Tennessee 2019 Garden

[TomatoNut95]

Ah, now I can get my picture uploaded. Here's the solar dryer I found in this building projects book. The project calls for cedar wood. I want it to be build fairly lightweight since I'm no he-man and can easily move it if need be. I was wondering if maybe I could add wheels to it, like a portable grill? The trouble I'm going to have first off is finding an old glass window.

[Gary350]

My passion fruit does not appear to grow larger or get riper. I pull of the fruit 2 times a week they seem to be attached very well. Should I let them grow until after first frost or should I harvest them before first frost. First frost in only 2 weeks away. Every time I count I get a different number, I think there are 14 passion fruit on the vine. Will vines completely die and grow back or will vines stay there all winter like grape vines do?

TomatoNut95. I did several experiments with, 1 sheet of glass, 2 sheets of glass & 3 sheets of glass. 1 sheet of glass on a solar cooker heated up to about 150 to 180 degrees maximum on a hot summer day depending on how cloudy it was. 2 sheets of glass almost doubles the heat in the cooker 270 to 300 degrees. 3 sheets of glass is basically a waste of glass it heats up to 275 to 305 degrees. The insulation value of 2 sheets of glass is very good.

[TomatoNut95]

Glass sheets crossed my mind when I wondered if I could not find a window. If one sheet heats the cooker to 150-180 that should be ok for an 8 hr drying job right? I don't want to scorch my stuff like I did last time. But two sheets would help it go faster....I'll have to look up some more plans for a solar cooker. Thanks, @Gary!

[Gary350]

Glass sheets crossed my mind when I wondered if I could not find a window. If one sheet heats the cooker to 150-180 that should be ok for an 8 hr drying job right? I don't want to scorch my stuff like I did last time. But two sheets would help it go faster....I'll have to look up some more plans for a solar cooker. Thanks, @Gary!

I have noticed if a dehydrator is too hot everything I'm drying looses all it flavor it gets cooked away. At 170 degrees F 90% of the flavor is gone. At 150 flavor is better, At 130 flavor is much better. A fan is very helpful to remove humidity so things dehydrate much faster but you need a 130 deg thermostat and more BTU in the dehydrator 2 sheets of glass. You need gravity 1 way doors that close like a pet door. Snap disc thermostats are very cheap $4 each differential is plus 5 degree and minus 5 degrees. If you have a 130 degree thermostat temperature will fluxuates 125 to 135 every time fan turns on/off. If you have a junk microwave oven remove the case cover use tin snips to cut out metal pieces to make gravity doors that a tiny fan can suck open to remove humidity. 2 sheets of glass gives you the extra BTUs for heat loss. You can also by very cheap adjustable thermostats last time I bought one of these it was $10. See picture. Bi metal thermostat by Robert Shaw Company they come in an assortment of temperature ranges. I still have 1 or 2 of these adjustable thermostats some where in my junk boxes I am a pack rat I save everything. Microwave ovens all have 2 or 3 snap disc thermostats inside but they are all higher temperature 180 to 200 degrees F.

[TomatoNut95]

Most interesting! Like I said, I'll keep looking at plans...I've got all winter to draw one up, lol! A fan sounds like a nice addition, but would periodically lifting the glass help humidity escape such as you said you must do when using your fish tank?

[SQWIB]

My passion fruit does not appear to grow larger or get riper. I pull of the fruit 2 times a week they seem to be attached very well. Should I let them grow until after first frost or should I harvest them before first frost. First frost in only 2 weeks away. Every time I count I get a different number, I think there are 14 passion fruit on the vine. Will vines completely die and grow back or will vines stay there all winter like grape vines do?

Don't pull the fruit off the vine let it drop off then pick them up.
You can tell when they are ripe they have a little weight to them, turn a bit limish green and start to wrinkle, but a lot of times they fall off just before this happens (wind), so its best to only keep the ones that drop from the vine.

After heavy rains or windy days, go out and look for those that have dropped, the squirrels grab them up pretty quickly.
I pick mine off the ground and freeze till I can make jam.
In my Zone "7A", they die back to the ground and come back everywhere, in the cracks of the pavers, along the foundation of my house, out in the neighbors yard, in my raised beds 20' away.
Next year you may be cursing this plant!

