How nice everything looks! It's great that you were able to put your harvest to good use and have fun doing it.

Hi Amber

Thanks. Before the party I took a walk around the garden to see what I was going to show, later I did a tour for the chef and after that I took all the guests out to see the garden, it was a large group and being most of them Italians, they enjoyed the tomatoes a lot! I never in my life heard so many nice things said about the tomatoes. I encouraged the chef while he was cooking to sample all the varieties of tomatoes, I explained that I planted about 45 different varieties and taste is personal. He love them all but for the show and tell he picked the biggest, most perfect beefsteak which was the Neves Azorean Red, he said he love the heart tomatoes also and he used them in the risotto along with a Kellog's Breakfast.

This is what I saw when I walked in the yard...

I have lychees ripening!

Some sunflowers go well with the Italian theme

And of course figs

And I have a nest in the lemon tree, birds are so cute, I did not get close

Basil was used a lot in the cooking and all the other herbs, it is amazing how the herbs bring out the flavor in the food

And this does not look pretty but I had to show them that while all the eggplants were doing well, the peppers had to be covered from the sun, I had to go and get hot peppers that were used in the pasta salad, only a little bit to give a nice spice.

{{gwi:69767}}

Silvia

Everything looks so great & I'm envious of all those pretty tomatoes! This is the 2nd year I had terrible results w/ everything except grape(which I grew from store-bought fruits).

I've decided next tomato season I'm going back to growing VFFNTA hybrids.

Silvia. Italian is my absolute favorite food. That looks amazing

Hi Carol

Thanks. Some of the guests when I gave them the tour were telling me about their problems with their own tomatoes. One of them lives close to my area and he said the same thing that he had terrible luck with his tomatoes for 3 years. From what he told me I guessed since I have not been in his garden that he has stinkbug damage, when I asked him that he did not even know what it was so I describe some of the bugs and he said yes. Then I showed him the best way to kill them, lol. One of the big surprises for them was to find no bugs in the garden.
I know that you like to buy seeds from Pinetree, they have a good cherry tomato so far one of the best in flavor this season, disease resistance, pretty, last long in storage and is the Tomatoberry. Another very good is the hybrid Estiva, is the earliest to produce and gives nice smooth round fruits that are medium to large in size later in the season.
I think this tomato season has been very good, I had to put the fruits in cartons in the laundry room to be able to put the other food in the kitchen and that is before I made tons of salsa and froze more for later.
I sent the chef with a box full of tomatoes and salsa to take home, I also gave him collards after I asked him if he likes them. He said in his home town in Italy they eat something like the collards that I am growing now, the variety Green Glaze.

Silvia

Thank you Julia and many hugs for you

Guess who is in the picture?

Silvia

Silvia

What is the best way to kill stinkbugs?

Wow! Silvia, that Italian food looks out of this world. You do have some beautiful tomatoes. I can vouch that you don't have any bugs in your garden. That is what amazed me was all the healthy plants. Beautiful picture of you and all the other pictures.

Luther

Minderella, the best prevention is to catch them as young, you have to know what they look like in that stage. What I do and found the best is to go in the garden, inspect the plants and when I see one, grab them with a paper towel. I use the ones that are small size, then I put it in the garbage bag very quickly, there is no smell that way. Before I was using garden leather gloves and sometimes I got them and sometimes did not and oh no that smell!. Because I am getting all the young ones, I have not seen any adult ones in the garden like last year.

Hi Luther, we had so much fun with the chef and the guests! When walking the chef through the garden I would ask him do you like this or that? and I said butterbeans and he repeat it butterbeans? then I said lima beans and he said yes, I like those!

Next time we have to do a Southern style party and you are going to be the visiting chef! lol

Willy said he gained 3 pounds yesterday, the food was amazing! the chef used a lot of herbs and seasonings and he worked really fast, he said in Italy nobody uses recipes like they do here. All the recipes are in his head but he is going to gives us the recipes for his amazing dishes all I can say I never had Italian food that good, the pesto was extraordinary and he did not use any nuts, recipes are from his hometown style of cooking.

