Posted on 07/13/2012 8:35:18 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde
Good morning and happy Friday (the 13th) to all of my FRiends and fellow gardeners! My special thanks go to Ellendra for posting the thread while I took a week to go to the mountains. I was hoping to find relief from the heat, only to find that it was in the 90's in SE Montana, not much cooler than here in Louisiana.
I began the long process of becoming a fly fisherman, and I am hooked, so to speak. Just what I needed ... another hobby to compete for my limited time!
Today is the first time I've seen the sun since Monday ... the rain followed me all the way from Kansas City, and it has stayed around. Thank goodness! It is my sincere hope that y'all are receiving some beneficial rainfall.
Before leaving on the trip, I spent 4 days making fig preserves ... the Italian White Fig tree was covered in a bumper crop, unlike anything I've ever seen. I also got all of my wild plum juice turned into beautiful jelly, and harvested another 5-gallon bucket of honey from the beeyard.
So ... what's going on with you???
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Mark for dehydrating fruit.
Thanks for that, JustaDumbBlonde. :o)
Love love LOVE my excalibur. Got it toward the end of March of this year. The first thing I dried was a puree from most of my remaining winter squash from ‘11. Hubby buys clearance veggies now and we dry those along with garden produce. Just last week he found mushrooms on sale and I filled the entire dehydrator with them. I put up 40lbs of vidalia onions like that. Dried them about 50% longer than the recommend time and they’re just like funyons. I’ve had to hide them from my oldest. We found pineapples on sale that were overripe already. Those were GOOOOOOD dried.
I’ve been especially happy with the tomatoes though. They’re still just as red and pretty when they’re dry as they were when I picked them. My previous cheapie dehydrator invariably ‘cooked’ them to a nice brownish red that wasn’t very appealing.
In my experience the cheapie dehydrators are a waste of time and money.
What sort of velcro? The kind you just buy at Hancock fabrics? Where’s the cheapie place to get this stuff? Sounds wonderful. We do a florida weave with t posts and wire and use those tomato clips from Johnny’s right now. I might use the velcro sometimes too for really big branches.
You can get the rolls of velcro JADB is talking about at most garden centers...great for unruly tomato plants...
I searched online and found it really cheap at some catalog website like Harriet Carter. Bought it at about half what it costs at the garden center and really stocked up. The great thing is that you can reuse it year after year. I put a big lump of it in a mesh bag and throw it in the washing machine.
Hey, thanks!
Gorgeous produce in the pic there. You’re quite the farmer. I’m dreading the tomato patch after our SEVEN inches of rain since Monday. At least my pumpkins and butternuts are happy...
Bunny ears? Devil horns? Peace sign?
That’s it...wind howls in my yard (and only my yard) 24/7; and this stuff keeps those unwieldy tomato branches in their place...love it.
That’s it...wind howls in my yard (and only my yard) 24/7; and this stuff keeps those unwieldy tomato branches in their place...love it.
You must love those roads in the Black Hills, if you ever have occasion to visit that area...b-a-r-f. Great scenery, if you can keep your face out of the air sick bag.
Second that...spend the money, folks...it's worth it.
First time I have EVER seen someone refer to Bhut Jolokia peppers as 'spicy'.
Second that...spend the money, folks...it's worth it.
Absolutely. Save up if you need to, but get the big one with the timer and plan on using it a LOT. Great machine, dries very evenly and is a real workhorse.
Things are looking good! What are the trees in the background and appox where do you garden?
Thank you very much for this info. I think my disaster revolved around my $20 dehydrator and the fact that I didn’t know what I was doing. I’m asking for an Excalibur dehydrator for my birthday and another item discussed recently on FR for Christmas! Life is good!
Looks like my double hernia...
We love spiced tomato jam on cornbread. Never thought about filling a cookie with it, but I am going to try it very soon. If I can't find the recipe, a good shortbread dough is sounding pretty good in my little head. :)
No, not yet, but I definitely see it coming. I remember spending almost an hour with 2 guys that were tying flies at an outdoor/boat show that was in Monroe several years ago. I found it absolutely fascinating even though I didn't know a thing about fly fishing at that time. It would certainly help that I have plenty of elk hair available to make some caddis flies.
They offer fly fishing school at the Orvis store in Baton Rouge. I will be there before fall, without a doubt! I've rarely had as much fun fishing as I did over the July 4th holiday. Some friends of ours have a ranch that the Shields River runs through, and they also had 2 ponds with various trout.
I have a couple of great ponds here at home on which to practice. My husband tells me that the bream will absolutely tear up little popping bugs. The bass should be fun as well.
On the tomatoes -- if you start snipping your larger suckers off now and rooting them in a glass or jar of water, you will have a good crop of fall tomatoes. Pruning the existing plants back will work also, just be sure to hit them with some good tomato fert (higher in phosphorus) to get them going again.
I wish you would post photos of the flower beds! Mrs. Bender and the gorgeous Bender Estate have really inspired me to put some work into flower beds this year. The ones I put in around the oak trees earlier this year are really getting pretty, but I lost almost every azalea. I will try to post update photos soon.
Your okra should really take off soon. We have some of that mutant stuff coming up on the turn row of one of our fields again. They re-seeded themselves rather well.
I really need to get my plants for the fall garden planted. (Wish I had a dollar for every time I say the phrase "I need to ..." every day!) My volunteer tomatoes are producing really well, and they are really delicious. I didn't water them through all of the heat, and the flavor gets really concentrated in the fruit that way. It is a trick to give them just enough water to survive, but well worth the effort.
We are hoping to take the camper and see some of Wisconsin and Michigan sometime in the future. Until then, I hope you have received some of the blessed rain that you need.
Thanks again for a great job on posting while I was resting and relaxing!
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