don't take my word for mushroom identification.  If you are interested in learning about mushrooms, buy a good field guide, and find somebody who knows mushrooms.  It is great to learn from an expert, which I am not.  I have a Naturalist friend who knows mushrooms, and we have spent lots of time together in the woods.  Best to learn first hand, then use the field guides and internet for backup.  

 

HAPPY SUMMER!!!

 

We were walking in the park last week, and happened to notice this lovely thing.  It was just a little off the path,  standing about 2 feet tall.  It took my breath away!!!  I knew it was a lily, but my guess was Turk's cap.  Nope.

 

I looked it up in my Wildflowers in Color book when we got home.  It said:  Although this lily resembles the Turk's-cap, it is much shorter (1-3 ft.) and usually grows in drier places.  Carolina lily is often 1-flowered or 1-3 flowered in contrast to the many-flowered Turk's-cap.  That settled the mystery for me.  

 

Truth be told:  my photo is even better than the one in the book.  

 

HAPPY HIKING!!!

 

 

 

Don't you just love summer?  Tomatoes from the garden!!!!!  Time to blanch and can them.  

 

This many tomatoes will fill about 6 or 7 pint jars.  But the pressure canner only holds 9 pints, so we gauge our canning sessions accordingly.  One canning session a day is plenty of work.  6 or 7 pints of tomatoes is a good day's work, IMO, (in my opinion.)

 

In the winter, we love to make soup, and nearly all our recipes use tomatoes.  We'll be ready this winter.  We eat local, because we can.  ;)

 

HAPPY SUMMER!!!!

 

We blanched and canned tomatoes the other day, and when we were done there was still a bunch of liquid in the pot.

 

So...you know how to make stock using chicken bones and vegetable scraps?  Well, I applied that technique to making tomato juice.  I added peeled cucumbers, onion, pepper,  a little red cabbage, celery, lovage, and a little garlic to the tomato liquid.  We let it steep for an hour, strained it, put it into the prepared jars, and ended up with 6 pints of seasoned tomato juice.  

 

Perfect for Sunday morning Bloody Marys.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

YUCK!!!  Look who I saw on my tomato plant.  Tomato Hornworm.  

 

This picture makes it look really big, but it is really quite small.  I just happened to notice it because it was at my eye level.  I walk up and down the rows every morning, looking for anything out of the ordinary.  And this is what I saw.  It just looks nasty doesn't it?  

 

You can see where it had chewed the tomato leaf.  The little opportunist that it is.  Was...

 

 HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Tada!!!!  How beautiful:  pink and blue!!!  Tuesday was day 100 since we planted the seeds for our North Georgia Candy Roasters.

 

So we cut them.  I learned a few years ago that a good practice before storing squash is to wipe the stem ends with Isopropyl Alcohol.  This prevents bacteria from moving in and destroying the squash while they are in storage.  How awful to spend 100 days growing them, then to lose them before you can eat them.  Our plan is to store them until winter, then make soup, pies, and other sweet squash stuff.  

 

I put my phone in the picture for reference, but here are the stats:  the biggest one, number 5 from the left weighs 6 pounds, 14 ounces!!!  The smallest ones are numbers 1 and 2, and weigh 2 pounds, 5 ounces each.  Total:  30 pounds, 4 ounces of delicious squash.

 

Thought you'd like to share in our thrill of having grown such beautiful squashes.  

 

HAPPY GARDENERS!!!

 

I know better, but I do it every year.  I let a few Morning Glories climb the tomato cages, because:  well, just look how beautiful they are!!!

 

Any good farmer would tell you that they are noxious weeds, stranglers, and a nuisance in the garden.  I know that, but I still let a few go.  

 

I start the season weeding them out, but by July a couple have made it to the top of the tomato cages, and other places.  So I just let them go and enjoy them on my morning walks in the garden.  

 

Weeds?  Flowers?  YES!!!  I get it, but like I said:  I know better, but choose to enjoy the morning glories.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

HAHAHA!!!  The one that got away.  It happens every year:  that one zucchini that hid under the leaves, and didn't get noticed until.....

 

This one is 15 inches long and weighs 2 lbs., 5 ounces!!!

 

I just found it when I was looking at the Cushaw and Candy Roaster babies.  

 

What a pleasant surprise.  I will cut it in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, and stuff it with a mixture of wild rice and mushrooms.  It will probably feed us dinner twice;  ok, three times.  We love zucchini.

 

HAPPY  GARDENING!!!