Just after I bought 27 lbs of tomatoes 2 weekends ago, I actually had a large harvest from the garden:
11.25 oz tomatoes
9.6 oz hot peppers (these largely became 2 batches of tomato and hot pepper salsa)
3 lb 4.25 oz pickling cucumbers (these became 4 qt of pickles)
2 lb 4.5 oz zucchini (this got shredded & frozen for future zucchini bread)
1.75 oz thai basil (this became kra pow)
This adds almost 7 lbs to my total harvest, bringing it to 19.03 lbs. Not bad for my small, not-completely-planted garden, but not great. It hasn't been a good year from my garden and via eavesdropping at the local nursery and farmer's market, I'm not alone.
My goal (maybe I should call it "my hope") this year was to average $3/lb in produce (harvest divided by this year's start up costs, $115). Thus far I'm at $6.09/lb with tomato plants that aren't looking so good and zucchinis that are almost refusing to set more fruit despite looking perfectly healthy. I don't think I'm going to make it. I suppose the upside is that I've estimated that buying the organic produce from my garden would have cost me about $85, with herbs doing most of the heavy-lifting there.
The year isn't over. I've ruled out doing a fall garden this year (that side of the house doesn't get good light in the fall/winter), save for some arugula, mustard greens and carrot seeds thrown into a pot or two, though, so I guess there is a tiny chance I'll make it.
In a few weeks, when the season is really over, I'll review and post the hits & misses of the season.
Monday, August 23, 2010
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You're not alone. The tomato plants in my garden plot died because of the heavy rain and high heat. They were all confused! I had to pull them up this weekend because my garden association doesn't take too kindly to dead plants in peoples gardens. Now I have what feels like 100 lbs of cherry tomatoes to use up and some green ones too so I'm determined that something delicious will come out of it!
ReplyDeleteIf you need ideas...
ReplyDeleteI made lots of oven-dried cherry tomatoes (that I mostly froze) at the end of the season last year and make Green Tomato and Apple Chutney with the green ones.
The oven-dried tomatoes were green with purple basil, garlic, walnuts, parm and a few olives pureed in a pesto. And the chutney is really good with roasted or grilled chicken or pork! (or with really sharp aged cheddar)