Gardening 2023

[d.kaufman]

Gonna be raspberry time real soon

 

[stocknup]

Tomatoes are going crazy now .........Did 2 big batches of Salsa yesterday .( have done about 30 jars so far ) Have at least twice this many ripe on the vine now .
Lots more salsa for the weekend . Some "Rutgers" and mostly " Mountain Fresh" in the pics .............

 

[hoosierdaddy1976]

I keep forgetting to take pictures. Tomatoes have come on strong. Zucchini and yellow squash have tapered off. Cauliflower and broccoli have been harvested, cabbages will be soon. One gallon of refrigerator pickles are currently being eaten, another batch will be started soon. Have had some banana and bell peppers, jalapeños will be ready soon. One last run of sugar snap peas are growing. The cabbage worms hit my daughter's lettuce patch hard but it is recovering. Lots of butternut squash growing but it will be a long while still. Eggplant (a new one for me) has lots of fruit but not much size yet, we'll see.

 

[Expat]

i got a bucket of red onions, yellow onions and another of carrots.

 

[stocknup]

Have been busy in the kitchen for a few days ..............Have done about 25 quarts of Tomato Sauce so far .
Have been getting almost 2 five gallon buckets of tomatoes about every 3 days or so .
Ready to start back on some Salsa ..........

 

[bwframe]

Busy days. I've been picking cukes, melons and squash daily.

The dehydrator is continually full of zucchini and yellow squash. I sneaked a handful of ripe cayenne and ghost peppers on top of the drier trays, as those will need to dry longer. Hopefully not too much transfer.

I put together a zucchini flour chaffle that I'm very happy with. I have ate a couple/3 batches of these and so far nothing but pleased. Hoping to put up a lot of zucchini/yellow squash flour...

 

[bwframe]

I'm not sure about this. Thoughts?

You Can Tell a Spicy Jalapeño From a Mild One Just by Looking at It

A video going around on social media claims that you can tell a jalapeño pepper's spice level just by looking at it. We tested it and it really works. Here's how and why.

www.allrecipes.com

 

[bwframe]

Candy-lope in the making...

 

[snapping turtle]

My corn is very good. I was worried as corn was only as tall as me but the ears are great size and the super sweet x4 shows in the taste. If I remember correctly it was call nirvana hybrid

 

[bwframe]

Candy-lope in the making...

View attachment 292500

 

[BluePig]

There be monsters out thar...

 

[stocknup]

Still picking ...........................
Gonna dig up the potatoes this week .......Hoping for a good harvest .

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

So far, we're at 71 quarts of green beans. I planted my beans late and we should still get more.
Also 31 quarts of tomatoes, also with more still out there. Hope to make some salsa at some point.

One new thing this year, my son had gotten us a new Alpaca Kerosene stove, and on a couple of really hot days we ran the canner out in the breezeway. It runs the water bath canner great, but I wasn't sure about using it with the pressure canner. Not sure if I can dial it down low enough after it builds pressure. I do plan to experiment with that after canning season is over.

 

[42253]

Just started using my Christmas present from 3 years ago. 12 inch Vacuum sealer those things are great! Freezing beans, tomatoes, peppers and corn. Now we don't have to eat the garden so fast. I know what took me so long.

 

[snapping turtle]

My adventure Into canning

 

[bwframe]

With fresh jalapenos hanging, I rarely dig into the fermented ones this time of year. I really like them though.

Happy I made time to do a half gallon of red japs and a couple more of hungarians.

 

[jsharmon7]

I want to get into canning, but I’m finding blanching, cooling, and vacuum-sealing for the freezer is cheaper and easier. If I’m just doing garden vegetables, what’s the benefit of investing in a canning set-up?

 

[bwframe]

I want to get into canning, but I’m finding blanching, cooling, and vacuum-sealing for the freezer is cheaper and easier. If I’m just doing garden vegetables, what’s the benefit of investing in a canning set-up?

Shelf stable storage.

Nothing at all wrong with freezing. The knowledge and equipment to can would be a good failsafe in a long term power outage. You could can all of your freezer contents.

I've been doing pretty big batches of green beans and long beans seasoned with lots of peppers, onions and pork shoulder. I freeze in silicone loaf pans, then vac-pack the cubes with the foodsaver. Pretty handy ready to heat and eat portions.


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[hooky]

I've been doing pretty big batches of green beans and long beans seasoned with lots of peppers, onions and pork shoulder. I freeze in silicone loaf pans, then vac-pack the cubes with the foodsaver. Pretty handy ready to heat and eat portions.

Thats a great idea

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

I want to get into canning, but I’m finding blanching, cooling, and vacuum-sealing for the freezer is cheaper and easier. If I’m just doing garden vegetables, what’s the benefit of investing in a canning set-up?

Like Bwframe said, freezing is great, and canning adds reliable shelf-stable storage. My wife does both. We have a fairly large pantry, with shelves for jars, and we have an upright and a chest freezer.

I would also say that canning allows you to preserve things that you can't by freezing, like salsas, tomatoes (whole, juice, sauces), and the various pickles and peppers. And, if we ever loose power totally (and run out of gas for the generator), and if we loose our freezers, we still have our canned stuff.

My wife was running out of quart jars the other day, and she dumped out some old ones she had found on a shelf that had tomatoes and juice from 2016. It all went into the compost, but all the jars were still sealed and everything looked and smelled fine (good, actually).

At our house, I do all of the growing and my wife does all of the freezing and canning (although I always get in on breaking green beans), so she mostly decides what gets canned and what goes in the freezer.