Posted on 07/01/2025 5:32:22 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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You’ve got it MUCH worse than me...but I’m STILL going to complain about MY weather. ;)
Are ANY of us here going to have tomatoes this season? Grrr!
I don’t normally panic about this stuff, but my V-8 recipe really CAN be made from canned goods and everyday grocery store produce - and I’m down to my last dozen jars of, ‘The Good Stuff.’
I’m hoping we’re not entering into, ‘The Seven Lean Years!’
One can only do so much with Cucumbers! ;)
Went out and looked at things last night.
In between rows and elsewhere: Grass is going wild. Would be a really good time to not have anything growing, cut the grass short and cover the whole thing with black plastic. Kind of makes more sense than hanging on for 1 squash, 2 bean, 1 cucumber. I can chop off and then dig up a couple of celery plants and stick them in pots to hold them over for a month or two. Keep gathering goat manure and grab some of my humus/soil pile to amend the area once the grass is dead. Prep it like I should have prepped it instead of parting the grass and trying to grow there.
I’ve got drip to just water the veggies. How was I to know the grass would get watered under the tunnel from all sides? Mid June to mid Sept doesn’t have rain — until it does.
I’m hoping we’re not entering into, ‘The Seven Lean Years!’
**************
I often think of my two grandmothers when it’s gardening season. Granny K had 6 kids, Granny N had 5. They both had gardens and canned so they would have produce for the winter - feeding their families well depended on a successful garden. I’m sure they had years where, for whatever the reason, their garden didn’t do well & I have wondered what they must have been thinking & trying, to salvage what they could. They had meat in the smoke house (both grandads butchered hogs) & chickens/eggs so they would not have starved with little or no garden during a ‘lean’ year. My grannies were some of the hardest working women I’ve ever met - both had different ‘styles’ of cooking, but were excellent cooks.
.
Reminded of two things:
Mom was poorer-than-poor growing up, and Grandpa was not always the best provider. Her Mom was a wonderful gardener and they almost always had something from the garden in the winter. One winter they survived on stewed tomatoes over toast. These days, Mom won’t TOUCH a stewed tomato to save her life, LOL! (Though she steals as many of my fresh tomatoes as she can carry!)
I also had a ‘City Grandma’ so I had the best of both worlds. Got to spend time in the City, go to plays and concerts and movies, learned to ‘dine’ in fancy restaurants, went to museums and art galleries and the ‘big’ Library. Clothes shopping at Gimbels! I was her little Dress-Up Doll.
Yeah, it was grand. All of it. You couldn’t ASK for a better childhood, really.
I certainly favor my Country Grandma over my City Grandma, but it was nice to have two very different options. ;) Still trying to figure out how to Polar Opposites like my parents managed to meet, let alone get married. City Grandma liked to ‘dress’ my Mom, too. She was as gorgeous as any model back in the day. Very ‘Jackie Kennedy.’
And for all of my complaining, I am ridiculously blessed and lucky to be living NOW, versus way back when. :)
The lake @ the cabin we stayed @ is pretty gunky. But, there are much better lakes to the south, esp. “Pounds Hollow”, which has a nice little beach and good water.
As it turned out, we spent most of our time skee-daddling from heavy t’storms. But, they did bring in noticeable relief!
More on the adventures later. We had stuff get blown around, etc., here at home, and I’m trying to take care of the worst of it B4 peak heating this afternoon... the 20 oz. of my Gatorade-lemonade mix I just downed should keep me ok for a bit longer... :-)
Arrgghh! I just found my 1st tomato hornworm caterpillar of 2025, on probably my strongest tomato plant — a Cherry Falls plant. I’ll have to go out with the big UV flashlight tonight.
The particular larvae is right at 2” long. I’m surprised there’s not more damage, but, this is a pretty vigorous plant. It may have been re-growing “plant” faster than it was being eaten... until now.
For now just take out the sickly veggie plants, cut grass/weeds short and tarp it. Will leave the squash/beans/melons as long as possible. I just went up through them and pulled grass/weeds and tiled it with sq bale hay cards. I'm not getting on my knees and pulling more now though with chiggers out and about. I am a chigger magnet. Might have to work around my lone Shishito too and their neighboring habaneros. I can pulse water them and only them with shorter sections of drip and some toothpicks to plug up the emitters not needed. Something like 20 seconds every 2 minutes while the sun's on the tunnel area.
