Tennessee 2019 Garden

[Gary350]

This morning I am slicing up 4 Big Bertha sweet bell peppers and 1 Marconi sweet bell pepper and saving the seeds. Wife put slices in a 1 gallon bag for freezer they will make good stir fly and many other things this winter. Pepper plants are loaded with green peppers slowly turning red and Oct cooler weather there will be a pepper explosion many times more peppers than we are getting now. Next year I will plant only 4 Big Bertha plants, no other sweet peppers. Lots of potassium & nitrogen really did the trick for growing lots of big peppers. If you feed your plants well they are happy. Maybe I slice up the New Mexico peppers later today or tomorrow after I check garden plants again there could be more.

[Gary350]

Today I harvested tomatoes from my newest tomato plant.

If I have time tomorrow I am going to grind up jalapeno peppers into 1 quart of liquid then pour it on my old lawn mower wait about 1 hour then wash it off with the water hose. I did this 35 years ago it stripped all the paint off of the lawn mower then it looked brand new after I repainted it. I want to see if this still works I used all green jalapeno's last time. 1 pepper is starting to rot what kinds of bacteria can live in a spicy hot pepper.

I pull up Blue Lake bean plants about 30 ft of a 40 ft row. I sat under the shade tree and picked a 5 gallon bucket full of mostly dry beans.

Beans with yellow looking pods are soft as rubber and peal open like a banana. These white beans make good soup. I especially like white bean chicken chili.

There are a few green beans that can be eaten there might be enough for one dinner.

Bean pods need to dry a few more weeks then put into an empty 20 lb cat food bag then beat it against a tree to break up the dry pods to collect the dry beans. Beans that are already dry and hard will be seeds for next years garden.

[Gary350]

Another load of peppers & more tomatoes. We had another stir fly dinner it reduced the population of Big Bertha peppers by 1 whole pepper. More jalapeno peppers & more New Mexico peppers. Time to start cutting New Mexico peppers into strips to dry to make chili powder.

My seeds & herbs have dried time to put in bags or bottles. For now I will pour seeds & herds into empty pizza jars.

[Gary350]

I removed, seeds, vanes, stems, from the 16 New Mexico peppers in this top photo then sliced them into skinny strips. Strips covered 2 pizza pans. I put both pizza pans in my 2002 Honda CRV food dehydrator parked in 95 degree sun all day, it is 130 degrees in there. 6 pm NM pepper strips look like pic 3. I used the coffee grinder to make chili power. I can hardly wait to make a pot of chili to see how it tastes. Chili powder looks good 3 1/2 ounces of chili powder in an empty pizza jar.

[Gary350]

New way to remove beans from green bean pods. Green beans have grown too large to eat, pods are tough & stringy, beans inside pods are large about as large as they will get. I pulled up all the Blue Lake Bush Bean plants in 1 row then removed green beans from plants & put green beans on patio table. I decided to leave green beans if full sun to dry out then a few days later I notice several pods have dried enough to become rubbery and yellow looking. These pods pull open easy like a banana then beans fall out. Not all green beans dry at the same speed so every morning I remove the softest pods and remove the white beans inside. Soon we have a pot of white beans soup. Put white beans in a jar of water few days we have beans sprouts for Chinese stir fly. Beans sprouts are good on salad. Beans sprouts are a good substitute on any sandwich to replace lettuce. Beans sprouts on tacos & taco salad.

[Gary350]

Our first spaghetti squash it finally turned yellow today. We are letting it grow 1 more day to make sure it is ripe. Squash bugs are taking over plants will be lucky if they live a few more days. No help from the birds they won't even come to the bird feeder this time of the year.

[Gary350]

I am testing my new food dehydrator today, upside down fish aquarium on a sheet of styrofoam. I sliced 1 New Mexico pepper this morning and put it in the dehydrator about 9 am, at 5 pm slices look dry. I put another sliced pepper in at 3 pm nothing much happened yet. Tomorrow when sun comes up I remove the dry 1 an leave the other one.

We have 7 watermelons. I should have fertilized the plants with potassium so plants will make more blossoms that makes more melons. I have 3 plants it is hard to eat 30 melons that is why I never fertilized with potassium = wood ash. 7 melons are enough for the season. The biggest melon is starting to look a bit yellow on bottom stem will not pull off so it is not ready yet.

I sprayed blight spray on my tomato plants too late again. I always spray too late and loose several plants. I forgot to add dish soap to make it spray even not spotty. So far so good. I need to spray sooner before plants start to die I could save more plants. We already have pantry full all we need now is 2 tomatoes every day until Christmas day.

[TomatoNut95]

Awesome food dehydrator ideas!! Amazing! I so need to try that; but all I have is sweet peppers. Is there such thing as sweet pepper powder?

