Yesterday was the fourth consecutive day of clouds and pouring rain. I love watching the rain and when it rains, I don't have to water the garden. Now, it's too much of a good thing. Our jack-be-little vine is stressed. The leaves are covered in white patches and the vine is beginning to die. Luckily, our sons will still have a few little pumpkins. Last year, they only had one and they didn't like that they had to share. At least this year, they will each have their own.
Our boys love harvesting anytime, but especially when it has rained as much as it has here lately in Indy. They love jumping in the puddles in their rain boots before harvesting. I have enjoyed watching their excitement.
Recently, we harvested 50 salsa tomatoes. This year was the first year we have grown the salsa tomato plant. The salsa tomato is meatier. I'm glad we planted two salsa tomato plants this year. These two plants have yielded many tomatoes...more than we can eat. We also harvested tons of basil. When you have tomatoes, tons of basil, and onions from your garden, there seems to be only one choice...make tomato sauce. We canned tomatoes for the first time this year. We used Victorio's food strainer and sauce maker to make sauce making a quick and efficient experience. To avoid botulism, we followed Ball's tomato sauce canning instructions. The results were a tasty basil-onion tomato sauce. We used the sauce mostly on spaghetti, but our boys also love pizza. We purchased some French bread from the store, used the sauce, cheese, and basil leaves to make a quick and easy pizza.
It would be easy to recite the childhood rhyme, "Rain, Rain, Go Away," but I won't because this is part of gardening -- adapting and responding to Mother Nature. The weather in Indiana changes so quickly that I might be back writing about how I need to learn a rain dance.
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