Posted on 07/01/2025 5:32:22 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Diana, I’ve always pictured you as a honey shade of light golden brown, not a total blonde. If you’re super blonde, you can probably pull off the gray transition easier than a brunette like myself could.
“Does she … or doesn’t she? Only her hairdresser knows for sure!”
Hi, Howard! You’re a good doggie, aren’t you?!
*** I have lots of whopper-size green tomatoes so BLT time is just around the corner. ***
Augie, if you ever want to have an out of this world BLT, fry up one of your green tomatoes Southern style, and add it to your usual BLT sandwich, preferably on lightly toasted sourdough. I promise you, it’s a winner. Keep the usual deliciously ripe red tomato on there. It’s extra decadent.
Unfortunately, I don’t tolerate solanine well at all...
“WRUNG” out!!!
Anybody know just how big these cowhorn pepper plants might get? I read, up to 3 ft. tall x 3 ft. diameter, online.
All the separated pepper plants seem to be surviving, a bit to my surprise. Back “out” B4 it gets hot (or rains again!) Gotta run some errands, too.
I think frying the green tomato in hot oil breaks down the solanine.
https://www.ehow.com/info_8738165_solanine-ripe-vs-green-tomatoes.html
Hmmm .... I came up as allergic to nightshades on allergy tests - perhaps the solanine is the culprit! I love tomatoes, eggplant, peppers - I do eat them, but try to do so in moderation.
I was a white-blonde kid, but now I go with ‘Butternut’ No. 80. ;)
Today, more of the same but from 11am-2pm to mix things up a bit. Ugh!
Put dogs out this morning and will have them tucked back in before the rain starts. I just managed to get the chicken, mule, dog and raccoon chores done before the sky opened up, yesterday. Today? Everyone will be fed (they have water) when the rain stops. Mama does NOT control the weather. ;)
Question about saving pea seeds.
I didn’t get the crop I had hoped while we were away, but a lot of the snow peas are very filled out and mature.
How do I save pea seeds for next year? Do I let the pods become completely brown on the vine before picking them?
And how do I process them?
Thanks.
Miyama Turnip - little white salad turnips that evidently don't have a lot of flavor when raw but a quick saute brings out a sweetness.
Chinese Cabbage - on the small side and a narrow head. Reviews say it's not a compact tight head but makes great Kimchi.
Chinese broccoli --
A must-have for those who long for broccoli but struggle to grow it. -- tender stalks taste like a cross between asparagus and broccoli, only sweeter. The tender blue-green, glossy leaves are similar to kale but better
Mixed reviews so we'll see how they do and taste
Free seed gift was Mini Bell Pepper mix with not the greatest reviews - 1" around, thick skin, loaded with seeds, too much work etc etc.
Shishito is the only pepper that does well in this acidic soil. Never had much luck with bell or hot peppers of any other kind. The Miyama turnips are Japanese like the Shishito so hopefully they also do well for me. Chinese varieties seem to do good here too. I'm going to end up with an Oriental garden. Zen
Visited my neighbor up the road yesterday and came back right before a storm hit. He got soaked but it slid right past my place so we didn't get a drop; now that I have the ability to measure rainfall amounts.
Got my push mower running so I can mow around things and mow some paths. I'm sure you can imagine what my yard that hasn't been mowed a single time this year looks like. The goats have been kind enough to not eat all the wild flowers this year so that helps.
Blower motor for HVAC in truck quit working last week. Found melty wires/connector going to motor so I ordered a new one plus the thermal resistor, which has the other half of the melty connector, and they came in yesterday. Easiest blower motor I've seen to replace. Up behind the glove box. Three easily accessible screws and it drops straight down. Two screws on the resistor which is right next to the motor. Just need to find one of my 7mm sockets and then it will be a 10 minute job and I'll have AC again. Might be an hour job to find the socket though.
Next on the fix list is the tractor.
From the Seed Saving Handbook by Jack Rowe
Thank you!
The pods are starting to turn brown. Unfortunately, there’s not much I can do about the weather. I suppose I could cover the plants with floating row covers.
Howard is a really sweet dog. He’s got a very tender heart - which is both good and bad depending on what’s happening in the moment.
