Garden Art

We like to attempt a garden every year. When I say "attempt", I mean we never know what the garden is going to do from year to year. Weather, chipmunks, bugs, etc. all have an impact on our garden success.

Last year's garden was pretty sad. Bitter cucumbers, buggy and split tomatoes made us question if the cost of the plants and all of the watering was worth it.

A past year's garden.

The above picture is from 2014, I think. We have two of these and usually plant tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and maybe some herbs. Not wanting to give up on the idea of growing some veggies, we decided to plant less this year. So of course, everything is delicious! This year, we've grown some of the tastiest tomatoes and cucumbers we've ever had!

So fewer plants means less deliciousness. No bumper crop, but enough to enjoy fresh and try something new.

If you are a follower of the blog Priscillas 2000, or if you watch Priscilla & Chelsea on Flosstube, you may be familiar with Yard Sauce, Priscilla's recipe for roasted tomato sauce. I decided to try it for myself.

Basically you roast your tomatoes on a baking sheet along with some onion, basil, and salt. Other veggies like zucchini can be added if you want. Roast it for about an hour. The photo above shows the results of the roasted veggies already in the blender. I did not get a photo of the roasted tomatoes. I regret that because it was beautiful.

You then blend all of that goodness up and instantly you have something resembling a sauce.

I managed to get three cups of sauce from this pan of tomatoes. Now remember, I didn't have a lot of tomatoes. It was pretty much a single layer of tomatoes and the other ingredients.

And when I tasted it, it was good!  Right into the freezer it went, to be enjoyed in the future. Do I wish we had planted more tomatoes? Yes! Mark went out and bought some "late in the season" tomato plants and they're doing well. So maybe I'll be able to create more of this lovely sauce before growing season ends.

What about the cucumbers? They are absolutely yummy, and we did have a few extras so I used a tried and true recipe for spicy refrigerator pickles.

These are so good and easy to make. A mixture of seasonings, some pickling liquid, and sliced cucumbers go right into your clean jar. Take that jar and shake it up every day, and in a week the pickles are ready to eat. I like this recipe because it contains no sugar, but I guess you could put some in if you want to. The best thing is that these can keep in your fridge for 6 months. That is, if you don't eat them before that!

That sums up my garden arts and crafts for this post. I was hoping to get enough jalapenos for pickled jalapenos, and I still might. I hope you liked this slightly different post. I figure that being crafty with food is crafting nonetheless. And these are super-easy recipes that you can use if you have a bumper crop of veggies, or even if you just have a few extra. Let me know if you try it!