I’m dedicating this post to some* of the non-gardening things I want to accomplish this year.

1. Read anew the Winnie the Pooh books, specifically Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. They played a pretty key role in my childhood and likely contributed to my love of forests, woodlots, and the creatures that call those places home.

2. Visit the Bingham Canyon Mine near Copperton, Utah. It’s one of the largest man-made holes on the planet, which is disturbing, but impressive nonetheless.

3. Start up an Etsy site and start selling knitted goods (e.g., cowls). I’m not entirely sure why I want to do this, but I need to at least give it a go. And I’ll need help, Marissa

4. Run. I talk about this a lot, but I really need to start running regularly. Even if it’s a measly 1 mile a few times a week just to get me back into it. I did run a 1/2 marathon a few years ago, so this is not impossible.

SLC 1/2 Marathon 2008

5. Start eating more whole grain foods and fewer white breads and such. I never used to have a problem with this, until I moved here to Utah and started cooking for an additional 2 people who ate at restaurants daily until I arrived.

6. Reduce the number of things in our house (and garage). I really dislike accumulating things year after year.

7. Start using my 20+ reusable shopping bags. No excuses.

8. Get ducks? Should I finally do this? I probably need ducks like I need a hole in my head.

9. Yoga. Enough said.

10. Pay off my car! Hooray!

11. Visit the Smoky Mountains in May to bird and to see the eastern flowering dogwood in bloom. This is already planned

12. Grow eggplant, if only because it’s the sexiest vegetable ever.

13. Blog more!

*I could keep adding to this list and delaying the publishing of this blog, but why?

Milkweed

Virginia Creeper

Digging Potatoes

Harvest

Saving Tomato Seeds

Last year I grew blue hubbard squashes. When it came time to harvest them and process them, I got out a good cutting board, my best knife, and proceeded to cut the squash open and into small pieces.

I’m lying. I didn’t do that. I couldn’t cut the squash. I couldn’t cut it at all. It was impossible, and I nearly injured myself trying.

So, I went online and discovered the secret to breaking open a blue hubbard squash. This year, I used this same technique, only I let my stepdaughter give it a go.

Blue hubbard squashes have the best pumpkin meat (it’s not too watery, yet not too dry); they make the best pumpkin pie and other baked goods; they grow really well in my backyard; and they’re fun to throw on the driveway. I mean really, enough said. However, as I’m sure you now know, they do not make good candidates for jack-o’-lanterns.

We had our first hard frost sometime during the week of the 18th. I don’t know the exact date, because I was busy hiking in the Smoky Mountains. If you’ve seen my About page, you’ll know that I’m a little fixated on that part of the world, and I finally got to check it out. Of course, now I want to go back, once every season, and maybe just move out there. I found a cabin that’s perfect.

Anyhow, I don’t want to make this blog post any longer; otherwise, I’ll lose the interest of my sister

Before I go, you should check out some great Salt Lake City music from the following two bands:

Four Leaves Left (check out the songs Pardoned and Firetruck) and Dani Lion (check out the song Light from Yesterday).

More updates coming soon (Smokies, potatoes, canning, etc!)

xo l

There are grasshoppers everywhere, and because the plants are drying out a bit, you can hear them when they’re hoping around, and of course when they’re making their grasshopper noises! Thankfully, I think grasshoppers are fabulous. They’re not as fabulous as toads, but they’re up there.

Hopper.

Amidst the noise of the grasshoppers and the dried corn blowing in the wind, I happened upon this crazy sight!

Praying mantids, umm.. busy.

So yeah, things in the garden have been productive on all levels

Moving on . . .

1) The garden is still going strong, and I’m still harvesting tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers on a daily basis.My beans finally decided to come on, too.

Anaheim pepper.

Green beans.

2) I visited my friend Laurel and “helped” harvest honey. By “help” I mean hanging out, scrapping off the caps of honey from two frames, taking photos, eating honey with bread (thanks Gina!), and drinking some beer. Oh yes, and I finally got to meet Seema, Laurel’s exchange student from Pakistan. Laurel just updated her blog with more honey harvesting photos. 10 gallons of honey! Go Laurel (and her bees)!

Laurel in her bee suit.

Seema, scraping the honey caps from a frame.

4) I’m starting to learn how to can (and how to spell canning [it's not caning]). I made tomatillo salsa with my friend, Deb. Sadly, I didn’t take any photos, but the salsa was delicious! Deb has some mad canning skills, so she showed me some of the ropes.

5) More canning! My friends Joe and Alex had a peach canning day at their house, so I also canned a ton of peaches!

6) In 19 days, I’ll be hiking in the Smoky Mountains with my Dad. I am beyond excited!

7) My husband is in a new band called Four Leaves Left. You should check them here or here. I like them!

7) I’m almost officially a Master Gardener. I finished the course, and I get my certificate this fall. It’s been a long haul, but I made it

San Marzanos

Last weekend, I  blanched them, chopped them, and froze them in ziplocks. The week before, I blanched them, pureed them with fresh basil, and froze them in ziplocks.

Today, I made marinara.

The thing you need to know about tomatoes is that approx. 30% of your tomatoes ends up as your end product. The rest is water and tomato juice. This is why I grow a lot of tomatoes. I don’t like watery sauce. It also helps to grow non-watery tomatoes (like San Marzanos). Today I made my very first batch of non-watery tomato sauce, from the tomatoes in the three bowls in the above photo

It all began here, in the garden, at 10am.

Pick your tomatoes.

Picking tomatoes

Blanch the tomatoes (i.e., boil them in hot water until their skins break open.)

Blanching.

Skin removed.

As their skins break open, take them out of the pot and put them in a strainer in the sink.

Taking skins off.

Remove the skins and discard them (ours go in our compost). They’ll likely be HOT, so run cold water over them, as needed.

Cut the tomatoes in half with a knife and mash them until the water stops flowing through the strainer. I save this tomato juice/water and freeze it for mid-winter minestrone soup.

Cutting tomatoes.

Mashing.

When you’re out of tomatoes, start cooking them in a large stock pot on low, for several hours, constantly stirring and skimming extra water/juice off the surface.

This is a long process, and is worth it if you don’t want watery sauce. Keep stirring, create little depressions in the sauce with your ladle, and keep scooping the water out. Keep doing this. If you get bored, go grab a book or call your Mom.

Cooking tomatoes.

Puddling water.

Throw in some shredded carrots. They add sweetness to the sauce.

Fry up some other ingredients.

Frying up garlic, butter, onions, and celery leaves.

Once the onions become transparent,  take them off the stove. Toss them in the sauce when you’re fairly confident that your sauce is no longer watery.

At this point, you can put in whatever else you want. I threw in some red wine, hand ripped basil, olive oil, dried rosemary and dried basil, sugar, salt, and pepper.

Cook all of this on low for about 30 minutes. Take it off the stove to “cool” for about 45 minutes. Use a hand blender to blend the crap out of it until it looks like marinara sauce.

And that’s it! We had it for dinner on some penne noodles. It was fabulous. I did add some more dried basil, rosemary, and salt afterward.

The end.