It's finally here... Tomato time!!! Our plants are monstrous and the supports can't contain them, it's a little ridiculous. And photos don't do justice to the situation! I picked a bunch of green ones for last week's Market Bags (and Edith "helped" by picking and eating lots of herbs but don't you DARE try serving her anything green for dinner) and now they've finally started ripening, so this week's bag should have some beauties!Now that the potato bug situation is over (because they're pretty much done growing and just need to get dug as we need them), I'm out nearly every day using duct tape to pull squash bug eggs off the plants, as well as to get the occasional nymph & adult that I find. It's actually been working decently well, and we've gotten a good crop so far compared to years past!
Meanwhile Andrew dug up two short rows of potatoes, which came to about half a bushel. I'd say 40% of those are imperfect, so we'll cook & eat them ourselves, but the rest are gorgeous! Our favorite way to eat them is cut into wedges and baked at 425° for 30-45 minutes with olive oil, salt, and pepper. You want them getting brown, and then you let them cool for a bit on the baking sheet so that they loosen more easily. Crispy and delicious!
We got a free pack of disposable diapers (or "paper diapers," as the kids prefer to refer to them) in the mail from Pampers Pure for testing (via Influenster) and while we're pretty darned committed to cloth diapering (this is still how we do it, years later), I'm not going to pass up free diapers, and I kind of like disposables for nighttime anyway, since I feel like our heavy wetters tend to leak through cloth when they're in them for too long.
These are pretty good! No perfumes, chlorine bleaches, lotions, parabens... So no stink the way most disposables smell (which I HATE), and they haven't leaked for us at all! The inner gussets do a good job holding in #2 as well, so overall I'm pretty impressed. And I even got a smile out of Lucy for the big camera!!
When we do baked potato wedges, I like to throw a little garlic powder and paprika on them. Yum!
ReplyDeleteI'll sometimes mix in minced garlic+parsley at the end, or Parmesan... Summer savory is really yummy but I keep forgetting to grow enough!
DeleteI have NO IDEA how you have time to pull off bugs. My kids (Peter, Edith's ages almost exactly, baby 10 months) keep me so busy trying to keep the kitchen clean enough *just to cook in without moving something* and the apartment bearable that anything small gets forgotten. We have 0 activities besides playing outside every day and library, grocery shopping, and one weekly excursion.
ReplyDeleteI cloth diaper during the day but I use disposables at night. Maaaybe if I used two cloth my babies could make it through but the cheapest disposables don't even last the night until close to fully night weaned. Anyway your quick and clearly honest review was just right and a lovely contrast to the whole posts I've seen about Pampers Pure.
This is Rosie's mom. I live in a house right behind her house and am over there many hours a week helping with the kids. The older kids help a lot, too. So that explains how she has time to pull off bugs. I think Rosie pulls off bugs both because the garden needs it and because it gets her out of the house!
DeleteAlso, I think in many ways it's harder to live in an apartment than in a house, even though you aren't responsible for repairs and there's no land to take care of -- it can just be so cramped, and you're always hearing other people. I was so much less stressed once we moved into a house with our first three. God bless you!
It's so hard when they're all little!! I used to go out and weed when the kids were napping when they were all little and we lived in our old house, but that generally meant the kitchen was a mess! You prioritize what you can and don't worry about the rest ;)
DeleteWell gee I should take into consideration your mom's help for sure. I'm responsible for 95% of the housework. Hubby corrals kids some but doesn't clean/pick up at all.
DeleteI put my 4 year old to work as much as I can but I can't even get him to pick up his room without me there no matter what strategies I try. I hear 7 is the age kids become really useful, but honestly he does already save my butt in a lot of little fetch and turn off ways. The first day he made his own PB&J with 0 help I legit celebrated!
Your garden harvest is beautiful!! Our tomatoes are just now starting to make fruit, so all we have ready is peas, zucchini and tons of dahlias....i think our dahlias are try to take over the world, or at least our flower garden!!!
ReplyDeleteI think I planted our dahlias too late, they aren't coming up!!
DeleteWow those produce pictures are incredible. Can I ask - why do you pick the tomatoes when they are green? Is this a secret I'm missing or is it just to stop them falling off? I've got tonnes of cherry tomatoes on my plants at the moment, but almost all are very green and I'm getting impatient! I do live in England so we have a bit of a different climate, which might explain the later crop.
ReplyDeleteThose we picked green for frying! Usually we wait until they're just starting to ripen and then try to bring them in solely so they don't get overly ripe outside or don't end up cracking because of too much rain!
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