[applestar]

I think that would be sweet paprika. Maybe try smoking or roasting then dehydrating for added flavor. Try blending with your mild jalapeño.

Be sure to try growing some of the mild “seasoning” peppers next year. I’m growing/trying Aji Dulce Amarillo this year. I grew Alma Paprika last year.

Oh yeah, also growing Pasilla Bajio considered mild heat.

[Gary350]

Awesome food dehydrator ideas!! Amazing! I so need to try that; but all I have is sweet peppers. Is there such thing as sweet pepper powder?

Sweet pepper powder is called, Paprika. Home made paprika has very good flavor in food & good red color too. If your chili powder is too spicy hot mix it with paprika to reduce spicy hotness. You can also make homemade green paprika & green chili powder.

[Gary350]

I think that would be sweet paprika. Maybe try smoking or roasting then dehydrating for added flavor. Try blending with your mild jalapeño.

Be sure to try growing some of the mild “seasoning” peppers next year. I’m growing/trying Aji Dulce Amarillo this year. I grew Alma Paprika last year.

Oh yeah, also growing Pasilla Bajio considered mild heat.

My New Mexico peppers are making a good mild spicy chili powder. I am just now starting to make paprika with Big Bertha sweet peppers & Marconi sweet peppers. When eating Marconi vs Big Bertha the Marconi has a stronger flavor but we can not tell any different flavor with paprika.

Last year I made paprika but had no mild chili peppers it only took a tiny amount of red color jalapeno pepper mixed with paprika to make a good mild chili powder.

[Gary350]

Corn stalks are a nightmare to get rid of. They have been laying in hot sun for a month and still not dry enough to burn. I wish I had a chopper machine to make small pieces that will till into the soil. I am smoking my tomato plants it might be good to cure blight & get rid of stink bugs.

[TomatoNut95]

Oh, ok: paprika! How dumb can I be?


I actually pulled the Jalapenos. Plants were never that productive, not to mention very big. I think they were stunted by my Beefsteak plant when it was there. Can you dry green peppers, or do they need to be ripe/red?

[applestar]

I haven’t actually tried it, but I have an idea — try dipping the green jalapeño strips or slices in lime juice seasoned with just a tiny amount of sea salt (or pickling salt — no chemicals) then dehydrating. I think that dried then powdered green jalapeño powder would taste awesome.

[Gary350]

Oh, ok: paprika! How dumb can I be? I actually pulled the Jalapenos. Plants were never that productive, not to mention very big. I think they were stunted by my Beefsteak plant when it was there. Can you dry green peppers, or do they need to be ripe/red?

Yes you can dry green color strips of jalapenos & green sweet peppers too. Front seat of my car makes a good dehydrator it works very well parked in the hot sun it gets 130 degrees inside. I put pepper strips in the car about 9 am they are crispy dry at 5 pm. We had a lot of clouds today and it still worked. My coffee grinder makes a fine powder. My son wants me to make him red color jalapeno powder to refill the bottler that he bought.

My home made blight medicine is working good plants are coming back to life & ripe tomatoes are not rotten, not spotty except for the blue color blight spray. I picked 9 good tomatoes. We had a 3 minute rain about 6 pm, tomorrow morning I need to blight spray again.

[TomatoNut95]

No jalapenos, I pulled the plants. I had only one pepper and I just used it in pasta. However I've got bell plants left that are still producing. I normally just slice them and freeze them. I used to have a small fish tank, but I sold it and now I wish I hadn't. And I'd rather not have my vehicle out in the sun like that, I doubt that's good for it. I need to go in Goodwill and see if I can find something usable.

[Gary350]

More peppers. 4 Marconi sweet peppers, 8 New Mexico peppers, several jalapeno peppers. I learned seeds inside the New Mexico peppers are about 10 times hotter than the pepper.

[Gary350]

Today I picked out 1 1/2 gallons of tiny potatoes from our potato pile to plant just to see what happens. These tiny potatoes are small and good in stew but we still have lots more potatoes to eat. I washed them in a 5 gallon bucket of water 2 times. The potatoes I planted a few weeks ago are doing nothing covered up with dry dust. No way to know when we will get enough rain to make potatoes grow could be November. I raked soil flat, poured potatoes in the row, covered them up, no fertilizer. Picture #4 you can see a pile of saved seeds germinated now I know for sure seeds are good to use next year. Tomato seeds are germinating too. I should have saved corn seed too like I did last year but we might plant a different corn next year. I ear of corn left to dry on the stalk for a month is 500 seeds. Winter potatoes are always good it never gets cold enough to freeze them out it only kills the tops and there is still a good crop of potatoes. I never planted this many potatoes so close together before we will see what happens.

