G-Day mates from Oklahoma USA
by Brook Morris
(Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA)
one mornings harvest for breakfast
Let me introduce myself. My better half and I travel frequently to Australia and want to say right off if we ever had to go to any country to live it would be Australia!
My name is Brook and the better half is Tam. She BTW, is over there now with her mom and sister visiting friends in Newcastle and Brisbane, not to mention my nephew in Sydney.
We live in Oklahoma, USA. I don't know how everyone else's gardens are doing, but my peppers have gone nuts this year and I have probably another 2-3 harvests to go. I had Serrano's, Jalapeņos, Banana, and sweet bells and all have done good. The tomato plants have been hit and miss this year due to the wacky weather we have had. I have managed to get about 30 tomatoes though. The squash has taken over the neighbor's fence and is loaded. My bird house gourds are fixing to take over my peppers if they keep crawling over the other neighbor's fence and the side of my house.
LOL My onions have been hit and miss also. I had a bunch of Vidalia's I planted and Texas sweets and only the Texas sweets did anything which is what you see in the pictures. I have harvested probably about 400 peppers this year and have dehydrated 1/2 of them and placed in sterile mason jars for safe keeping. Another 1/4 I will cut off the stems and blanch, then freeze. I take the other peppers and make either Pico de Gallo or I eat them in just about anything.
The other thing that has done semi well is the tomatillos. If anyone doesn't know what tomatillos are let me explain. A lot of people think they are a miniature tomato. They are actually a type of fruit that originated with the Mayan's in South America. It is used in a lot of Latin American foods and cooking. It resembles a tart apple in many ways and I use it as a replacement for the lemon juice when making Pico de Gallo.
I will tell you this they are a very, very big pain in the posterior to grow. Tomatillo plants are highly self-incompatible (two or more plants are needed for proper pollination, thus isolated tomatillo plants rarely set fruits).
Fresh ripe tomatillos will keep in the refrigerator for about two weeks. They will keep even longer if the husks are removed and the fruits are placed in sealed plastic bags stored in the refrigerator. They may also be frozen whole or sliced. Here is another tid bit of info on them: Tomatillos are rich in vitamin A and contain a good amount of vitamin C.
Have any of you eaten the green salsa called Salsa Verdi? Tomatillos is what it is made from.
Well enough rambling on for now,
Cheerio
Brook
