Posted on 06/30/2017 7:23:22 PM PDT by greeneyes
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds.
From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.
This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.
It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table(recipes)preserving, good living - there is no telling where it will go and... that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
NOTE: This is a once a week ping list. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest are welcomed, so feel free to post them at any time.
I get too caught up in trying to eliminate all the greenery, LOL! I am even worse using Roundup. I kill everything around me trying to spray one area.
Well yes, that is true. It’s all about reproduction or we wouldn’t even be bothering to garden. ;)
The chocolate peppers sound pretty. I suppose those are easy to sneak into meat items. I think I’ll do that this year too, I’ll just freeze a whole bunch and put it into different dishes, to get them more healthy.
Just finished with chores, and found problem junior doe ate all her nest box straw, failed to pull hair, then dropped 6—maybe 7—kits in the bare box. Seem to be doing fine; gave them new chopped straw; her fate is sealed, and involves a Dutch oven.
Got the garden mostly watered, and all the tomatoes in the tires are all beginning to actually take off. Garlic tops are dying, but onions & leeks are robust.
Also found FR threads not completely loading. For example, WGT only loading first 16 out of nearly 100 comments.
Weather is becoming more like summer, hazy, hot, and humid. Have to water the planters every day now. Tomatoes are doing great and I hope to have a ripe one very soon. The flowers are doing very nicely too. I have been able to gather enough flowers to make a small nosegay of white and red snapdragons with lavender to make a very patriotic arrangement. My caladiums have surprised me by flowering! Two very nice flowers to be exact. The mini-rose which has been flowering the most appears to be dying. Going to cut it back again and see what happens. This rose has produced seeds, which I have sowed indoors. Looking forward to seeing what happens. The eggplant flowers were producing tiny eggplants but nothing has come of it. The flowers seem to be vanishing, like they have been cut off the plant. I have no idea what has been doing it. Have not seen stink bugs around but have applied Sven Dust. I’m really confused about why the basil has been a total disappointment. The seeds I sowed never sprouted and the plants I purchased mysteriously died. The experiment with cucumbers produced the expected results as the seeds never sprouted. As usual, he lilies have been awesome. All told, very pleased with the garden pots this year.
Wishing everybody a very happy and safe July 4th!
LOL! You are so right about that!
:-)
I’m pinging you ladies because I think at least one of you might know the answer to my question:
We are getting a 5 gallon bucket of figs from a neighbor (same neighbor that gave us the bushels of apples). I am going to put up fig preserves from this. But, I would also like to do dried candied figs. You know the candied fruit cubes that you use in fruitcake cookies? I can’t find any recipes or instructions for these. The dehydrator manual I have tells me to quarter the figs to dehydrate them. Not what I’m looking for. You know the instructions for preparing citron melon? I’m looking for that kind of thing only for figs. Can I use the same basic instructions for figs too?
Inquiring minds, etc.
Meant to ping you ladies to post 108 too. Not sure what happened there.
#3 Son Taylor, DiL Rachel, and the grandboys are on the way here today from Ft. Riley. They're going to be here through the 4th so I'm probably not going to get much accomplished in the garden this weekend. I've got four slabs of baby back ribs in the smoker for supper tonight and here in just a few minutes I'm going to go out and dig some new potatoes to fix with the ribs.
One of my peach trees broke under the weight of its fruit a couple days ago. We've picked 15 gallons of peaches off of it so far and there's probably another ten gallons on there. They weren't quite ripe, but with it on the ground the chickens can reach the fruit so they've gotta come off before they've all been peckered. We'll let them ripen up a bit and then do the blanch/peel/freeze thing to preserve them. This tree makes really tasty peaches so I'm going to clip a dozen or so shoots and stick them in the cloner to see if I can get some of them to root.
Pops and I went to the farm yesterday and loaded up the last of the cedar and hedge posts that he cut there back in the spring and hauled them home.
The chicken stealer in training is about nine weeks old now and turning into quite the little adventurer. I've been taking her to the garden so she can get some exercise and fresh air. Yesterday she climbed up in one of my mimosa trees, and then fell out. She threw quite the tantrum when that happened.
If this recipe isn’t what you’re looking for, there are other links below it for candied fruits - maybe one of those will be The One? Good Luck!
http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/819/Candied-Figs110272.shtml
OK I’ll admit the pic of her sticking her head up out of the lettuce is adorable. otherwise I see all raccoons as vermin. They are a pox on us here. Never saw a peach tree fall over from too much fruit. That’s quite a sight. My Dad was famous for his peach trees in south Chicago, yes, a bad part of town where I grew up. He was the best gardener and has the greenest thumb of anyone I knew. He had a small bare patch of soil outside the kitchen door where he used to spit his peach seeds and where he got his peach tree seedlings from. Enjoy your family and the holiday!
My method for candying fruit:
Simmer fruit in a medium-heavy syrup, until cooked through.
Let cool, and keep in the syrup overnight.
(I sometimes start with canned fruit, in which case, skip this step.)
Strain fruit, reserving the syrup. Sprinkle more sugar generously over the fruit, shake until coated, and put back in the fridge overnight. Alternatively, take part of the syrup, add half-to-one cup of sugar depending on the size of the batch. Bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar, let cool slightly, then mix into the fruit.
(The reserved syrup also makes great flavoring.)
Repeat this step once a day for 3-4 more days. Each time, the sugar will have drawn out a lot of moisture from the fruit. On the last day, use the fruit leather tray in your dehydrator, and dry the fruit. It should be dry or just barely tacky to the touch, and should not have moist pockets in the center.
Roll in sugar one last time. Store in an enclosed container (the fruit will try to pull moisture out of the air).
This results in candied fruit with a great flavor, but the texture is all over the board, depending on the type of fruit. It also takes a long time, and uses a LOT of sugar. I’m currently experimenting with adding pectin at the start, which should make the texture more consistent and cut down on waste, but I don’t have the results of that yet.
Fruits with lots of “body”, like pineapples, come out best. So do gelled fruits, like that cranberry sauce you can get in a can. I’ve never tried it with figs, but they should work pretty well.
TOO LATE but I'll think of you next picking although I'm not sure what I'll think...
OK. I think I’ll try your method. This sounds like exactly what I’m looking for and I have a dehydrator ready and waiting.
Thanks!
This recipe sounds good too. I’ll probably try something like this with the second picking of figs. My neighbors went out of town for a week so I get all the figs while they’re gone! :)
What a sweetheart.
Rabies on the hoof and cute to boot! :)
Hey, that sounded… Odd… hmmmmmm...
Agree that raccoons are vermin. I have no qualms dispatching a critter that’s causing problems. I have five coon carcasses in the freezer now waiting for their turn on the BBQ, and there’s another one that’s been sniffing around my henhouse that’s soon to join them.
She is a sweetheart. I’m not too much worried about the rabies. It’s been 30+ years since there was a confirmed case of that stuff west of the Mississippi River. And I’ve got a vet who will vaccinate her for it when she’s big enough.
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