Weekly Gardening Thread – 2011 (Vol. 28) July 22

Free Republic | 7-22-2011 | Red_Devil 232

[Red_Devil 232]

Good morning gardeners. I canned all the tomatoes I had picked the previous week this past Wednesday. Sadly it did not take very long to do the canning. I also roasted (chared and peeled) about half of the Jalapenos I had picked and froze the other half. I also cut up and froze some green Bell Peppers and zucchini squash.

On Wednesday I had a pop up T-storm visit the garden and then yesterday it was cloudy all morning and around 11 am a very nice, lazy, soaking rain started falling and it lasted for about two and a half hours. It dropped the temps down into the high 70s for a few hours and then the sun came out and the temps went to the low 90s, not a bad day at all!

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.

I hope all your gardens are flourishing.

[greeneyes]

Several options for earworms: Mineral oil at the tips to prevent entry. Pyrethrin bait and molasses at the base to kill emerging adults, or BT.

[CJ Wolf]

anyone got a good pickle reciepe? I wanna make some pickles out of my cucumbers. I’ve never done it before.

Thanks!

[Tatze]

anyone got a good pickle reciepe? I wanna make some pickles out of my cucumbers. I’ve never done it before.

What kind do you want? Do you have a canner?

You can go really easy with refrigerator pickles. A recipe I have is kinda bread & butter like. A little sweet, a little spicy.

Or dill? Kosher dill? Bread & butter? Sours? Half sours? Hot garlic dill?

Except for the sours and half sours (barrel pickles), I've made all of the above this year. I think the next batch will be a barrel recipe, as I've run out of jars.

[Red_Devil 232]

For my tomatoes I use a boiling water bath.

[greeneyes]

I like the Ball Blue Book of Canning and Preserving to help with the basics - they have some good recipes too of course.

Here's a recipe I got from one of the University Extension Offices, that I tried last year.

QUCIK FRESH PACK DILL PICKLES

8 lbs 3-5” pickling cucumbers
2 gallons water
1 1/4 cups canning salt (divided)
1 1/2 quarts vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 quarts water
2 TBLS whole mixed pickling spice
3 TBLS whole mustard seed
14 heads of fresh dill or 5 TBLS dill weed

Wash cucumbers. Cut 1/16” slice off blossom end and discard.
Dissolve 3/4 cup salt in 2 gallons water. Pour over cucumbers and let stand 12 hours. Drain.

Combine vinegar, 1/2 cup salt, sugar, and 2 qts. water. Add mixed pickling spices tied in a clean white cloth. Heat to boiling. Fill jars with pickles.

Add 1 tsp mustard seed, and 1 1/2 head fresh dill or 1 1/2 tsp dill seed per pint jar. Cover with boiling pickling solution(leave 1/2 inch head space. Remove air bubbles. Wipe jar rims. Adjust lids.

Process 10 minutes for pints 15 minutes for quarts, in a boiling water bath. Recipe makes about 7 pint jars.

Note: I always add 1 clean grape leaf first to each jar. When I want sweet pickles I just open up a jar of dill pickles and add the desired amount of sugar. Both of these hints came from my Mother In Law.

[CJ Wolf]

I don’t have a canner. not sure what one really is. I’d like to make some kind of pickles spears or like the ones they have in the big jars where the whole cucumber is pickled. I really have no idea. Kind of clueless, I just have a whole bunch of cukes.

[Red_Devil 232]

Sulfur in water can be effectively used by plants for various essential functions like root growth. To much sulfur can alter the pH of your soil. You should have your soil and water tested for sulfur content.

When ever I am transplanting to my garden I add about a tsp of soil sulfur (Flaked) to the soil along with an all purpose fert. My pepper plants seem to like it!

[WestwardHo]

If you release and shoot you need a shotgun. Skunks have the body mass of a coat hanger. The rest is hair.
Drowning is horribly cruel. Their lungs hemorrhage, and bleed out their nose. I asked the hunter about drowning...they release spray along with urine and feces into the water if you get my "drift." I certainly know that fear, unfortunately, this is a reality of country living. Better to deal with it before they have young, or take up residence under a buiding, etc. They eat chicken on the hoof....and carry rabies. We haven't seen any skunks were we live now! And I am so glad!

[TheOldLady]

SAVE  FREEPER  UPCHUCK!
BECOME  A  MONTHLY  DONOR!
*
Boop His Cute Little Nose!

