Strawberry Popcorn

I harvested most of our Strawberry Popcorn and dried it in the dehydrator. Isn't it beautiful? We didn't grow much but it sure was fun harvesting what we did.

I've been eating a high raw (90-99%) diet for the last 43ish days now and aside from taking communion at church this has been my only exception. I only ate about 1/4 cup popped corn but it was delightful. I had no idea I would appreciate it so much. I'm glad I didn't eat any more than I did. I didn't really need to. It makes me think about those gigantor buckets of popcorn at the movie theaters packed overflowing with hot buttered popcorn. I used to eat and eat and eat at that crap. Gross. It's not good to eat just because something tastes good and it happens to be right in front of your face! Sheesh.

Anyway, the garden is a mess. I haven't done any weeding (though the weeds aren't really that bad). I like garden structures and things that keep plants from flailing across the ground or growing every which way (natural as it is). Next year we will have to be more mindful of supporting our plants and pairing crops more appropriately (the popcorn and tomatillos together was just a bad call). It's a learning experience. So blessed to have it in my back yard!

Wish We Had More Tomatoes

Here is a colorful plateful of most of the varieties we planted this year. I don't know the names for all of them - all of the cherry tomatoes came up as volunteers as they have for the past several years, which I'm grateful for because we didn't plant our cherry tomatoes in time this year and they are Adi's favorite!

So we have these wonderful low acid big yellow tomatoes that seem to ripen one at a time. Then there's the Black from Tula (the burgundy colored one) which usually ripens two at a time. I believe the smaller red tomato is from a Silvery Fir plant. Our Arkansas Traveler plants look healthy but the tomatoes aren't ripe yet. This season has been pretty lame for our tomato crop considering the number of plants we have. Our biggest yield has been from the Green Sausage tomatoes so I've dried most of those to use in recipes throughout the winter and spring.

I don't know if a tomatillo is officially a tomato or not but they are actually doing quite well - I'd say better than our other tomatoes. They make really nice green salsa and we're really happy with the experience of growing them. The plants grew much larger than we anticipated and they shared a small raised bed with our Strawberry Popcorn (which I can't wait to try after we figure out how to dry it and whatever else we need to do) so next year tomatillos will get much more support and won't be paired with popcorn!