Here are some of the fingerling potatoes I harvested. My 2 pounds of seed potatoes magically turned into 25 pounds of deliciousness and has been by far my most successful crop. I think growing the potatoes in the big pots is the way to go. I recently talked to a friend who lost all of her potatoes to moles. Well moles can't seem to find a way into the pots. Also the harvesting is so very easy. I basically dump the contents of each pot onto a tarp and gather all of the potatoes from the still rich looking dirt, which I then dragged off and dumped in to an area of the garden that seemed to want more soil.
My tomatoes are just beginning to ripen and I noticed this week the stands at the farmer's market were a riot of tomatoes in all shades of red, yellow and orange and just dripping with sunshine. As the romas come in, I halve them, place them on a cookie sheet and drizzle olive oil over them. Then I sprinkle on some thyme and a few slivers of garlic along with salt and pepper. I roast them for an hour or so at around 300 degrees until they begin to crisp up and brown around the edges and fill the house with delicious aromas. These can be frozen and when thawed added to salads, soups, sauces ... whatever you choose. Of course, you can do this with any of the tomatoes not just romas. Cherry tomatoes prepared this way and set out as finger food are a wonderful prelude to any summer meal.
The other thing I like to do with an abundance of tomatoes is to halve or quarter them, depending on their size. I do not peel or seed them, just put them in the blender along with some good olive oil, fresh oregano and basil and several cloves of fresh garlic. Add some onion if you choose and blend away. This is good as is over freshly prepared pasta or salt it away in the freezer for some yummy winter meals that will remind you of the lovely days of summer.
Basically the rest of the veggies in the garden were a bust for a variety of reasons, but mainly the deer population wiped out a bunch of stuff. Next year I plan on just doing some early spring things like lettuce, again potatoes and tomatoes. The rest I'll get from the farmer's market. Of course, the herbs will always be part of the garden.
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