Using Up Your Garden Harvest

Here are a few tasty recipes to reduce your bounty of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and yes, even zucchini.  Your efforts in the garden have paid off, and a bumper crop of vegetables is the reward for a job well done.  If you’ve shared your green thumb jackpot with family, friends, and neighbors, but the veggies keep coming, try these tasty recipes that make the most of your end-of-the-season harvest.

Three-Hour Refrigerator Pickles

This quick recipe uses regular cucumbers and can be done without the hassle of canning. 

6 pounds cucumbers

4 medium onions

4 cups sugar

4 cups white vinegar

½ cup salt

1-1/2 teaspoons ground turmeric

1 teaspoon celery salt

1 teaspoon mustard seed

Slice the cucumbers ¼ in thick.  Slice onions 1/8 in thick. Place both in a large nonmetallic bowl.  Combine the remaining ingredients; pour over cucumber mixture.  Stir well for 5 minutes.  Cover and refrigerate 3 hours before serving.  Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 months, stirring occasionally.  Yield: 2-1/2 quarts. 

Three-Pepper Salad

Fresh-picked peppers form the foundation of this colorful salad.  If you can’t find yellow peppers, use only red and green varieties.

2 medium green peppers, julienned

2 medium cucumbers, sliced

2 jars (4-1/2 ounces each) whole mushrooms, halved

1 medium sweet red pepper, julienned

1 medium sweet yellow pepper, julienned

1 can (6 ounces) pitted ripe olives, halved

½ cup chopped onion

DRESSING:

2/3 cup Italian salad dressing

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ teaspoon seasoned salt

¼ teaspoon salt

In a large salad bowl, combine the first seven ingredients.  In a small bowl or jar with tight-fitting lid, combine dressing ingredients; mix or shake well.  Pour over salad.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Serve with a slotted spoon.  Yield: 16 servings.

Garden Casserole

This delicious cheesy casserole uses lots of veggies and herbs from your garden.  The dish includes a sunny medley of eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes.

2 pounds eggplant, peeled

5 teaspoons salt, divided

¼ cup olive oil

2 medium onions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 medium zucchini, sliced ½ in thick

5 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped

2 celery ribs, sliced

¼ cup minced fresh parsley

¼ cup minced fresh basil or 1 tablespoon dried basil

½ teaspoon pepper

½ cup grated Romano cheese

1 cup Italian bread crumbs

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese

Cut eggplant into ½-in-thick slices; sprinkle both sides with 3 teaspoons salt.  Place in a deep dish; cover and let stand for 30 minutes.  Rinse with cold water; drain and dry on paper towels.

Cut eggplant into ½ in cubes; sauté in oil until lightly browned.  Add onions, garlic and zucchini; cook 3 minutes.  Add tomatoes, celery, parsley, basil, pepper and remaining salt; bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove from the heat; stir in Romano cheese.  Pour into a greased 13-in x 9-in x 2-in baking dish.  Combine crumbs and butter; sprinkle on top.  Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.  Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.  Bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.  Yield: 12 servings.

Broiled Tomatoes

This is a very quick and tasty side dish.

Several medium tomatoes, sliced ¼ in

Spike seasoning

Mozzarella, Pepper Jack, Swiss, Provolone cheese

Cover a shallow baking pan with the sliced tomatoes.  Generously sprinkle Spike on the tomatoes.  Cover the tomatoes with squares of your desired cheese.  Low melting point cheeses are best.  Broil until the cheese is lightly brown.  Serve with your meal or eat as appetizers.

Corn Salsa

1 ½ cups frozen corn kernels, thawed (or kernels cut from 4 ears lightly cooked fresh corn)

1 cup minced sweet red pepper

½ cup minced red onion

2 tablespoons lime juice

¼ to ½ teaspoon salt

2/3 cup peeled, seeded, minced cucumber

¼ cup chopped cilantro

1 to 2 teaspoons sugar

¼ teaspoon ground red pepper

  Combine ingredients in a bowl.  Makes about 3 cups.  Eat with tortilla chips.

