Grow garden grow

Wednesday is activity day. However I mentioned yesterday that I was going to try to find ways to sneak more food in.  I did! Three years ago, my husband I decided to give up the dream of selling our spare lot (cause the mean old city I live in says no!) and said well we might as well grow some food! So my honey built me these beautiful raised garden beds....

 

 

Here we are after a major spring landscaping day including getting the plants in enjoying a fire in the distance.  This year we added a hose "cap" to the fence so it isn't sharp to lean over to harvest or weed.  My husband is so smart!

We got our plans for the beds from this article here.  The wire fencing was our idea, keeps out the bunnies! However the birds always eat all our strawberries, think I may need to cover them with a mesh hat next year!

These gardens are great for family time.  The kids love to help plant, water and pick.  They even help me weed. I still can't get them to eat tomatoes though! Silly girls!

 These pics are of my baby "helping" water our first year (2010)! She is so little!!!!

 

Now look at her! She will often wear her galoshes when it's watering time! Any excuse to wear galoshes is fun!

 

We also enjoyed the wildlife. This year we kept finding this big fat toad in there.  We thought he was stuck so we would let him out and he would come right back.  So of course we named him.  And of course we named him Kermit.  He really didn't like that the girls were always trying to pick him up though!

 

And of course the harvest is always so nice too!

Don't those colors just make you happy!!!

 

Finally, it was time to get out my BIG pot!

 

Amanda's Chunky Herb Marinara

1 Tbsp oil

1 cup diced onion

2 cups diced peppers (assorted)

1/4 cup garlic cloves minced

3/4 cup red wine

3/4 cup water

1/4 fresh parsley

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp celery salt

1 Tbsp minced onion

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp dried rosemary

1/2 tsp marjoram

1/2 tsp tarragon

1/2 tsp fennel

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp crushed bay leaves

1 can whole tomatoes, undrained and chopped

1 6oz can tomato paste

 

Heat oil in a big soup pot over medium high heat.  Add onion, peppers and garlic.  Saute 5 min or until tender.

Pretty! Let's get closer....

 

Add paste here. Saute here for several minutes until it begins to brown (almost burn) this adds deeper richer flavor to the sauce. 

 

Now I was making a triple batch of the recipe above if you were thinking, "That looks like a lot!"

So I used three cans of paste and only bought one can of the crushed tomatoes because I was using it to supplement my own. Here is a pic of mine. 

 

As you can see I only coarsely chop and I don't bother peeling.  Plus I use even the little grape tomatoes in with the great big ones.  It definitely makes a chunkier sauce so it may not be for everyone but it skips any extra steps of skinning or blending them in the food processor. 

 

Next you add the tomatoes, water, wine (I still had some of that cherry wine from the other day so that is what I used, I know it wasn't red but it still enhanced the flavor. If you don't want to add wine just use all water) and all the seasonings.

I decorated the top with little piles of herbs prior to stirring.  I used a lot of different seasonings.  Of course they are all seasonings I keep on hand.  You can mix and match to your own preferences.  I remember my Aunt made me some lasagna once that had fennel in it and I liked that subtle licorice flavor and always add it to Italian now.  The rest are pretty standard but again it's all about your own preferences.  I was going for a robust flavor.

Stir them all in and this is also the part where you get out your potato masher and try to break up the chunks as best you can.  Or like me I assigned this job to my big strong husband.  Watch out for splatters! Then bring it up to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer at least 30 minutes stirring occasionally. 

I got 5 bags of sauce to freeze! My husband taste-tested it before we bagged it.  He said, "Do you have any idea how glad I am that I married you!?" I love him.  He would pass up a cheesecake every day, but tomato sauce steals his heart!

 

So there you have it.  Gardening. A great family experience you can enjoy the whole summer long. With lots of productive harvesting in the later months! Plus I will tell you.  Last two years the frost came in late September/early October and we still had tomatoes coming.  I learned this cool trick.  You can pick them when they are still green.  Put them in a great big brown paper bag and store them somewhere cool and dark like the basement.  They will continue to ripen off the vine.  We did that and would go down and harvest the top layer out of the bag each week.  Gives you a chance to make another batch of marinara or salsa or whatever.  Works like a charm for us!  Happy growing everyone.