This was our first year having our own raised bed vegetable garden and boy was it ever a learning experience for my husband, children, and I. My husband had no experience with gardening at all, but fortunately as a child and teen my family always had a vegetable garden in which I worked. It didn’t take long for a lot of my past knowledge to come out of the recesses of my mind.
Plant recognition came back rather easily, as did the sowing of seed and plant transfers. What did not come back was the distance to space everything and the actual size of the full grown plants. LOL. Several times we had to rearrange our plantings as they grew.
Next spring, the squash will not be in a raised bed nor will the cucumbers, watermelons or cantaloupes. The squash plants were enormous…much more so than I remembered and quickly took over their bed. Everything else had to be moved.
The cucumbers, watermelons and cantaloupes are all vines and run rampant which I did remember. Unfortnately, I just did not allow quite enough room this year. These will just be in a tilled up area next year.
Since we started a bit late, our garden is still producing quite a bit of veggies. We ended up with about 30 tomato plants which are really producing now. I decided to make some home made salsa and try canning it which is a first for me.
This weekend, my mother and I peeled and diced a ton of tomatoes. I gathered our chili peppers from the garden and chopped them as well.
I read through several salsa recipes and decided to do a combination of several that I liked. Here is the recipe we decided to use:
*10lbs of tomatoes diced and peeled
*green & yellow chili peppers
*fresh cilantro
*salt
*black pepper
*cilantro
*Italian dressing
*garlic cloves minced
*garlic powder
*oregano
*3lbs white onions finely chopped
*lime juice
*lemon juice
*balsamic vinegar
In a large pot I put in the tomatoes and onions and turned the heat to medium low. I began adding the seasonings until I got it to taste as I liked it. I brought it to a simmer only because I like it to be more like a fresh salsa than a cooked version.
Once it was heated through and simmering quite nicely, I took it off the stove and started putting it into my sterilized pint canning jars. I put a sterilized lid and ring on each one and tightened. Once I heard the pop later…I knew they had sealed.
Mmmm….nothing like some home made salsa and chips! Enjoy!