[Gary350]

Dumb stupid idea of the day. LOL. I put on rubber gloves so I can cut this hell fire HOT cayenne chili pepper to test it and make sure it really is a volunteer from last year. It started out growing looking like a 4" long chili the diameter of a pencil shaped exactly like a long cayenne pepper. Month after month it got longer and larger diameter until it finally liked identical to my New Mexico peppers. I was sure no fallen NM peppers ever got in the other part of the garden but maybe some how it did. I cut the pepper open then stuck the very tip end of my tongue on the cut edge of the pepper. It only took 2 seconds to learn this was a bad idea this is not a New Mexico pepper. Next thing I know my mouth and lips are on fire. I grabbed a box of baking soda and put a spoon full in my mouth and poured baking soda on a wet rag to wipe my lips off. Wiping only smeared it all over the place all around my lips. Soap & water don't wash it off it smeared it more. Vinegar won't wash it off. Whiskey is alcohol it was slightly helpful getting it off I think it had already soaked into the skin. 1 hour later I am still on fire but not as bad as it was. I took a 25 minute shower washed my face & lips over & over with soap & water I'm not on fire anymore. Well, sense I already have my rubber gloves on I sliced a few New Mexico pepper to dehydrate in the bread proofing heated box. I threw the fire hot cayenne pepper seeds and all in the trash. Bread proofing box only gets to 100 degrees F so this will be very slow dehydrating. NO sun today very dark and over cast I think 6 month of rain has begun.

[TomatoNut95]

Oh wow. That's awful, @Gary! Hope you feel better soon! Whoever invented hot peppers needs to be admitted into a looney bin. By the way, have you tried milk as a hot pepper dilutant? If you're like me and don't care for the taste of plain milk, you could add a little chocolate sauce to it.

I recall dissecting little red Chiltipen peppers to get the seeds. The very next day my fingers felt like I was holding them in the fireplace. I held them down in a bowl of ice water, which helped only temporarily.

Every time I see the scary Trinidad Scorpion peppers in Baker Creek it makes me think: anybody who would want to eat those are crazy, looney, berserk, completely unraveled, off their rocker, and 100% out of their minds; not to mention they've got bats in their belfry.

[TomatoNut95]

According to Google, some other things to try are butter, ice cream, peanut butter or honey to dilute hot pepper burns in your mouth.

[SQWIB]

I'm here laughing my ass off.
Reminds me of the time I was working on Habs and had to pee.
It didn't end well.

[pepperhead212]

I just put two chocolate habs in a dish today! Could have used another - they aren't as hot at this time of year, when the temps are cooler.

[Gary350]

Wind is blowing very hard, it blew a limb out of a tree it landed directly on the 2 wheel trailer ready to be hauled away. LOL

Early this morning no wind I sprinkled, chard, broccoli, napa, kale, seeds in a 2ft x 10ft row. Garlic is growing.

August I planted potatoes in the desert they never grew until now it finally rained 3 times.

[Gary350]

I sliced 7 New Mexico peppers then dehydrated them in my bread proofing box at 100 degrees. It took 2 1/2 days to get completely dry. Low heat color is much better, flavor is much better, spicy hotness is better than before. Wow, this turned out much better than expected. I need to buy or build a 100 degree F dehydrator to dehydrate every thing at 100 degrees. Look at how bright orange color this chili power is.

[TomatoNut95]

@Gary, if you can find those discarded Roma seeds, I'll give them a home. It makes me sad to see unwanted seeds being thrown away.

[Gary350]

Since heavy rain, storms, high wind, freezing weather is 2 days away I decided I better harvest all the peppers & tomatoes today. They all fit nice in a 5 gallon bucket. I am not doing anything with these tonight an maybe not until next week we are going camping Friday. Looks like we have a few peppers to eat, fried peppers, baked peppers, scrambled peppers, pepper stew, pepper soup, boiled peppers, peppers cordon blue, scalloped peppers, pepper bread, pepper tacos, stir fry peppers, chocolate covered peppers, more.

[TomatoNut95]

What a harvest!

