Green Tomatoes

Like many gardeners in my area, I'm anxiously awaiting the first red tomato. So far I have plenty of green paste tomatoes. My two plants of this variety are prolific. My other two tomatoes of unknown variety are slower in developing. The heirloom has just two wrinkled fruit, and the other plant has three round developing tomatoes. You can see they are all covered with water droplets, as we got a strong thunderstorm and over an inch of rain yesterday.

Paste Tomatoes

Heirloom Tomato

Surprise Tomato Variety

We'll be leaving town for a week vacation on Saturday and I hope that they don't ripen while I'm away.

Garlic

This morning I pulled one of my three varieties of garlic. It was the last variety to put up the garlic scapes (blossoms), so I had thought it would be the last variety to be ready. However, it was turning brown faster than the other kinds so I decided to pull it rather than risk it rotting. I pulled 6 heads. They're a bit on the small size but I remember that it was a rather small head that I planted them from.
The first head got damaged as I dug it up because I didn't realize how deep the garlic heads were. They were 4 to 6 inches below the ground and I mistakenly nicked the head with the trowel. Since the head was damaged, I didn't hang it to dry with the rest. Instead I brought it into the kitchen to dry so we can use it soon. I peeled off the outer layers of skin to see the size of the cloves. The other 5 heads were hung in the barn to cure for a few weeks.
Of the varieties still in the ground, one seems close to being ready to pull, while the largest variety is still on the green side. I'll be keeping an eye on them in the coming week.

Pickles

Today I tried making pickles for the first time. I started small, just one batch. I ordered the pickling cucumbers from my CSA and decided it was best to make the pickles today while the cucumbers were the freshest. I made one batch of Bread and Butter Pickles from The Joy of Cooking:All about Canning and Preserving. It made 4 pints. When I sliced the cucumbers for the recipe, I had just enough cucumber slices left over to experiment with a jar of dill pickles, using dill from my garden. I can't tell you how either recipe turned out yet because I'm waiting for them to cool so I can check the seals on the jars.

Odd and Ends:
Here's my buttercup squash coming along nicely. I had two more female blossoms bloom earlier this week but I can't say for sure yet whether they are going to set. I've noticed that honey bees seem to be frequenting the male flowers which is a good sign. I've also done some pollinating on my own just to make sure, but even still the first 3 female blossoms didn't take. I hope to get more than just one squash out of this plant.
Yesterday, I noticed this Katydid on the underside of a zucchini leaf. I ran back in to get the camera and it was still there when I returned.

The End of the Mystery Plant

Yesterday the mystery plant met it's demise. When it was first discovered and transplanted back in April, it seemed so much like a squash, especially it's seed leaves.
The mystery plant grew vigorously and took over the whole tepee built for it. This was just a few days ago. When my true squashes sprouted and began to grow the comparison between the two started to cast some doubt. The zucchini and buttercup squashes had prickly leaves and stems and the mystery plant did not. The mystery plant was an adept climber, while the buttercup squash had to be coaxed and trained. And the mystery plant's leaves looked less and less similar to those of the squash. But the true test came when it finally blossomed. It seemed to take forever to do so. It finally bloomed and in doing so, revealed itself to be an impostor. I didn't even let the flowers open. Here's the beginning of the flowers.
Yesterday I cut it off at the base of each of the 3 plants. I'm letting it dry on the tepee before I tear it down because my compost has so much green matter in it right now. At the base of the tepee I planted some cucumbers to replace it. Oh well, it was worth a try.

Recent harvests:
1 very large beet. The rest of the beets are from a 2nd seeding attempt and are not yet harvesting size. But this one joined some other beets from our CSA to make a Beet Rosti last night for dinner.
Carrot thinnings. I think these will be a snack before the day is out. Most of these are from my carrots that are planted under the squash tepee and don't get full sun. I'm glad to see that they are still developing a root despite the limited light.

Raspberry Pepper Jam

Last fall I bought some Raspberry Pepper Jam at a farmers market. We really enjoyed it with cream cheese on crackers and it was the perfect blend of sweet and hot. My goal this summer was to re-create that jam. Unfortunately I could not find any recipes for it online. I found some related ones and used those to experiment when I made strawberry jam. The strawberry pepper jam was just alright. It wasn't quite hot enough and I didn't like the texture, it was too clear, more like jelly. I made a few changes and think I've hit on a good recipe for Raspberry Pepper Jam.

So here it is.

Raspberry Pepper Jam

Ingredients:

5 cups fresh raspberries
2 jalapeno peppers
1 bell pepper (red or green)
4 cups sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 package powdered pectin

(Note: Jalapeno peppers vary in strength. Depending on your preference and the strength of the peppers, you may need to add more.)

Directions:

Wash and pick through raspberries. Place one cup in the bottom of a large sauce pan and crush. Add the remaining 4 cups of berries to the pan. In a food processor, chop the jalapenos and bell peppers. Be careful of the jalapeno oils that come out. They made me cough if I accidentally breathed some. Add the chopped peppers to the pan along with the sugar and vinegar.


Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring often. The sugar should dissolve.
Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer for 15 minutes until all the berries are broken apart. This concentrates the berry flavor and boils off some of the liquid content. At this point, stir in the powdered pectin. Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 1 to 2 minutes.
Ladle into hot 1/2 pint jars and process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

Makes about (5) 1/2 pint jars.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

I'm joining on the bandwagon a little late and posting what is blooming today in the garden to join in May Dreams Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. Luckily I took some photos earlier in the day.

First, flowers in the vegetable garden:

Green bean flowers
Paste Tomato Flower
Unknown Heirloom Tomato Flower
Buttercup Squash Blossom
Nasturtium
Jalapeno Pepper Blossom
Marigold

Flowers around the yard:

Bee Balm

Unknown
Wild Daisy
Nettle Leaved Bell Flower (thanks to KD for the identification)
Day lily
Pale Pink Lily

Also blooming but not pictured is a wild white yarrow.