This weekend we worked in the yard and pulled up the rest of the garden. We harvested what was left of our tomatoes and we dug up the tiniest carrots you ever did see.
I washed up the tomatoes and plucked off all the green stems. . . my son washed up the carrots and ate all of the little orange nubs (he loves carrots!)
I sliced up the bigger tomatoes and tossed them in two roasting pans with the cherry tomatoes. The idea is to keep them all about the same size so they roast evenly.
I added quartered onions, basil (also from the garden), whole garlic cloves, salt and olive oil. . . .
I roasted the vegetables at 400 degrees F for about an hour. . .
Smells so good! I took the roasted vegetables and scooped them into the Vitamix and blended it up to make a sauce. I added the sauce to a sauce pan with cooked ground turkey, cooked sliced mushrooms and shredded parmesan. . . . tossed in some seasonings – italian seasoning, powdered garlic, dried onion and parsley. Let that simmer. . .
I had some day old sourdough bread from the discount section at the grocery store. I buttered the top side and added minced garlic. Roasted those at 400 degrees F while the noodles boiled for the spaghetti.
Ta-da! Dinner was absolutely delicious . . . we all had seconds. After working in the yard all day it was the perfect treat and we all felt so satisfied! Roasting the tomatoes was the perfect way to use up the last-of-season tomatoes.
The yard is cleaned up and raised beds are ready for the bounty of next year’s garden season. To think we just built these beds this spring blows my mind – I can’t imagine the space without them. I’ll probably use some of the fall leaves (still yet to fall) and add them as a mulch on top of the dirty in the raised beds.
On the right you’ll see our grape vines – which still have grapes we need to pick. They seem to get sweeter the longer we wait, so we’re maybe wait until the first frost before we pick those. I trimmed back the raspberries a bunch – perhaps too much? Guess we’ll see?
I’m really love with this. It’s an old gate on wheels with a flower box at the bottom. I bought it for $30 at a garage sale this summer. This weekend we added dirt to the flower box and I added some $4 discount mums – which should bloom this week. The rusty sink/faucet was a $5 find from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, the metal wind mill in the top corner was $4 thrifted and the “hello” sign was taken from an old secondhand sign I had picked up this summer! Oh. . .and the amazing golden frog was a Goodwill find last Friday for $7.50 – a bit of a splurge but he’s so cool and it’s from Pier 1, so I can only imagine what he cost retail!!!
Hope you’ve enjoyed this update from our yard and I hope you enjoy the marinara recipe!
How is your fall garden doing? Are you planting a fall crop? Have you made roasted marinara sauce before?
- 2Shares
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