My potager has rallied.
Sort of….
I’ve controlled the late blight but it’s not possible to cure it. I’ve spent many hours cutting off diseased leaves and branches and tomatoes, followed by spraying. At one point some of the plants were totally bare of leaves but full of green tomatoes. I wanted to keep the new growth from getting the blight so that the new leaves could gather enough energy to ripen the tomatoes.
Since the first handful of tomatoes last week I have gotten a basket-full like this three times so far, with the promise of more to come.
I apparently succeeded.
I have very little hope that any new tomatoes will be started…. The plants are too weak for that (I think). But I do have hopes that the rest of the green ones will ripen. Our season will be short, and a lot lighter than usual, but much, much better than I thought it would be 3 weeks ago.
I am picking them totally be feel, however and I don’t even know what type or color they are until I take them in the house and give them a good scrubbing….
They’re all blue.
The Roma tomatoes all get peeled, chopped, bagged and frozen for winter use.
As for the other tomatoes…. We’ll eat as many as we can and the rest get turned into sauce and soup, also to be frozen for winter.
Here are the recipes for Yellow Tomato Soup and Green Bean Soup.
Zucchini (Courgette) Soup
Total time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 cups chopped zucchini
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 1/2 cups (12oz, 360ml) chicken stock
- 1 tbs butter
- 1 tsp fresh thyme
- 2 tbs (1oz, 30gr) Greek or plain yogurt for garnish
Instructions:
- Chop onion and zucchini.
- In medium saucepan sauté onion in butter until transparent.
- Add zucchini and just enough chicken stock to cover.
- Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes.
- Purée solids, adding enough of the stock to get the consistency for the soup that you like – we like it thick.
- Snip thyme leaves and stir into soup.
- Serve, either hot or cold, with a dollop of yogurt in the center.
- Or put into a freezer bag or container and freeze.
Mon mari likes to have a ‘cup of soup’ with his lunch in the winter, which is what most of the soup will be used for. I also like to use the zucchini soup to thicken other soups, like chicken noodle. It adds a bit more body to the broth, which mon mari likes.
And in other garden news….. We have sweet corn!
I have also managed to control (but not eat) the smut.
Mon mari better be damned appreciative!
Yikes! How horrible for you! But well done for rescuing the garden. Although…. Blue? Your tomatoes are blue??
Now I’m wondering if it’s blight that has prevented my yellow zucchini from flowering and setting fruit. I dutifully put two plants in the pot and as far as I know, they are male and female.
I was so hoping to have an embarrassment of zucchinis!
I love the colour of your yellow zucchini soup!
Elizabeth, you only need one zucchini – it has both the make and female flowers. Their blue because of the bouilly bordelaise I sprayed. It’s the same spray that the vineyards use to protect the grapes. They add blue color to it so the tourists don’t eat the grapes. Vines get sprayed every 2 weeks (or after a rain) all summer. This blight only bothers potatoes and tomatoes.