So today, as I was felled by a virus that left me feeling like death warmed up, I decided I needed to do something other than flail about on the couch and moan. So, as you do, I went and harvested tomatoes. Because you should absolutely be outside playing in the garden when you’re ill.
Only to find that the slugs and snails were absolutely decimating any tomato that even showed a glimmer of ripening, leaving me with fifteen or so lovely looking red, gorgeous tomatoes, until you looked at their bottoms. That were eaten away and rotten.
So we pulled the plants – all 30 or so of them and popped them in our indoor/outdoor area to hang and hopefully ripen – still on the vine. If they fail to ripen, I’ll be making green tomato sauce and green tomato chutney, rather than the red versions.
The tomatoes at the back are hanging 2 rows deep, from 2 separate roof beams.
Maybe there are more than 30 plants. I forget how many I planted. Lots.
(The bowl was made by the very clever Frogpondsrock)
Anyway, while I was out there I did some garden maintenance. The kale was useless and had to be thrown in the compost, snails and earwigs had eaten it to within an inch of it’s life and then laid eggs all over it. *shudder*
I picked 2 of my purple cabbages, simply to see if my father was right when he predicted that they would be full of grubs. The outsides had been pretty well nibbled, but the insides were fine.
I also picked out the leeks that were starting to go to seed, leaving the smaller ones still growing for a little while yet.
By this stage it was dinnertime, Isaac was melting down and hungry and Amy, well, she was being THREE!
So I chopped some chuck steak into small cubes, covered it in season-all and then bashed it with a rolling pin for a little bit. I sliced the freshly harvested vegetables and stir fried them as well. Then I served everything with rice and we were done.
Of course, Isaac did nothing but throw the food around and steal mouthfuls of mine, Amy spent dinner taunting her brother and I was really just ready for a good lie down.
But that’s the way life goes.
Ingredients:
Chuck steak, cubed and bashed with season-all
Zucchini (not from my garden, but from a home garden on Freecycle, yay freecycle!)
Purple Cabbage
Leeks
Olive oil
and more season-all to taste, because the children were screaming and I couldn’t be bothered with a proper sauce. Sue me.
All stir fried off.
{ 8 comments }
That’s such a simple meal, but it looks very yummy, something that my kids would enjoy
Great post Veronica.
Love your tomatoes.
Jeanette – the kids did love it. Isaac just loved mine better than his. Amy ate a whole bowl full, which is a big deal for her. She normally eats little and often, so a whole bowl is heaps.
Stephen – I love the tomatoes too, I’m very sad I had to pull them already. I was hoping to get some ripened in the ground. But then, it’s meant to frost again later this week, so it’s probably for the best that they’re hanging now.
Love the shot of all your tomato plants hanging upside down from the rafters. Stew looks wonderful. Lie down sounds lovely too.
Nice post. Love that purple cabbage colour. Hope you’re feeling better.
Mmmm, I love green tomato relish, I almost want those to not ripen so you can make some! I like the new look and yes, you are being very industrious at the moment despite viruses!
Love your spirit or am I jealous tonight of your youth Veronica. On feeling ill – she gardens!!!!
For some reason marigolds planted amongst the tomato from long ago springs to mind to ward off bugs. My grandmother used to say that although I am going back some and in my peri-menopausal state that could be garlic.
Yum supper – you couldn’t pop round here could you and cook supper for my lot.
Is chuck steak Veronica a quick cook stir fry thing where you are because over here in UK I think its something one cooks for hours. I suppose I mean does chuck mean throw on and cook in a few minutes because its a good cut?
I just don’t know how you juggle three blogs plus kids, plus gardening, plus the rest and still have time …..
I think I am having a good day if I get to read all three in my reader how sad am I!
Love your pictures of suppers – helps me to be hungry which is good due to meds and gives me inspiration for hungry family.
Achelois – normally chuck steak would need cooking long and slow, but with the bashing and the flash frying, it stayed quite tender. I also stripped all the sinew and stuff off it before I diced it, so that helped.
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