[pepperhead212]

Looks like you will need more help eating those than I will with mine! lol

[Gary350]

A few days ago I sliced all the rest of my red chilies that had been in the kitchen for about a week. There were several about 30 or more. This 100 degree F bread proofing box I built is differently the 1st place winner for best dehydrating, no flavor lost, no spiciness lost, no color lost, 100 degree F is the perfect temperature. There is 1/2 cup too much chili powder to fit into a quart jar but it fits good in an empty 40 ounce peanut better jar. The peanut butter jar diameter is too large to fix in the pantry with other quart jars so I compacted the chili power in a 1 quart jar and forced it to fit.

Has anyone else noticed the forum loaded with advertisements the last few weeks. There were 7 advertisement on this page before I deleted them all. ADs about, black mold, exercise, furniture for sale, landscaping, wallets for sale, refrigerators for sale, rain gutters for sale, fence for sale, kitchen cabinets for sale ???

[TomatoNut95]

Oh yes, the ads are terrible! I hate ads! I noticed them yesterday and I was like, where did that all come from?

Say @Gary, if you ever get too much chili powder, you can give it away as Christmas gifts! I may send some of mine to my BFF in CA.

[Gary350]

Sky is very dark & over cast we have been watching it rain. I decided to get busy on the 5 gallon bucket of peppers so I sorted out all the jalapeno peppers to pickle. My 2 Sons both like these pickled peppers and want more. I barely have enough peppers to make 1 jar of Red & 1 jar of Green pickled peppers. I still have 3 jars of Red Pickled peppers in the pantry. These are very good on pizza, chili, meat loaf, stir fry, stew, soup, sandwiches. I have been having fun making pickled thngs this garden season. If I ever do this again I will remember to mix a large batch of pickle brine to start with instead of making 2 cups of pickle brine every time I make pickles. Brine Recipe is, 1 gallon of vinegar, 1 gallon of water, 1 gallon of sugar, 16 teaspoons celery seed, 16 teaspoons mustard seeds, 8 teaspoons ginger powder, 4 teaspoons Tumeric, 4 teaspoons cinnamon. This will do about 22 quarts of pickles.

[TomatoNut95]

Those are beautiful! I hope the storm won't be bad for you. It didn't turn out near as severe here like I heard. But temperatures are dropping out there already. I pulled up my Phoniex tomato plant and the poor onions.

[Gary350]

Rain let up for a few minutes so I ran out and picked the last of the peppers also 4 green tomatoes. This Big Beef tomato plant that I planted from seeds make several very nice good flavor tomatoes. My Son wants these fire hot Red Chilies. The other day it got dark when I was picking all those other peppers I totally missed the hot pepper plant an the tomato plant. It looks like the big peppers have a BER problem, I have to feed plants calcium about every 2 or 3 weeks all summer to prevent BER. It is raining again. My cousin says it is snowing at her house she is 90 miles east of St Louis 200 miles north of us. I need to put fire wood in the truck camp fire will feel good this weekend. Big Freeze tonight I can't remember if I should to pick Pashion fruit or leave it to freeze.

[TomatoNut95]

Maybe if you tossed some egg shells in your garden it may help administer calcium. I sometimes wonder if watering a plant with a little milk would give a quick calcium dose.....just a dumb question.

[Gary350]

I think this is the last jar of Bread & Butter pickled hot peppers. I sliced all the big peppers and put all the small pepper in 1 jar to make sure they fill the jar. I boiled peppers in brine then hot packed the jar. Jar stood upside down for 2 hours to cool and seal the lid. There is not quit enough peppers to fill the jar but it is ok. These are the fire hot large cayenne chili peppers. My youngest son will like these he loves hot peppers. All the peppers shown in 1st picture are inside the jar shown in 2nd picture.

[Gary350]

I want a garden tiller like this it might be fun.

[TomatoNut95]

Good grief!....

[Gary350]

We just arrived home from camping with 27 other couples with vintage camper trailers. It was 26 degrees F at the camp ground in the mountain and 30 degrees F both nights at home. I checked the maypop pashion fruit no more have falling off freezing temperatures 2 nights did not hurt them at all. None are turning yellow color. They all feel heavy now they use to feel hollow like hollow egg shells.

