Maryann's Tomato Zucchini Soup Recipe

1- 28oz can tomatoes

1- 13 3/4 can chicken broth (can use vegetable)

2-3 zucchini diced

1 med-lg. onion diced

butter, olive oil (not too much)

garlic powder or use 2-3 minced cloves

marjoram and basil (dried or fresh) to taste

cayenne pepper

salt and pepper

Saute onions in butter and olive oil until translucent (medium heat for about 5 minutes).  Sprinkle zucchini with garlic power or just add zucchini and minced garlic to onions.  Saute until tender.  Add tomato and broth and spices except the salt and pepper (do this at the end).  Simmer together for half hour or so, taste and adjust.  Soup will be very chunky.  Tale half and puree it in a blender, then add it back to the rest.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

If after cooking taste is not strong enough, add 1 14oz can of "Italian Style" stewed tomatoes.

Enjoy!

Maryann's Kitchen

PS You can play with this recipe quite a lot and get very different results!

Giving Garden

If you're in the garden on Wednesday, we need help weeding plot numbers 1,2,4,6, + 32.  If you have a few extra minutes, see if you can help us get that done before we plant on Thursday.  We have a tiller we'll try to get over there in case anyone is really motivated!
If you're available on Thursday, we're going to plant new crops to help feed the food pantry.  We'll begin at 9:00.  Any and all help you can provide would be most wonderful!
And we're still taking donations although today Perennial Gardens brought us 60 habanera plants!!  So, it's safe to assume we don't need any more of those.  Everything else is welcome and needed.
Thank-you all for your generosity!
Peggy

Important information on late blight!

10 tips to prevent late blight in home gardens

• Kill volunteer potatoes. Dig up, bag and trash any volunteer potato plants that pop up in gardens or compost piles. It may take repeated efforts to get them all.
• Use only certified seed potatoes. Don't use leftovers from last year or table stock from the grocery store.
• Buy healthy tomato plants. Learn what late blight looks like. Report any infected plants while shopping or grow your own plants. (Late blight isn't spread on tomato seeds.)
• Keep plants dry. If plants need watering, water the soil -- not the foliage.
• Inspect plants at least once a week, more often if weather is cool and wet. Immediately remove and bag any foliage you suspect might be infected.
• If symptoms continue despite removing infected foliage, consider removing plants entirely -- sooner rather than later. The longer you wait to remove plants, the more spores will be blown to other gardens and farms.
• Warn neighbors and local Cooperative Extension if you find late blight in your garden.
• Remove infected plants during the middle of a sunny day after leaves have dried. But don't wait for these conditions. Seal plants in garbage bags and leave them in the sun for a few days to kill plants and the pathogen before placing in the trash or burying underground or deep in a compost pile.
• Keep an eye on other tomato-family plants. Some strains of late blight can infect other tomato-family plants, including weeds such as hairy nightshade and bittersweet nightshade. Control them early so that late blight on these plants doesn't go unnoticed. Petunias and tomatillos are also vulnerable to attack.
• Fungicides -- chlorothalonil and copper-based products can control late blight. They require a regular preventive spray schedule and thorough spray coverage. Follow all label directions, including use of respirator, waterproof gloves and protective eyewear.

  If late blight does occur among plants - those plants should be removed (the organic approach).
  Here are a couple articles including photographs of what late blight looks like so you know what to be on the lookout for.
     http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/April10/LateBlight.html
     http://www.longislandhort.cornell.edu/vegpath/photos/lateblight_tomato.htm
     http://www.umassvegetable.org/LateBlightAlertforTomatoandPotato.html
  

Welcome to the blog!

I am hopeful that the blog will be a great online meeting place for our gardeners where they can stay connected.   If you have any questions or are looking for more information about what is happening in the garden this is the place to check in.  Please send me questions, comments, pictures and stories about the garden and I will happily post them.  Also check in regularly for updates on events we are planning in the garden.
Have a great weekend!
Becky
beckysimkhai@aol.com

Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there. ~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732

This week in bloom...

The true meaning of life is to plant trees, 
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.-  Nelson Henderson

Rainy days & sunny rays

It was a hot, muggy & extremely wet week in the garden.  Despite some minor setbacks from the torrential rain storms, the garden is really taking shape as more plots are filled.

Hilltop Hanover came to the garden on Saturday to plant one of their seedling kits in the communal plot.  Our resident expert Suzi began planting our communal pumpkin patch which will include Indian corn & birdhouse gourds.  

Little moments of beauty are in bloom all throughout the garden!

6.1.2010

One of the most delightful things about gardening is the freemasonry it gives with other gardeners, and the interest and pleasure all gardeners get by visiting other people's gardens. We all have a lot to learn and in every new garden there is a chance of finding inspiration - new flowers, different arrangement or fresh treatment for old subjects. Even if it is a garden you know by heart there are twelve months in the year and every month means a different garden, and the discovery of things unexpected all the rest of the year.   Margery Fish, We Made a Garden, 1956