Remember I told you that I made salsa all day on Friday? I sent him with some, he was really happy, he brought to the house rice, pasta and cheese from Italy. I will be eating risotto for a long time!

Here is a harvest from another day, remember the table?

Silvia

Wow, Silvia, that's a boatload of tomatoes! Mine are almost done and the last ones aren't as good and juicy. The plants look absolutely awful, too. I had a good season, though, and just planted seeds for fall.

That pasta dish looks absolutely ravishing! Makes my mouth water. Seems I only need to see a new post from you and my mouth starts to water- a little Pavlovian, don't you think?

My husband and I are thinking about going to Tuscany for the fall. Have you been? Would love to visit some farms/ olive oil factories, and good cuisine areas. Let me know if you have any ideas. Wish I could cook as well as you!

Anna

Hi Anna, that is a great idea of you and your husband going to Tuscany, I am sure that you will have the best time visiting the wineries, the farms and everything else there. Cheryl went to school in Italy and she is fluent in Italian, that is the reason we had the Italian club at the house, they are all coming and going to different parts of Italy all the time. I can find out from the chef some info and see what he says, all his family is still there.

When he was explaining the basis of cooking, he said that sharing the food from the garden with friends and family is what Italians are all about, they have their backyard gardens where they grow mostly herbs and tomatoes. Next year I will grow some Roma style tomatoes for him. And I will be buying some of the wines that I sampled at the party, they were so good! Even the Parmigiano tasted better, he said that is from his own hometown. I am so convinced that first class ingredients make the best tasting food and my tomatoes never before got such a praise!
When you can share it with others it is the best thing to do.

Silvia

Thanks for the comments, Silvia. Sadly, my plants were all lost to diseases & RK nematodes & perhaps grubs. I am familiar w/stinkbugs, but have had none on my veggie plants this year (tho I did find & destroy a few in a patch of weeds on the other side of the yard). I managed to get a few fruits, but my plants declined & shriveled up, some from the top down, some from the bottom up & some from both.

I've been growing various non-hybrids/heirlooms/OP for a number of years now & have had great results in the past, but these past 2 seasons now have been terribly disappointing - plants declined & died out before or soon after fruiting = (

As I said above, the only plants that did well & gave me a decent harvest were grape tomatoes grown out from seed I saved from store-bought fruits. I love 'em, but they're not that convenient for cooking & hubby prefers slicers.

1 thing I've learned over the years is that tomatoes are easy to start, but so many factors can influence the outcome. I've had 1 variety give excellent results 1 year, only to fail the following year.

Oh my, Silvia,

Once again you give me something to aspire to! The vegs and food look absolutely incredible.

My mouth is watering now too, and I'm wondering what to have for lunch! Roasted tomato pasta might be it :-)

Elizabeth

Carol, you might not like to grow tomatoes in containers but for me is the only way to go due to the nematodes and the poor sandy soil that we have. It can be done and what I do is I plant more than I think I needed, this way I am sure that I will get something. And I also like to grow different varieties hybrids and heirlooms, cherry, medium and beefsteak. I like a lot the cherries but there is nothing like the big tomatoes for cooking, sliced in sandwiches and other things. Even the chef only picked the biggest and nicest looking tomatoes for the class and after the best ones were used he said, do you want to talk about the varieties?, but then I had too many glasses of wine and I could not even remember all the varieties that I have, lol
And I have been making my own style pasta salads with the cherry tomatoes. I like them in salads all kinds.

Here are the cherry tomatoes with green beans and grilled squash

Dear Elizabeth, I wish I had planted more hot peppers, I thought that I had enough but with all the salsa that I have been making they are all gone, next season I will plant more.:) I wish that you live closer, this way I could share some of the harvest. I did my rounds today with boxes for friends and my dentist, tomatoes = happy faces!
Made more salsa today for Cheryl girls' get together this weekend and I made tomato sauce to go with that Italian whole wheat pasta, also have some leftover Parmigiano that the chef left for us.
You know Elizabeth when I cook food from other places I feel like I am traveling. We have to make one day a New Mexico party with all those knockout flavors!