[Gary350]

We have a basket of very small garlic wife wanted some for chili. I took the garlic outside and tried to break up the cloves but many of these are a solid garlic bulbs with no cloves. Purple looking garlic are hard neck garlic the white color garlic is soft neck garlic. I'm not sure why several of these are solid bulbs. I told wife next time you want garlic grab a hand full throw it in the soup, stew, chili or in the blender as is. When this garlic is gone this is the end of our garden garlic.

[TomatoNut95]

I had to use garlic to 'season' my mortar and pestal. It still smells, even after sanding on it.

[Gary350]

About 1 hour before dark I decided to go look at the garden plants are all dead from the freeze. I found 5 green tomatoes & 2 peppers that were hiding among the leaves when I picked all the other tomatoes & peppers. These 7 vegetables are glossy green from the cold. So far so good they might rot in a few days.

[Gary350]

We have 5 hours of DARK before bed it is going to be a long evening if I don't find something to do. I decided to cut up all the sweet bell peppers. Wife said, Don't cut them into long thin strips leave them in large pieces, so I did that saved me a lot of time & work. Then I stuff all the pieces into a plastic bag for the freezer. Wife has been throwing hands full of peppers into lots of things I love RED much better than Green. I am almost tempted to throw all the green in the trash Red taste so much better but we have no green in the freezer yet.

[TomatoNut95]

You're lucky, I pulled my pepper a long time ago. They looked pretty played out anyway. My Phoenix tomato I pulled right before the frost hit. It had a green fruit on it, but since it was so small I was sure it wouldn't ripe so I left it on the plant. Wasted 3.58 on that plant.

[Gary350]

After we returned home from our trip I noticed a lot of the green peppers in the 5 gallon bucket had turned red. I have always heard if you put unripe fruit or vegetables in a, bag or box they produce a gas that makes them all get ripe. I'm not sure that is true but it seems like it works. Today I sliced up a lot of New Mexico peppers to dehydrate and a few jalapeno peppers to dehydrate they will be chili powder in about 2 or 3 more days. I have 1/2 of a 5 gallon bucket of green New Mexico peppers they should be red in a few days too. We have about 25 green tomatoes on the kitchen counter top.



.

[TomatoNut95]

Wasn't it putting them in a bag with an apple or banana? Never tried it myself either.

[TomatoNut95]

I got the Roma seeds! Thanks for saving them for me, @Gary!

[Gary350]

I got the Roma seeds! Thanks for saving them for me, @Gary!

I planted those seeds directly in the soil they all germinated in 3 to 4 days. Did you know when you pick any ripe tomato from the garden acid is at its highest. After tomatoes set in the kitchen 3 days they get riper acid goes down and sweetness goes up. Sweeter tomatoes have a better tomato sauce flavor.

[Gary350]

Today we have 3 ripe red tomatoes in the green tomato basket, we ate them for dinner. Tomatoes are very good, I am always surprised ripe green tomatoes are always good, just as good as garden ripe tomatoes and much better than grocery store tomatoes.

[TomatoNut95]

I pick my tomatoes when they're turning, and let them finish in the windowsill. However, I prefer the more acidic taste than sweetness, makes em better for sandwiches, hamburgers or fresh-eating. I just hate overly-sweet tomatoes such as yellow varieties.

[Gary350]

Today another batch of dehydrated New Mexico peppers needs to be ground into chili powder. This time I added 2 jalapeno peppers to add a little extra heat to the total chili powder mix. This batch is very bright color Red. After stirring it into the total mix it did not look mixed very well so I sifted it through a screen wire sifter and learned the chili power is full of large pieces that never ground up very small. I sifted the whole batch of chili powder to remove all the large pieces. I put all the large grind into my $1 yard sale kitchen blender & ground it up then sifted it 3 times to get a good mix. I notice the blender has measurements on the side it shows 5 pints of chili powder. We used some chili power few days ago in chili and I still have 1/2 of a 5 gallon bucket of green peppers slowly turning Red that will become more chili powder soon. It is good that I save stuff I pulled out a larger jars for chili power I think this jar was once a mayo jar or peanut butter jar. I like the bright color better on some foods & the darker color better on other foods. I still don't know how place in line gets photos in the correct order I just upload them in the order I want.

[Gary350]

Today I cleaned up the garden, I pulled up the dead frozen plants, cages, & posts. There were several green peppers & green tomatoes among the wilted leaves.