Fresh Salsa

2 cloves garlic

1 ½ jalapeno

I lb. tomatoes, seeded and quartered

½ medium onion, quartered

¼ cup cilantro

Juice of one lime

Take garlic, onion, jalapeno and cilantro and blend in a food processor or blender, then add lime juice.  Add tomatoes and lightly pulse.

Southwest Black Bean Pasta Salad

Spring is here and summer is just around the corner! That means gardens will be growing soon. I love salads - potlucks through the summer are my favorite since there are usually so many salads to choose from. It is no surprise to my family to have a salad of some kind on the menu most nights during the summer. Many times, I let it be the main dish. 

Since we eat lots of salads, I like to have a lot of recipes to rotate through. Here is a new favorite! It will make great use of your salsa garden ingredients. I took some of our favorite homemade salsa ingredients and stirred them together with pasta then I created a dressing to compliment all the flavors. I took it to the first potluck of the season and had many requests for the recipe. I hope your family and friends enjoy it as much as mine do.

Southwest Black Bean Pasta Salad

Ingredients:
8 oz salad pasta of your choice, cooked

2–3 large tomatoes, chopped

½ cup chopped green onion

½ cup chopped green pepper

3 cups cooked black beans

1 ½ cups frozen corn, thawed

Dressing:

¼ cup lemon or lime juice

¼ cup vegetable oil

4–5 Tbsp chopped cilantro

1–2 tsp minced garlic

⅛ tsp cayenne pepper

⅛ tsp cumin

Salt to taste

Combine pasta, tomatoes, green onions, green pepper, and black beans in a large bowl.  In a small bowl, combine the dressing ingredients. Drizzle over salad and toss to combine before serving.

Gardening in a Bag - Simple Steps

- Choose a sunny location with at least 8 hours of direct sun each day with easy access to water.
- Purchase bags of potting soil.
- Arrange bags so you can reach into the middle of each bag without stepping on the soil, about 4 feet maximum.
- The best plants to start with are leafy vegetables: leaf lettuce, spinach, arugula, or Swiss chard. Use square foot gardening planting rates.
- 1 plant per bag: tomato, pepper, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower 9 plants per bag: bush beans or spinach 12 plants per bag: arugula, leaf lettuce, parsley, Swiss chard 16 plants per square foot: kohlrabi or micro greens
- Use duct tape on the out-side, seam edges and one strip around the middle of the bag to prevent breakage.
- Make a hole in the soil by pushing the soil back just deep enough to cover the transplant or seeds. I found you do not need to remove the soil from the bag.
- Put transplant or seeds in the soil.
- Reach under the plastic and pull back the soil to cover the root ball or seeds
- If you planted seeds, cut the plastic flaps off so the sun can help germinate the seeds quicker.
- Water the plants as needed; ensure you have a good soil to seed or soil to root contact for a quick start.
- After one 1 week or when the seeds grow 2 inches high make sure there is only one plant per hole. It is sometimes difficult to see the multiple plants.
- Continue with regular water, sunlight, and weeding procedures until harvested.
- For more information, visit vegetablegardener.com.

Advantages:
Easy soil preparation – no digging, plowing, and tilling or sod removal.
Space saving – all vegetables are concen-trated with no rows.
Easy weeding – potting soil is free from weed seeds.
Low cost – It cost me about $13 to plant one bag with Swiss chard transplants in March 2013.
Minimal soil diseases and insects common to vegetables like tomatoes.

Disadvantages:
Ugly bags – try covering with mulch.
Water management is more involved with bags – regular soil has a deeper water reserve.
Bag breakage – be careful with the mower and string trimmer.
Not organic – no solution.

Thoughts about gardening:
The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there. –George Bernard Shaw
Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God– Thomas Jefferson
When the world wearies and society fails to sat-isfy, There is always the garden. — Minnie Aumonier

Fun Facts: 
- There are 57 kinds of tomatoes.
- Lettuce is a member of the daisy family.
- The largest edible fungi was 8 feet 8 inches high.
- The fastest growing tree grows 2.5 feet per month.