The Garden

I figured no one cares what I'm doing 99.9% of the time but this is the "Diary of Judy L." so I'll just share what's interesting to me and I can guarantee it likely isn't something that's going to interest anyone else. Sorry!!

Last week I picked up my new glasses and there's something not right about them. After wearing them for an hour or so, I get a headache and it's a weird headache - not a sinus headache or any kind of headache I've had before so right off the bat we went back to get some adjustments made. Whatever they did, I don't think it solved the issue but I'll give it a few days before I go back. I say that but I'm back to wearing my old glasses.

We got home and Vince had to rush off to physical therapy. I headed out to the garden and this is what I got.

 There's a delicata squash in the back - I did not plant delicata so that's more seeds from the compost bin. I would have sworn that zero seeds went into my compost bin but I would be wrong.

That big gold cucumber was hiding and I will use it for the seeds that I will plant next year. There are more yellow zucchini, a couple more eggplant, giant Marconi peppers (my favorite), jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, a few tomatoes and more yellow zucchini. Tomorrow we have appointments and I probably won't have to pick anything out of the garden tomorrow.

I've mentioned before how much I love Mandy in the Making's YouTube videos. I'm pretty sure I also mentioned this particular video because I already made the Garlic Butter Lemon Chicken Thighs and they were delicious. Today, I was going to make the Crockpot Cheesy Marinara Meatballs. She doesn't even really list the recipe - just a very short list of ingredients. The recipe calls for frozen storebought meatballs but I can't bring myself to use storebought ground meat for several reasons. If you do use storebought ground meat . . don't ask me about my reasons! You're welcome!!  :)

I got out in the garden and started working and never took ground beef out of the freezer so I grabbed a jar of ground beef I had canned a while back. Quick and easy! While we were eating, I told Vince that it was canned ground beef, not knowing what he would say. Sometimes he asks questions about my canning and I don't know if (1) he's just trying to be nice or (2) he's concerned about whether I really know what I'm doing and we may die! But, when I told him, he said "WOW! You would never know!" One of the things I said was "We never have to worry about the power going out and losing our meat if it's in jars! Then he wanted to know how long it would last in the jars. I know there are rules/suggestions and most will say 2 years max but we're still working on taco soup that I canned in 2013. I'm not sure why I decided that 50+ quarts of taco soup was a good idea but I did.

The only change I made . . can you guess?? I added yellow zucchini! How else am I going to get rid of all that zucchini? A reader had posted that she adds zucchini to her spaghetti sauce so I did too and from now on, if I have zucchini, I'll probably add it to my sauce.

I really liked this recipe. Debbie suggested EVERYTHING is better with Boursin and that may be it. I'll definitely make this again. 

The last garden related thing I did was to cut back the basil. I put it all in the dehydrators. It will take two loads to get it all done. I am also dehydrating the stems and I will grind those and add them to salt to make basil salt.

Look at the size of those basil leaves! I was going to grab a coin for reference but my wallet was downstairs so I grabbed a butter knife. Hope that gives you an idea of the size of these leaves! I've made pesto for the freezer and will probably make more before the basil bolts. I don't think it's possible for me to save enough basil and pesto to get us through the year but I give it my best shot.

Last - the squash bugs. My squash is doing way better than it has in recent years but look at this . . 

Normally I find the eggs on the back sides of leaves. They can lay them anywhere but this is the first time I've seen so many eggs in random places. Here's some on a squash blossom and on the stem of a leaf. I could be wrong but I choose to believe we're doing good fighting them and they're frustrated and confused and maybe they won't come back next year because we've not had the welcome mat out for them! Right!!

It's 4:30 p.m. and I'm going back to my cross stitching!