Salsa on the left and tomato sauce on the right.

Silvia

Wow, you are an inspriation to me. Your garden is amazing!
All the food looked Delish!!!
I also having been making salsa. I have never made spaghetti sauce but I think I might have to give it a try. Would you be willing share your recipe?
Here is a link to my salsa

Here is a link that might be useful: salsa

Hello Silvia,

The canned sauce and salsa looks fabulous! I hoped that with as many tomatoes as I planted I would have enough to can, but alas, we are eating (or sharing) every single one. This was really my first season to get a decent tomato crop so I am at least happy to have enough to eat and enjoy. Next season I need to plant many more large tomatoes. My cherries were enough to eat but I didn't have a good roma or near enough large, salsa and canning tomatoes.

The hot peppers are thriving though in this heat! And, they are HOT. Let me know if you (or anyone on the forum) would like some of the New Mexico hot pepper seeds to try for next season.

I wish we lived close enough for me to share in your harvest wealth as well! How lucky I would be then :-)

Silvia- in the pic you show yellow squash and green beans. Are both of those still producing for you in this heat?

Elizabeth

Ariel, thanks and I will be trying your salsa. I have made a lot of different tomato sauce but this one is preferred by me and the family. I have the book Small Batch Preserving and is very useful especially when I had a lot of fruit in previous gardens. After the sauce is done, I just put it in the freezer and take out when I need or I give as gifts, everybody like it! Sometimes I add red peppers flakes to taste. The only thing to remember if you freeze is to let it simmer for about 15 minutes to get the consistency desired after you take it out. The red wine that I use in the recipe is a Santa Rita Merlot that is a decent drinking wine for only $5 and I get it at Publix. Let us know if you make it and how you like it. I was just thinking this morning that I am going to try to get another recipe for tomato sauce from the chef, I really like his type of cooking! If I do, I will share it here.

Elizabeth, my squash and green beans were looking ratty, so before the party I took them out, the ones in the picture are some of the last. I still have them in the fridge, but they won't last too long, that is the reason that I am cooking them now.
I use all kinds of tomatoes for salsa or tomato sauce, even the ugly ones, I just use the good parts, they are very forgiving.:) In a sandwich or a salad have to have the best looking ones. The cherry are the best roasted in slow oven with thyme, salt and pepper, after the chef took them out he added a little bit of hot peppers, garlic sliced so thin, and such a big amount of herbs, for a moment he left the party and went to the garden to pick herbs, I was so afraid that he might find a snake, lol.

Here is another salad that I improvise today with the beans and the roasted tomatoes.

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: chunky basil tomato sauce

Beautiful salad Silvia!!!!

BRILLIANT Garden and Photos as usal Silvia....

Please May I have a bit More info on the Sunflowers You have a Photo posted off
Thanks

Thank you Elizabeth.

Hi NC, thanks. About the sunflowers, I always plant different kinds some seasons the tall do better, this season the medium size varieties and the short varieties are doing well for me, sometimes it is the location. I plant them for the bees and the birds, I have a bird family living in my lemon tree.:)

The medium size variety is a pale yellow color

And the short variety is Teddy Bear and is a bright yellow, here is planted with peanuts

When the group came to the party, I told them that they can ask me anything they want about the garden, since it was a large group. First thing they saw was the big Cinderella pumpkin, then the Dreadlocks flowers, other asked berries? and I had them sampled the blackberries, they asked how about onions and I show them that they are drying and all the man in the group had only tomatoes on their mind, lol

Silvia

You is SO Welcome and It is The medium size variety that I'm on about.... ***Smiley*** Do You have a name for it?
Thanks

PS
I have some Passiflora Foetida Fruit ripe, I'm going to pick and eat tonight....

NC

NC, congrats on your fruit, it looks yummy!

The medium size sunflower is called Vanilla Ice.

Silvia

Thank You and Yes was VERY Yummy, They may be Small in Size but BIG on Flavor!

Will now go and see if I can find some Seeds....

PS
Draven (Point) is Still going....