Pasta, Red Peppers, Sausage and Sauce

As you may already know I have 1 single tomato plant and 1 single green pepper plant in my garden this year. They have each produced a massive amount of vegetables. So one unseasonably cool day recently I thought I would make a nice hearty tomato sauce and grill some Italian sausage and sweet red peppers from Donatelli's. What a delight! I grilled the sausage and peppers while the sauce cooked in the dutch oven on the stove. I tossed the sauce with some bow tie pasta and then topped it with the sliced red peppers and sausages. I ate one serving and froze the rest in mason jars! Next time I would mix the meat in with the pasta and sauce rather than layer it on top, so it doesn't dry out when reheating. I did keep one sausage aside and grilled it another day with a green pepper from the garden. I used some of my homemade sauce and provolone cheese with them and made a hoagie.

 

Harvesting Continues

I just harvested my stevia plants and hung them up to dry this past weekend. And even into October I've continued to reap green peppers (just from 1 single plant), tomatoes, carrots, and the broccoli has kept on keeping on. One of my green peppers had a little tiny hole in it and I thought someone had moved in. I didn't find any critters inside, though, just clean fresh seeds and fruit.

Another Typical Day

that looks like a meal right there

As we plow through these, the dogs days of Summer, and start to feel Autumnal clues in the air, the Bloomfield backyard urban garden aka yarden still keeps putting out hits! Like the Summer of Love, 1969, you can feel the love produced by my two little herb and veggie plots all Summer long. Broccoli continues to flourish. Tomatoes have begun to ripen. The basil, oregano, dill, and, of course, mint only get bushier as time goes on. Now, some fat little yellow worm ate through the stem of my zucchini plant, so that motherfucker died. The plant I mean, not the worm. Fat little worm gorged him or herself long before I figured out what happened. Oh well. The carrots turned out great, and the green pepper plant continues to put off nice little tennis ball sized fruits. Yarden 2014 for the win.

fat little worm destroyed my zucchini plant

Huge Batch of Garden Spaghetti Sauce

I just used 50 tomatoes from my garden to make a huge pot of spaghetti sauce! I pulled up my tiny little red onions that I grew -- none larger than a golf ball -- and used them as well. I also used fresh oregano and basil from the garden. I bought a couple pounds of local, grass-fed ground beef at the Phipps Farmers Market and included that as well. 

• 1 medium to large red onion
• a dozen cloves of garlic
• 8 Tablespoons of olive oil

• about 50 tiny tomatoes and 2 or 3 small ones, diced
• 5 cans tomato paste
• 5 cans of water
• 1/2 to 1 Cup sugar
• 10-20 leaves of fresh basil
• 5-10 6 inch stems of fresh oregano 

• 2 pounds of grass-fed ground beef

1. Cook first three ingredients (oil, onion, garlic) for about 5 minutes and add to large pot.
2. Add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, water, sugar, and some of the herbs. Simmer over low heat for 2-3 hours total.
3. Brown ground beef and add to the pot.
4. Add more herbs throughout cooking process.

I got those 3 black cherry tomatoes on the left from Tricia's garden
BEFORE I got chumped (not recently).

Daily Harvest

Just went out and grabbed this handful of goodies to make an omelette!

TriciaSoGarden

Early this morning I went over to take a look at the Melon St. Garden aka TriciaSoGarden. I feared the tomatoes might have taken over the world. The zucchini, cabbage, beans, peppers, and cucumbers have come along nicely! [EDIT: Later, she came home and chumped me.] :( 

Daily Harvest

For the last month I've had something to harvest almost daily. Plenty of cilantro, mint, and oregano. Lots and lots of broccoli. And now the carrots and tomatoes have started. Check out what I reaped today: oregano, a carrot, and some tomatoes.