Garden Production

[Smallgardener]

We are now getting over run with veggies. The early August rains are paying off.
We canned 10 quarts of Pickles over the weekend and froze 6 quarts of Zucini and crooked neck squash. It seems this is one of those years the everybody has cucumbers and Zucs.
I have been getting Cherry tomatoes all summer the size of ping pong balls but never enough to get more than what we can eat. I am finally getting some big maters but they are not bigger than the palm of my hand.
Black krim and Brandy wine. The Burpee early and Mortgage lifter are dead and pulled out. I just planted the Turnips on Sunday.

[imafan26]

looks like you will need to have a very large pantry or frig and you will be eating your veggies way into the next season.

[gumbo2176]

My garden is in transition right now. Part still producing peppers, okra and eggplant and the rest recently planted in the fall stuff I can grow. My okra always does great and I have over 5 gallons of it cooked down and stored in the freezer in quart bags and after today I'll have at least 10 qts. of it pickled.

I'm also over-run with hot peppers. I've pickled them, made pepper jelly with them, cooked some dishes with them and given a couple hundred of them away to family, friends and a local restaurant that the chef is experimenting with in a few of his dishes. He told me the other day, "A little goes a long way with the Habs and Ghost Peppers." So true as they are scorchers. Right now I have close to 50 hot peppers in the fridge looking for a home since I have all I can use. My wife can't eat them because of the heat.

Unlike you, my tomato plants are long gone and new ones in the ground coming along just fine for an early fall crop. Tomatoes do much better in the fall months for me with less heat, pests and diseases taking their toll on them.

[Ohio Tiller]

Its time for you to start canning make the best of your garden by eating from it all year long. Canning is like having fresh from the garden in the middle of the winter.

[gumbo2176]

Its time for you to start canning make the best of your garden by eating from it all year long. Canning is like having fresh from the garden in the middle of the winter.

Nice looking pantry you have there. I have an area in my "man cave" that I'm going to make into a pantry very similar to what you have there. That is, as soon as the 28 yr. old stepson moves out later this month and I get my space back. I probably have close to 70 jars of veggies I've canned stored in my upstairs utility room sitting on a small shelving unit. The downstairs area now has a second fridge, 21 cu. ft. upright freezer and proposed pantry to help keep the larder full year round. It's nice to eat home grown summer crops in late February.

[Ohio Tiller]

Nice looking pantry you have there. I have an area in my "man cave" that I'm going to make into a pantry very similar to what you have there. That is, as soon as the 28 yr. old stepson moves out later this month and I get my space back. I probably have close to 70 jars of veggies I've canned stored in my upstairs utility room sitting on a small shelving unit. The downstairs area now has a second fridge, 21 cu. ft. upright freezer and proposed pantry to help keep the larder full year round. It's nice to eat home grown summer crops in late February.[/quote]



I have a spare bed room that we use for storage and I have a large book shelfs that is full as well. What kills me is how much better food from canning is then what you get from the store. I think the preserve the taste right out of it.

[Smallgardener]

I would love to be able to can more. Nostalgia as much as anything. I remember mom canning up beans and mater and beats. I have heard of people canning meats. That would be great for wild game. Summer is very busy in my business and canning takes time. We also don't have a pressure canner.
Is it ok to can beans without a pressure canner?
I worked for a farmer once that was over loaded with turnips so his wife made Kraut out of them.

[Ohio Tiller]

I would love to be able to can more. Nostalgia as much as anything. I remember mom canning up beans and mater and beats. I have heard of people canning meats. That would be great for wild game. Summer is very busy in my business and canning takes time. We also don't have a pressure canner.
Is it ok to can beans without a pressure canner?
I worked for a farmer once that was over loaded with turnips so his wife made Kraut out of them.

I can anything that will stand still long enough. My Grandma got me started when I was real young I remember snapping beans and washing jars and standing out side watching that shaker while she would fall asleep in the rocker.

I can alot of meats I love canning bacon and sausage. Chicken is better canned then it is fresh from the chicken I think. Makes the best chicken and dumplings you ever ate. Canned beff for stew is so tender its like biting butter!
This chicken is well over a year old and I am making chicken and noddles tomorrow with it.

[n8young]

Its time for you to start canning make the best of your garden by eating from it all year long. Canning is like having fresh from the garden in the middle of the winter.

OHIO - nice looking pantry. Care to go through the list of what you have inventoried in there? very impressive.

[Ohio Tiller]

Its time for you to start canning make the best of your garden by eating from it all year long. Canning is like having fresh from the garden in the middle of the winter.

OHIO - nice looking pantry. Care to go through the list of what you have inventoried in there? very impressive.

Top to bottom
Beets
Mixed vegitables, Tomato Soup, Corn
Tomato sauce Pickles more tomaoto soup
corn, carrots
Green beans
to the left Potatoes
Mixed in there is some honey saurkraut and home made porkin beans

[rainbowgardener]

My little city garden, I don't have a lot to can. I have canned some tomato sauce this season and will be doing some salsa soon. I can a lot of jams and jellies, mostly from herbs, purple basil jelly, etc. I also freeze a lot. I have some frozen carrots, garlic, onions, and also some swiss chard lasagna I made and froze and some soup, plus tons of pesto. I love just pulling out a meal full of garden veggies, like the lasagna or pesto and just thawing and warming it. It is like summer preserved! I dry a lot of herbs and now am busy making them up in to herbal tea blends. This year I found little 1/2 cup tin tea canisters for 67 cents each, so I'm busy filling them. I bought a box of 48 of them, but may end up buying another box. Last night I filled 3 with Love Charm tea and 2 with Maytime tea:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=40087

I also distill essential oils and use them for making soaps, lotions, candles, etc.

