Keeping up with the heat

With our 3rd week of over 100 degree temps here, all I seem to do is water, water, water and it's not enough. Cucumbers, squash and greens are all burning up. Crispy critters!

Tomatoes and peppers are doing well so far but the tomatoes are starting to stress. It finally rained this morning, which will help.

The 4 baby chicks we have left are doing fine now. Active, noisy and having fun.

We have a new addition to the farm, our oldest son Derek is back home from San Diego. California living is not all it's cracked up to be with a bankrupt state and high cost of living. He's here to find a job and learn to be a farmer. Today we organized and cleaned the chicken coop! The ladies are all doing well.

Steve just came to the back door with another black snake wrapped around his arm, found him trying to eat one of the eggs in the chicken coop! He's sending him to a new home!

Derek and I picked 12 tomatoes this morning and I'm going to make home made salsa.

Classic Salsa (Medium to hot)

6 large red tomatoes

2 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup diced red onion

2 garlic cloves (minced)

2 tbsp lime juice

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 diced Holy Mole Pepper, heat like a jalapeno but twice as long. (if not available use 2 jalapeno peppers)

Place all ingredients in Food Processer, pulse until done.

Derek has Crohn's Disease. I am lucky to have a garden full of veggies he can eat. Tonight's dinner, we had Maple Mustard glazed grilled chicken, with roasted steak fried potatoes and Crohn's safe Ratatouille.

Ratatouille:

4 small eggplants- size of tennis balls, chopped in bite size pieces

1 large sweet red pepper

2 large stalks of celery

1/2 can of black olives

1 clove of garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

Add olive oil and garlic to a heated saute pan, add 1 pinch of dried,crushed red pepper and cook until garlic starts to pop. Add eggplant, celery and red pepper pieces and saute for 5 minutes

then add the black olive and 1 teaspoon of each of these herbs: basil, thyme and oregano. Saute for another 3 minutes, then serve.