[TomatoNut95]

@Gary, you said you crush the dried pepper slices into powder by your coffee maker. Would you show me how to do so? I don't own a coffee maker 'cause I can't stand coffee. I'd have to buy one I guess.

[Gary350]

@Gary, you said you crush the dried pepper slices into powder by your coffee maker. Would you show me how to do so? I don't own a coffee maker 'cause I can't stand coffee. I'd have to buy one I guess.

I cut peppers into long thin strips, put them on large pizza pan in front seat of your vehicle parked in the sun for 8 hours in 130 degree heat. Peppers will be dry & crispy as potato chips. Put dry peppers in kitchen blender or coffee GRINDER. Grind peppers about 1 minute into a fine powder.

[TomatoNut95]

Grinder, not maker. My bad.
I so want to try it, if my peppers will ripen before they sunscald.

[Gary350]

Grinder, not maker. My bad.
I so want to try it, if my peppers will ripen before they sunscald.

I made more chili powder today. I picked 8 New Mexico peppers yesterday, today I cut them into strips to dehydrate. About 5 pm pieces were dry. I broke up the strips into smaller pieces by hand then put them in the small food processor. This little food processor does not run fast enough to make powder. I have an old kitchen blender in the storage shed that will make powder but I am not going out there for such a small amount of chili powder. The little food processor made smaller pieces that were spooned into this little high speed electric coffee grinder. It is interesting to notice the finer the powder gets the more red color it gets. Now I have 1/2 jar of chili powder.

[TomatoNut95]

Awesome! So how long will your powder keep in storage?

[Gary350]

Awesome! So how long will your powder keep in storage?

We try to use all the chili power up every year usually that is not hard to do if we don't have much. So far I have 3/4 of a cup and more peppers on the plants and more to come. Oct cool weather will be a pepper explosion no way to know how much chili powder I can make this year maybe 1 or 2 lbs. About 20 years ago I made 2 lbs of chili powder the kids were still living at home we cooked lots of Mexican & Chili we used up about 1 lb chili powder by summer then the rest by Christmas. I am sure all herbs & spices slowly loose there flavor. I still have about 3 tablespoons of a 1 quart jar of hotter chili powder that is 8 years old flavor is less than it use to be but it is still good to cook with.

[Gary350]

Tomato harvest is getting better blight spray seems to be working. Lots of peppers. I let beans go to seed, white beans will be good in soup. Corn has been gone a month we ate some from the freezer today with German sausage on the BBQ grill, fried potatoes, sliced tomatoes. Corn sure is good much better than grocery store corn. I was thinking about planting less corn next year but after eating this good corn today I think we will have a big corn crop next year. Peppers are, big Bertha, Marconi, new Mexico, jalapeno. I have about 40 more jalapeno not in the picture. I picked 1 marconi a bit early we decided we want some green pepper in the freezer.

[Gary350]

I sliced 18 Marconi peppers & Big Bertha peppers this morning. Wife put a hand full of peppers in the crock pot to make vegetable soup the rest of the peppers went into the freezer. I shelled beans and put a plate full in the vegetable soup. I pureed 2 cups of tomatoes for the soup too. Potatoes, carrots, corn, beans, tomatoes, onions, garlic, celery, peas, pork roast, herbs & spices, soup will be good. .

[Gary350]

Crock pot vegetable stew with pork roast and lots of vegetables turned out GOOD. All those garden white beans make it extra good.

[Gary350]

I had about 3 pints of Bread & Butter pickle brine left over from making pickles and a basket full of red color jalapeno peppers so I decided to use them up to get them out of the way. I sliced all the jalapeno peppers then brought them to a boil in the pickle brine then hot packed them in recycled pickle jars. I have 3 full jars and a tiny bit left over that I threw into the garden. These jars are a strange size slightly less than 1 quart each.

[Gary350]

Tomato plants are doing better and picking up speed, 72 large ripe tomatoes on 8 plants, 47 small 1" ripe tomatoes on 1 plant, 39 small 1" ripe tomatoes on another plant, a basket of about 20 large tomatoes in the kitchen. Pantry is full wife needs to cook something else that used up lots of tomatoes. I need to call my son to see if he wants 150 tomatoes. This volunteer pepper plant turned out to be a spicy fire hot pepper not something we want but I will let it grow. Cool weather is coming it always causes a tomato & pepper explosion.

[Gary350]

I picked all the ripe tomatoes early this morning so we could get started making spaghetti sauce in the crock pot. I decided there are too many tomatoes to be fooling around trying to salvage bad tomatoes with damage like, worn holes, rotten places, etc. I sliced good ripe tomatoes and pushed out seeds & jell while wife made the sauce with food processor and crock pot. We still have 17 large tomatoes and 86 cherry tomatoes to use up soon. Wife made a very large pot of spaghetti sauce looks like we will be eating this for 2 more days. Wife made meat balls with ground beef, 2 eggs, 1 cup of potato chip crumbs, about 1 1/2 cups of corn chip crumbs, 1 1/2 cups crushed up white crackers. Sauce had 1 large onion, 1 whole head of garlic, about 1/2 cup Italian seasoning. Wife found 1/4 jar of taco sauce in refrigerator that needed to be used up so she threw that in the spaghetti sauce too. Sauce turned out very good. You are all invited to come eat spaghetti tomorrow evening I think we have enough left for 8 people.