Well there's a Pollard original idea. The emitter holes are about that size.
I'm not going to loosen the soil right away because I do need to stand a step ladder up in there so I don't want it fluffy and soft. Now that I'm doing simple roll up sides, that's all done from outside so I can Kill the Garden right out to the edges.
I've got five lists so far;
To Do Mechanical
To Do House
To Do Yard
To Do Tunnel
To Get
Here's what my nameless environmental tomato condition(meteorologic r.shitius) looks like. Mottled ripening with yellow/orange spots and internal whitening, around the edge in my case. They were also fuzzy feeling while two good tomatoes were not.
I bet those crazy heritage cherry maters would have laughed at this year's weather.
This was the recipe which I mostly followed.
Grant bakes, good sourdough bread
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tomato Bacon Jam
Was someone looking for a Tomato Bacon Jam recipe? Here is a link To 5 Tomato Recipes including the Tomato Bacon Jam.
5 Easy Tomato Recipes Perfect For Summer (Tomato Pie Dip, Shakshuka & More) | Allrecipes
Tomato/Cheese Tart in Puff Pastry
Incredibly delicious, French Inspired, looks impressive but easy to make; appetizer or side.
Ing tube puff pastry 4-5 heirloom tomatoes 4 oz goat cheese at room temp ½ cup shredded Gruyère shallot fine-sliced ¼ tsp s/p 1 tbl evo 3 minced gar/cl 1 egg well beaten shredded fresh basil
Set thin slice tomatoes on plate w/ layered p/towels; salt, then p/towels on top, set 20-30 min, switching top p/towels at least once; pat dry. Add minced garlic to ol/oil; hold. Slice shallots thinly .
Line b/sheet w/ parchment; sprinkle w/ bit flour. Roll out puff pastry gently. Fork dough, then score a line an inch from edge (don't cut thru dough).
Spread goat cheese gently w/ back of spoon inside scoring. Then add shredded gruyère, s/p. P/towel pat tomatoes, then place atop cheese, add sliced shallots. Gently brush tomatoes w/ garlic oil. Then brush edges generously w/ beaten egg. Bake 410 deg 20-25 min; edge is puffed and golden. Remove, sprinkle w/ fresh shredded basil, s/p. Slice and serve.
Notes--setting tomatoes w/ salt is important to release moisture so tart isn't soggy; if goat cheese isn't spreadable, micro/warm 15-25 sec. Gruyère can be subbed with shredded mozzarella or Swiss.
Chilled Glazed Berry Cheesecake / Serves 10-12
Make this showstopper topped w/ glazed strawberries and a drizzle of chocolate for extra indulgence
Ing 100g butter melted, plus extra for the tin 200g cookies 2 gelatin leaves 50g raspberries 50g sugar plus 2 tbsp 350g strawberries 500g full-fat soft cr/cheese 250ml double cream few drops red or pink food coloring 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste 50g white chocolate melted few drops lemon extract
Method Butter and line springform tin. Blitz coukies in a food processor to fine crumbs. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the melted butter until it looks like damp sand. Tip into the prepared tin, and smooth the mixture with the back of a spoon to make an even base, then chill.
Soak the gelatin leaves in cold water. Put the raspberries in a food processor or in a jug using a stick blender, and blitz to a smooth purée. Sieve out the seeds. Warm raspberry sauce w/ tbsp sugar; just starts to steam, then pour over 1 drained gelatin leaf in a bowl/stir to dissolve. Blitz 3 strawberries in processor, and warm through with 1 tbl sugar in pab. Tip into bowl and stir in the drained gelatin leaf.
Whisk soft cr/cheese, cream, sugar til just starts to thicken. Divide between three bowls. Fold strawberry purée into one with a few drops of food coloring to make it light pink, the raspberry mix with the gelatin into another with more food coloring so it’s dark pink, and the vanilla bean paste into the third.
Spoon raspberry filling over cookie base, smoothing surface to flatten. Next, add strawberry filling, gently smoothing on, then repeat w/ vanilla mixture, using clean spoon to level top. A spatula or knife might help with this to keep from dragging the below layers. Chill 4-24 hrs.
Run a knife around sides between the cheesecake and parchment, and loosen the base. Transfer to cake stand, and smooth sides, using a palette knife, to neaten the layers. Mix white chocolate w/ few drops of lemon extract. Pile the remaining strawberries, some sliced, some whole, on top, and drizzle over the chocolate to finish.
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