Sun-dried tomatoes with olive oil Sun-dry tomatoes or oven-dry tomatoes to use for seasoning in salads, soups, stews, casseroles, mixed vegetables, and snacks. You can also rehydrate dried tomatoes for use in cooking. Choose firm, ripe, full-flavored tomatoes that are heavy for their size. Tomatoes with a high acid content dry best. Excellent tomato varieties
Summer squash blossom You can prepare, sauté or deep fry, and serve squash blossoms in 10 minutes or less. Squash blossoms—yellow-orange and delightfully bright–are a summer delicacy; they must be picked, cooked, and served on the same day. If you have more zucchini or other summer squash than you can eat, store, or give away
To quicken the ripening of tomatoes on the vine, remove all new flower clusters from tomato plants about a month before the first frost. To quicken the ripening of tomatoes on the vine at the end of the season, remove all new flower clusters from tomato plants about a month before the first frost. This
To make the most nutritious tomato juice the easy way, do this: wash your tomatoes, cut out the cores and bruised or bad spots, and place the whole tomatoes in a blender—no peeling required. Blend until smooth and drink. Freeze what you don’t drink now for later use. Most recipes for tomato juice ask you
Sweet corn and tomato relish Fresh corn, herb, and tomato relish is a mix that comes together naturally as the summer harvest peaks. When sweet corn kernels can be cut from the ears and popped in your mouth as a garden snack—well, that is the same time you are going to find meaty tomatoes ripe
The secret to making delicious homemade grape juice is to never boil the grapes. Grape juice reduces bad cholesterol, helps maintain healthy blood pressure, prevents damage to blood vessels in your heart, and reduces the risk of blood clots. Do you see a down side to drinking fresh-made grape juice? Concord grapes are great for
Plant garlic in late summer or fall and allow it to overwinter for a harvest of large bulbs next summer. Best Times to Plant Garlic • Plant garlic in late summer or fall and allow it to overwinter for a harvest of large bulbs next summer. Plant garlic in the spring and harvest it in
Tomato hornworm – head is opposite the horn Tomato hornworms eat large, ragged holes in tomato leaves, easily consuming whole leaves. Hornworms also eat stems and green fruit, and if they arrive early enough in the season seedlings and young plants. Tomato hornworms feed not only on tomatoes but also peppers, eggplants, and potatoes—any member
Cucumbers are sweet except when they are a tad bitter. Choose cucumbers for their sweetness and refreshing cleanness or for their green grassy astringency and crispness. Sometimes you don’t know which cucumber you will get until you bring it in from the garden and taste it. Always cucumbers are cooling and refreshing—they are, after all
Radish harvest Pick summer vegetables when they are young and tender—bigger is not tastier. Check crops daily. Whenever possible eat summer vegetables the day you pick them. Here’s a quick guide for picking summer vegetables at the peak of flavor: • Green beans. Pick green beans as soon as immature seeds begin to fill the