Not knowing his previous situation makes training/discipline very difficult. I’m 100% certain that he was mistreated to some extent by his former “caretakers” so I’m trying very hard not to be harsh with him, but at the same time I need to teach good manners and proper yard dog etiquette. He’s still very much a puppy and has a lot of energy that needs to be burned off. I feel like we make a little progress towards that goal most days but there are times the hound dog stubbornness comes out and we (well, mostly me) struggle with that.
Yesterday was a good day - #1 Marine Daughter came over in the evening and we put up some temporary electric fence to shut the horses out of a section of pasture to allow the grass to recover from grazing. She brought her Doberman and we let all three dogs run free while we were working on the fence. Howard needed that after being mostly penned up for a few days.
After the new section of fence was finished we opened up the paddock that the horses had been shut out of. They always get the zoomies when they get turned into fresh pasture and Howard thought that was the most wonderful thing. He went out there and ran laps with them until they settled down. He’s not the least bit obnoxious with the horses like the other two dogs tend to be and the horses didn’t mind a bit him running with them.
On the tomato subject... the groundhog found them Sunday night. Dang varmint sampled at least one tomato on every plant that had one he could reach. I’ll catch him out and air condition him eventually, but in the meantime I placed an amazon order for a solar-powered electric fence charger, a 500 meter roll of fence tape, fiberglass stakes, insulators, etc. That stuff will be here on Friday. I’ll set up hot tape around the top of the perimeter fence to deter the horses from leaning in to nibble and some down low around the tomato cages to keep the whistle pigs from stealing my groceries.
And I will definitely try adding the fried green tomato slice to my BLTs. That sounds delicious.
Not me on the creamed shishitos.
Just did shisitos by themselves in the air fryer and 5-6 minutes is about right. The charring is light in color and more even than pan charring. I can see where a grill would be best for the charred aspect as far as aesthetics goes.
Leftover meatloaf is the rest of my lunch and I bet some chopped up shishitos would be good in meatloaf.
They are good with anything. If I want grill charred (charcoal) I have a grill wok, I slice the peppers lengthwise, clean out thoroughly, toss with a very light amount of olive oil. Only takes 30 seconds or so on a hot grill.
Adding automation to the high tunnel and I thought of needing a good earth ground which means a ground rod. I have three of them spaced 10 foot apart right nearby for the electric fence. I can’t tie into those permanently though because the fence would mess with the sensors. That means a separate ground rod which is no big deal except that fence ground rods are supposed to be something like 150 foot away from any others including the one at the electric pole, else you’ll get electrical interference from the high voltage of a fence.
So now I need to put three rods out by the road for the fence, far away from electric pole and high tunnel, and then I can use one of the original three fence rods for the tunnel. Gonna try and pull 2 of the 3 out and reuse out by the road. I’m not using the fence right now so I can use that ground for the tunnel for some time.
I figured out a trick for pounding them in with a fence post pounder that keeps the rod from just bowing when driving it in. Slide a hunk of steel conduit or water pipe over the ground rod leaving 1-2 foot sticking out. Pound as far as you can go and replace the conduit/pipe with a shorter piece and pound some more. Repeat until it’s short enough to not need pipe over it. I swap to a sledge hammer when it becomes too short for fence pounder and by then, it doesn’t need the pipe.
IF you don’t hit rock, it’s really fast.
We used to have cordless phones fry a few times a year. We got phone before electric and they usually tie into the electric ground rod. Instead, they tossed one laying down in the 2 foot deep trench they had dug up against the house with the backhoe. That’s where they get started with their trencher cable layer. That rod stayed dry so it wasn’t a good ground. I finally pounded on one in the full 8 foot depth right next to the phone box and used that. Haven’t lost a phone since.
I may not be well grounded but this place is.
I'm fortunate here with regard to hitting, or rather not hitting, rock.
My property is just outside the northern boundary of the Ozark Plateau. The only near-surface rock on my property is the occasional small boulder left behind by the retreat of the last ice age glacier (I found several while cleaning out my pond a few years back), or what I've had hauled in. A few miles to the southwest the karst topology begins. My Grandparents' place sat on that kind of ground. Grandpap used to say that his farm was always ten days from a drought due to the thin soils there.
Sliding a pipe over a ground rod while driving it is the only way I know of to get one in straight unless it's mud season. They're just too doggone flimsy without some support. If you have a tractor with a front loader and a helper you can press them in without difficulty if there's a decent amount of moisture in the soil, but you still want the pipe on to keep from turning the rod into a pretzel.
I've never tried to pull one out, but I think the front loader would be the right tool for that job too.
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