*FReeper  Upchuck

[CJ Wolf]

sounds easy and fun enough, how long do you wait until you can eat the pickles?

[roofgoat]

how are barrel pickles?

and these two are my favorite, Kosher dill and Bread & butter. Are they easy to do for a rookie?

[greeneyes]

A water bath canner is just a big pot with a basket to hold the jars. When processing is finished, you can lift the whole batch out at once using the basket handles. Suitable for high acid content like pickles or tomatoes.

A pressure canner is a big pot with a lid that seals and a steam release valve. It cans under pressure, and is for use with non-acid stuff like green beans. We have a pressure canner, but I do not use it. Hubby wanted it, but he has not used it yet.

I just freeze or dehydrate everything I can.

[roofgoat]

greeneyes, what’s the best way to freeze green beans?
thanks

[rightly_dividing]

Morning Red We have had some scattered rains this past week and lower temps, 94-97 all week.

I walked out to the garden to see how it was doing after last weeks windstorm. Most tomato plants had settled downward on the stakes making them short and dense. I examined closely for ripe tomatos and checked for any green ones, too. I harvested 1 Roma, 2 Atkinsons, and about a pint of grape tomatos. There is some new growth and flowers, so I guess they will survive the storm last week. Peppers are history. I have some new grape tomatos seeds started, so maybe I will fill in some of the open spots. I have several packets of collard seeds just waiting for their turn at the garden.

[Redleg Duchess]

Greetings!

The ducks enjoyed their morning sojourn up on the waterfall - but this time they discovered that coming down the back side leaves them outside of their pen.

What a commotion when they saw me at the window “kwakkkk kwakkk kwakkk kwakkkk MOMMEEEEEEEEEEEEE! HELLLLLLLLLLLP (”and while you’re at it, how ‘bout some EGGGGGGG!” Hardboiled eggs - their favorite food! Pretty cool having animals that can make their own chow!

[greeneyes]

A few weeks for the processed pickles. Also, make sure you buy pickling salt, as table salt has stuff in it that can affect your product.

Meantime for a quick fix, just divide this recipe by eight, (skip the salt soaking) add a little more sugar and a couple of shakes of turmeric or powdered mustard, and bring it to boiling. Place sliced cucumbers and onions in a covered bowl or jar.

Let mixture cool a bit and pour over the produce for quick refrigerator pickles. They are ready to eat in 24 hours. Kinda like a sweet and sour pickle. Keeps for about a week in the refrigerator.

For a crispy crunch variety, I let the liquid cool and put it in the refrigerator till it is cold, then pour it over the cucumber mix.

These are usually eaten within a day at my house, and I just add a little more vinegar and sugar and more cucumbers and onions. After about 3 batches I dump it and start all over. These are particularly good to add to a lettuce salad too.

[Marie Antoinette]

I do! My wheelbarrow is broken so it would take quite a few trips, but it could be done. I amended the plot at the beginning of the growing season. Would I pull the mulch back, or just dump it on top?

[greeneyes]

Wash your beans, and drain. Steam them for 3 minutes using a steamer basket. Plunge into ice cold water to stop the cooking, and drain.

Vacuum pack with seal a meal. Very easy! To cook add frozen beans to boiling liquid and cook for about 15 minutes.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Hmm, now I'm confused. There were sites I found googling --- "fall garden" plants --- that came up listing tomatoes, but when I went more carefully through the sites, I saw that their latest ship date on plants in pots was, for instance, June 15. :o(

I've sent some of them inquiries via their message systems, on whether they're going to do any later shipping. If I get any positive answers, I'll ping you.

I've got some suckers that rooted earlier, which I'm going to move into good sunny locations. Then even if I don't have time for many of them to ripen, I will likely have lots of nice sized green tomatoes at the end of the season to pick and ripen off the vine, or to fry, or to freeze for frying later. I'm looking forward to having tomatoes until well after the first light frosts.

All the fruit from the plants are still green this fall, I’ll get a box and wrap them in newspaper, and put the box under a so I'll have fresh red tomatoes this winter.

I wouldn't buy potted tomato plants at the garden center which have already blossomed. They usually don't do well, not enough roots. But rooted sucker plants I dig up from the ground and move around, I make sure they have as big a root ball as I can possibly dig.

[ConorMacNessa]

Thanks for the info, Mrs. Don-o!

Lamh Foistenach Abu!