Lots of this stuff ends up in the Christmas baskets.

[Smallgardener]

Here is a sample of what I picked over the weekend. Black Krim, Big jim peppers and some cucumbers.
The middle tomatoes are Brandywines and on the right is Rutgers.

[imafan26]

You guys could feed an army! I don't really know how to can, have never tried to make jam, and I make terrible pickles, but I am jealous.

I don't have the space to grow all that much, and I don't grow a lot of any one thing, but when I do have extras I give some away to friends and family. I give my daikon and hot peppers to my friend and she gives me pickles and kim chi in return which is a better deal for me. I eat most of what I grow fresh, I have tried freezing some things like the lemon and lime juices, and herbal butter. I should do a better job of labeling, I can't tell them apart.

[gumbo2176]

Here is a sample of what I picked over the weekend. Black Krim, Big jim peppers and some cucumbers.
The middle tomatoes are Brandywines and on the right is Rutgers.

Are those Big Jim peppers mild or do they have a bit of zing to tem? I have 5 varieties of hot peppers growing in my garden and one more wouldn't hurt. If they are mild like banana or sweet bell peppers, I'd use them for cooking in a lot of the dishes we cook here in La. A little different pepper in the Trinity would add a bit of variety to our dishes.

[rainbowgardener]

It is the season for preserving food! Today so far, I have made and canned four jars of fresh tomato salsa, made and frozen four baggies of pesto, seeded, chopped, blanched, cooled and frozen a bunch of green peppers, made soup stock out of all of the scraps. And I'm not done yet. I never froze green peppers before, usually I just use them up in the salsa, tomato sauce, etc. But we had a big party yesterday and served 50+ people with sliced tomatoes for the sandwiches/burgers. So a bunch of tomatoes got used up and now I have a more bell peppers on hand than tomatoes to cook them with. So I will see later, how they come out frozen and then cooked. Since I only ever use bell peppers cooked into things, I'm thinking they will be fine, even if not as crisp as they are when fresh.

Of course canning season is always when it is HOT! 90+ degrees and I am working over a hot stove all day. The old timers were smarter with outdoor kitchens. It is still hot to work in, but at least you aren't heating up your house.

More jams and jellies to do, more herbs to dry....

[Smallgardener]

Super Green Thumb,
I would call them a medium heat pepper when picked green. I picked one that was red and I think it was just under a Jalapeno as far as heat. I am not a big hot pepper eater. I just wanted to grow them again to see how big they would get.
I am thinking next year I will grow some cherry peppers just for pickling.

[Ohio Tiller]

My spring gardens are all but done I am getting some tomatoes still now just waiting on the fall crops to get going. Butternut Squash is going nuts and the carrots are looking great! Cucumber was a bit slow but has taken off now and started climbing the trellis. Beets are about 12 inches tall and showing some bulbs. It is hot here right now 90+ but they as saying it my hit the mid 40’s next week for lows.

[!potatoes!]

sheet mulching!

[Ohio Tiller]

I pulled a couple test corrots yesterday. They are coming along nicly still tall and green I hope to let them go untill frost.

[rainbowgardener]

Went out this AM before work and harvested from the front lawn bed (which has full sun and is doing the best). It currently has 3 tomato plants, 2 bell pepper plants, two parsley plants, a row of beans which were planted late and may or may not produce anything, and some onions that are sprouting on their own. I harvested 8 peppers from full size to very large and 10 tomatoes, from saladette to 8 oz, nearly ripe to dead ripe. Some of the peppers instead of having 4 lobes have 8, shaped kind of like those pleated tomatoes we see pictures of. Peppers hadn't started turning color yet, but I figured I might as well pick them, free up some energy for the plants to keep producing.

So things I noticed - what is it that just eats the skin off of tomatoes? I've seen 2 - 3 of them now (including one more today) that just look like a significant portion of the tomato was peeled. In the peeled area, all the seeds and gel are showing, but dried out from being exposed. Doesn't look like the kind of holes that hornworms make or the kind of scars that stinkbugs leave.

I found another parasitized hornworm. I've actually now seen a few more hornworms than usual, but since every one of them has been covered in white coccoons, I'm not worrying about it. The braconid wasps have to have a host for their larvae, so if I could get rid of every hornworm, the braconids would probably go elsewhere too. But this one had a full sized yellow jacket type wasp on it. The wasp spent a significant amount of time there, but I couldn't tell what it was doing. The coccoons were already hollow and empty, so it couldn't be eating those. Maybe sucking out the rest of the caterpillar from the skin? Laying eggs?

[rainbowgardener]

So things I noticed - what is it that just eats the skin [and some of the outer layer of flesh so the seeds are revealed] off of tomatoes?

I looked it up and that is the hornworms. I thought they just made holes, but I found pics that look just like mine. I guess they got a little eating in before they died. Oh well, since it is only a couple and the hornworms keep getting killed before they can turn into adults that lay eggs, I'm still not worrying about them.

I guess tomorrow, when I have some daylight time, I should go out and do a careful search, see if I can find any non-parasitized ones.