Posted on 09/10/2010 5:09:56 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners. This is the first year that I will have a fall garden. I have decided to try few broccoli and cabbage plants. I decided to visit our local County Co-Op a couple of days ago and they had starts of both and I bought a nine-pack cell of each. I hope they do well because we are still having 90 degree days with overnights in the mid to high 60’s. They also had starts for various types of tomato plants which kind of surprised me.
If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels from Master Gardener to novice.
Would you please share your recipe for Jalapeno Ranch Dressing? It sounds delicious!
It’s not my recipe actually. It’s just homemade hidden valley ranch. I have a fine chopper thingie that I put one or two jalapenos in (minus seeds and core), and then a clove or two of garlic. I add that into the ranch dressing.
Lame I know. But delicious if you don’t have high brow taste buds.
Sounds yummy. There are still fresh figs for sale in a few stores near here but they’re expensive.
I’ve given up on the idea of a Fall garden. I just don’t have the time, or energy. Temps dropped suddenly last week so that we are now waking up to 50 degree mornings, instead of the 80-90 degrees we were enjoying 2 weeks ago.
My garden has grown totally out of control, but I am still harvesting. I have more veggies than I can possibly eat, especially because we eat out far too often. We’ve had out of town visitors this week at the plant which meant many meals out, both before they came and after they arrived. TG they are gone.
I did bring in a watermelon and an Acorn Squash yesterday. Haven’t tried the squash, but the watermelon was fantastic. There are a few more out there, so I’ll have to scrounge around under the vines to see what I can find. The cucumbers seem to be finished, as well as the yellow squash. I really enjoyed that yellow squash.
The watermelon was a Sugar Baby. It was about the size of a soccer ball and had snuck outside the fence when it was just marble sized. I couldn’t push it back through the fence because it got too large too fast. I didn’t know if it was ripe, but it came off in my hand when I touched it. I couldn’t believe how sweet it was.
Last night’s dinner consisted of half a BBQ chicken (from Sam’s) and a big stir fry of my very own veggies. I started with a little olive oil in the wok and then added some chicken broth crystals and some of the gelitinized juices from the chicken. Then I added Yukon Gold potatoes cut lengthwize into eighths and cooked them a little bit. Next were the Kentucky Wonder Beans cut into 1 inch long pieces and 2 big tomatoes cut into eighths. The tomatoes just about dissolved into the cooking broth. The last veggie I added was one small yellow squash, sliced, and then the slices halved. Dessert was the Sugar Baby watermelon.
Very satisfying to have made dinner out of my own garden. The Yukon Golds were especially delicious. Thank you all for encouraging me in this endeavor.
A big forest fire here about 10 miles north of me. It spread quickly last Monday. Sounds like the fire fighters got it under control last night. News is reporting 169 homes burned. My garden here in the Colorado Rockies is terraced with compost from leaves I have raked up around the house to lower fire danger.
Did you peel the tomatoes? I hate peeling tomatoes and wonder how the sauce would be if I cooked them unpeeled. Do you have a favorite recipe?
An old pie pan full of beer. They will crawl in, get soused, and drown. Yuck! That's why you use an old pie pan because you will want to throw it away.
For sauce I don’t peel the tomatoes. I wash them carefully and cut out the core and cook them down. Then I run them through a food mill. The sauce comes out one end and the skins and seeds the other.
For the stewed tomatoes, I blanch the tomatoes whole after washing, and then when they’re cool enough to handle, I cut out the cores and the skins just slip right off.
You could do it that way for the sauce as well if you don’t have a food mill.
Here’s a link to the different kinds of food mills/strainers that you can use. I like the ones with the hopper and chutes that stand on the counter top.
I don’t have any good recipes, not being Italian. I just make the plain tomato sauce and can it that way and add stuff later when I use it.
If anyone has a good spaghetti sauce recipe, especially one that is low salt, I’d be interested.
I’m relieved to see your post. I’ve been wondering if you were near the fires. Here’s hoping you stay safe.
That is great to hear! I guess I can freeze it in freezer bags? I make big batches of veggi/chicken soup and freeze in zip lock bags. Great for quick meals with fresh homemade bread!
I’m a first year gardener (only potatoes, tomatoes, and some herbs). My potato plants seemed to thrive - they are now in the process of dying.
What’s my next step? Do I cut back the plants now or later? Do I have to wait until they’re all brown before doing so?
The weather has dropped to the 50-60s at night, still 70s in the day. Thanks!
Thanks. I have a lot of assorted tomatoes — too many to use fresh, and none of my friends want them either. I always thought you could never have too many tomatoes, but my 13 plants overwhelmed me this year! I gave most of them away.
I still have tender fingers from peeling tomatoes for my batch of salsa that I canned 3 weeks ago! Do you mean that you are supposed to let them COOL before removing the cores? Well, duh. LOL. I’ll try THAT next time.
I have an applesauce mill. And a food processor. I suppose that I could use either of those.
I bought some not-so-coarse vermiculite at Lowe’s or someplace similar. I had to get it from the insulation department, but it has worked fine! It wasn’t very expensive for my 3 basic SFG plots.
do you recall how much it was? cuz i found a big bag at a local garden center for $25...
Why do you want to cut the potato plant back? Don’t you need to know where they are so you can did them?
I grew my potatoes in grow bags. So, when they started to wither, I just dumped them into a wheel barrow and sifted through the dirt to find the potatoes. It was like a treasure hunt! Now I have 2 wheelbarrows full of beautiful dirt to add to my raised beds.
It was a big bag too - but soo light I almost fell over backwards when I picked it up! It was less than $25, but I can’t recall how much - sorry.
I have the SFG book and they do say that the 1st year is the most expensive. I purchased a composter bin/tumbler so I can make my own compost at home, rather than buying it again next year.
Heeeee Heeeee! Yes do let those maters cool. I fill my sink up about half way and add plenty of ice and drop my hot maters into it to cool them down and stop the cooking. 15 to 20 seconds in boiling water is all it takes - no more than that. I can have a very full sink of tomatoes and work on them in batches.
if you still have maters, I bet my mom up in Kewaskum would like some of the surplus...
LOL - good point - I hadn't thought of that! I guess this means I should dig them up now?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.