Making grape juice. Get out your biggest enamel canning pot and fill it up with grapes. You can leave the stems on. These are plain old 'Concord' grapes from my FIL's farm down the road.
Posted on 03/05/2010 5:04:40 AM PST by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners! Here in Central Mississippi spring type weather will be here soon. I can feel the warmth at the other end of the tunnel! Highs for the next week will be in the 60’s and 70’s and I will be out in the garden and yard cleaning up. I will have around two or three weeks to get the garden area in shape before any plants get transplanted into the garden. Spring officially starts March 20.
If you are just starting out gardening and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in. There are many Freepers from all over the Good Ol’ USA that are willing and eager to help.
The Weekly Gardening ping list has grown to 303 Freepers as of yesterday.
Thanks! It’s a lot of fun. Husband bought me a digital camera last July, and I haven’t stopped snapping pictures since. :)
Making grape juice. Get out your biggest enamel canning pot and fill it up with grapes. You can leave the stems on. These are plain old 'Concord' grapes from my FIL's farm down the road.
I was showing my husband your photos when we came to the apple pie. He had to leave because he said he was drooling!
After the grapes have been juiced, strained, cooked down again to remove about 1/3 of the water and cooled, it's time to freeze it in one-cup(8 oz.) containers. Be careful because this stuff STAINS like there's no tomorrow. Wear an apron!
It looks like we're coming to the end of the tomatoes. Thank Goodness! These will go for the last BLTs of the season and into some salsa. 'Queen Sophia' marigolds in a free-standing windowbox planter in the background. Man, I love those marigolds!
You have never answered my question from about 2 weeks ago (hubby’s question, actually): How do you keep the deer from devouring your beautiful garden? (picture posted 2-3 weeks ago.)
I have two big dogs. :)
Seriously, the deer have never touched anything around here other than stealing a few apples from the apple trees. The rabbits have ruined a few shrubs, but I keep young apple tree trunks wrapped for protection from them.
The Lab, Lucy, has destroyed FOUR new plantings this winter, chewing on them, or wrapping her chain around them. Grrrrrr!
The deer have 700+ acres to run around on behind us; they live on protected land that belongs to the state, so they have a wonderful, carefree existence and plenty of corn and soybean to eat.
Was an early frost like a month early. Missed it, I was bummed. Warmed right up after that for the next month.
Funny thing is that I had a bell pepper plant that had a pepper nearly as big as the plant itself. Poor pepper plant was only about 7 inches tall.
I use bullet plants for the rabbits. 22 cal works best if you plant them early. For deer you need a bigger plant and a permit.
Well, I’ve spent most of the week and all day today working on my garden notebook, since we are still ice bound. I’ve had to move it to a larger binder, but I have all my notes organized, until I move it again. Not the same as actually working outdoors, however. I envy those of you who can actually get outside and can see dirt.
LOL! Those sneaky deer and rabbits do their dirty work when I’m fast asleep, and my Golden is curled up on his favorite Oriental rug at the foot of my bed! Since I’m starting my veggie garden in an old horse pasture, I will be invading their territory and I want to be sure that they know the difference as to what’s theirs and what’s mine!
You all should be pleased that I have a whole section in my notebook devoted to advice that I have received here. Your thoughts have been committed to posterity.
hey where are you in sw ohio? i’m in cincinnati, and my brother has a vineyard in georgetown.
Daina in this picture of the grapes are you just crushing them for the juice as they are or are you also using heat?
I’m well northeast of you, and I saw robins 4 or 5 weeks ago...and plenty of them. I knew right then and there that the groundhog was full of sh**.
Houston, we have tomato seedlings! Lots of tomato seedlings. 35 different varieties of tomatoes and a minimum of 6 each. Hopefully I won’t manage to kill them all before transplant time. So far the ones from Jungs are 100% for germination. Opalka, Aunt Ruby’s German Green and White Wonder. Wish I’d known about Jungs before I’d ordered from the others.
We don’t really worry about deer. Lots of deer hunters around here. Rabbits on the other hand...
Weather here will be like yours. I have 6 50ft rows of garlic that will need to be weeded if the ground isn’t too terribly wet still. Hubby planted 6 fruit trees weekend before last and there are still 3 more to go. My big goal this weekend is eliminating the pot ghetto outside my back door. Hopefully weather will permit!
I have seedling trays on a counter top in my laundry room...I have suspended a workbench light fixture with two chains which I slipped over the knobs on the utility cabinets over the counter. I adjust the chains to keep the fluorescent light about an inch or two over the seedlings, and raise them as they grow. Every 10 - 14 days, I cycle another few flats under the lights. So far; so good. Watch putting seedlings in direct sunlight; even inside...some window sills get hot; and you can cook the little guys. I think the light fixture/lights ran about $20 - 25 bucks.
Off topic but I have been meaning to tell you ever since this and the original gardening thread started that my two Irish Setters came from a breeder in Laona, Wisconsin. So my pups are Wisconsinites??? Is that right? Or should I just call them cheese heads? They love cheese!
Peppers are hard to grow anywhere outside of the desert states.
They like it hot and dry from the git-go, and I don’t know about you, but Wisconsin can be cool and wet and is always HUMID in the summer months. Not ideal conditions.
I’ve given up on bell peppers, though my FIL can grow some wonderful ‘California Wonders.’ He basically plants them, then denies them any water or nutrients. And it seems to work!
I have much better luck with jalapeno and ‘Corno de Torro’ (Horn of the Bull) types of frying peppers.
That ‘Margaret’s’ pepper I recommend from Jung’s is terrific, as is a little sweetheart named ‘Carmen.’ ;)
I love to grow Habanero peppers but of course you only need ONE Habanero to season your entire life, LOL! Husband takes a bag full to the local Mexican Restaurant and those guys are always happy to have them. They treat us to Margaritas on hot summer nights. :)
Woo-Hoo! I’m finally ‘Somebody’! :)
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