[Gary350]

This morning I noticed a limb broken off one of the pepper plants. No wonder it broke off it has 23 pepper on it. I cut off all the peppers and found 2 worms. One worm is a horn worm I have no clue what the other worm is. I checked other plants they are all loaded with about 25 peppers per limb. New Mexico peppers all have 3 to 4 limbs so that is about 75 to 100 peppers per plant, I have 8 plants. Big Bertha has about 25 peppers per plant I have 4 plants. Marconi has about 20 peppers per plant. Jalapeno has too many peppers to count. I need to tie up the limbs so they don't break off. I have been seeing several large 2" orange color butterflies in the garden yesterday I tried to take pictures but they never seem to stop flying around & around & around. I looked at butterflies photos online I am not seeing the butterfly I am looking for. They have orange color wings with a few black spots and the outer edges of both wings are black all the way around. Not finding correct wing shape either. I put both worms in the bird feeder maybe birds will eat them. Some of the big Bertha peppers have sun burn.

[pepperhead212]

Gary, What variety of Numex is that, with all those peppers? And what size are they? I have a grafting tape to reattach those broken off branches of peppers and tomatoes, usually from terrible wind storms. I had about 1/3 of a pepper plant ripped off in June, and didn't know if it would recover, but it is loaded with peppers now!

Definitely a good pepper year!

[Gary350]

Gary, What variety of Numex is that, with all those peppers? And what size are they? I have a grafting tape to reattach those broken off branches of peppers and tomatoes, usually from terrible wind storms. I had about 1/3 of a pepper plant ripped off in June, and didn't know if it would recover, but it is loaded with peppers now!
Definitely a good pepper year!

I have New Mexico peppers, Marconi peppers, Big Bertha peppers, Jalapeno peppers. I fertilize them with wood ash = potassium & calcium & minerals.

[Gary350]

How do I know when Maypop is ready to harvest? Flowers have attracted bumble bees & butterflies. No wonder I have been seeing so many butterflies I just realized they are attracted to the Maypop flowers. Flowers sure have a nice smell. Look at the flower picture it has a large bumble bee on it. I have two 5 gallon buckets of water mixed with wood ash waiting to be used for fertilizer I am going to potassium fertilizer the Maypop plants about 7 pm. Click picture it gets bigger then you can see the bumble bee. I need Jam & Jelly recipe?

[Gary350]

Watermelon is good. Darn picture is out of focus. Too late now to get a better picture wife cut the whole melon up and put it in a large pot in the refrigerator. I threw the rind in the garden. Maybe later I take a pic of pan full of watermelon pieces. I don't like out of focus pictures you get a bad grade for that is college photography class. LOL OH well #$%& happens.

[TomatoNut95]

Aww man, a Passion Flower! Gorgeous! I had one, but it died. Guess it didn't like me.

[TomatoNut95]

I envy you... I wish my peppers produced that much. Mine are loaded down and I'm having to stick stakes all around them, but taking forever to ripen to colors. Oh I see those caterpillars on rare occasion. I don't know what they turn into, probably some moth.

[applestar]

Caterpillars with those tufts of bristles are called Tussock Moth caterpillars, but there are different species according to what they eat.

[Gary350]

I envy you... I wish my peppers produced that much. Mine are loaded down and I'm having to stick stakes all around them, but taking forever to ripen to colors. Oh I see those caterpillars on rare occasion. I don't know what they turn into, probably some moth.

Feed your plants lots of potassium to get more peppers. I read that potassium causes flowers to produce more flowers also makes other plants produce more blossoms. Blossoms turn into fruit. I burn all the wood I can get wood ash is high potassium, lime & minerals, 0-1-4 fertilizer. Wood ash contains lye it goes away when exposed to humid air or water for a few days. I mix wood ash in 5 gallon buckets of water wait 2 days then use it for fertilizer. Urine mixed with wood ash produces 10-1-4 fertilizer.

[TomatoNut95]

Urine? Um, no offense, but if you think I'm gonna use the bathroom in my garden.....forget it. However, I do have MG bloom booster fertilizer which I used not long ago. @Applestar reminded me about the 'too much nitrogen equals too much foliage and minus production' equation, so I know better by now. I meant I wish my plants were more loaded right now so I'll have more to make paprika from.