Weekly Gardening Thread – 2011 (Vol. 29) July 29

7-29-2011 | Red_Devil 232

[Red_Devil 232]

Good morning gardeners. This past week here in East Central Mississippi has been great, weather wise. There have been numerous and very beneficial pop-up T-storms almost every day, which have helped keep the temperatures down and my garden watered.

I hope TS Don will give some relief to those of you in drought stricken Texas. Forecasts are for it to dissipate in about 36 to 48 hours after landfall.

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.

[ApplegateRanch]

What do you know about adding fresh garlic to the pickling brine?

For once, the resident know-it-all knows nothing! Mark the day.

I'm not really a "pickle person', though my mother more than once accused me of being a "pickle-puss", when I was being more sour than usual. LOL

I know garlic is added to many *sour* pickle recipes; and MUST be added to Kosher dills; and I also know modern "food safety experts" go ape over 'dangerous' older recipes (that they NEVER test) that haven't been killing people for decades, if not centuries.

So, all I can do is recommend using Google; and to look for old editions of the Blue Book or Kerr Canning book; or to look in 1940s-1970s cookbooks that have canning & preserving sections.

I would *guess* that putting the whole (or better, sliced) cloves in the brine before boiling it would take care of any concerns, as the acid from the vinegar would prevent any possible botulism problem after processing.

Maybe using garlic in a spice bag (or sraining it out before filling the jars) which is removed before filling the jars would work. That would probably need a much larger amount of garlic, since it wouldn't be in the jars to permeate the cukes. Hope a real pickle person can givea better answer.

[tillacum]

Just slice them up and wilt them in butter, salt & pepper.

[tillacum]

Holy smokes, scratch what I said about butter, salt & pepper. Maybe if the skins are now tough, you can cook them like a winter squash. I’m such a dunce, I’d probably take a little off the top, scoop out what I can, mix the scooped out with sausage & hamburber, onions, garlic,salt & pepper and bake them.

[tubebender]

I queried the resident knowitall and she said she has added garlic to her pickles for years, even put them in her famous Dilly Beans. I went to the Doctor yesterday and he certified me as alive but teetering on the brink then he increased one of my BP meds...

[tubebender]

Mrs Bender and her handsome husband, Tube, armed them selves with several cans of bug spray and went to the big(?) farmers market in the Communist enclave of Arcata Ca, home of Humboldt State, and we did not see your Flying Saucer Patty Pan squish offered. We bought enough Gravenstein Apples for a pie plus some ends and odds and a plant or two...

[Tatze]

See post #51.

I’ve tasted a couple now, and still undecided on the flavor. Its not exactly what I was expecting, but isn’t terrible either. I taste the salt, which I wouldn’t expect given the recipe. My wife didn’t taste the salt, or the spices, and said she just tasted cucumbers. I’ll probably give more of these away than keep for myself, and try a different barrel pickle recipe next time. But give it a shot, you may like them.

[agrace]

My sister, whose unbelievable garden makes mine look like a child’s hobby, last weekend gave me half a dozen or so HUGE yellow squash and zucchini that my family won’t be able to eat all of even if we had it for every meal for a week.

So I’m wondering if anyone has any good recipes for dehydrated squash chips or what kind of success can I expect if I freeze some? Canned becomes too mushy in my experience, so any alternatives? Thanks.

[Just mythoughts]

.....So I’m wondering if anyone has any good recipes for dehydrated squash chips or what kind of success can I expect if I freeze some? Canned becomes too mushy in my experience, so any alternatives? Thanks.

I have froze zucchini grated and processed to the appearance of apple sauce. When my children were young they did not like zucchini bread because they could see 'green' in the bread.

I came across a recipe for zucchini bread that does not require draining with salt. The texture and the taste is like an applesauce cake. So I cut up in chunks the zucchini and blended it in the blender until the dark green was no longer identifiable and measured out the amount called for in the recipe and froze the rest to make another time. I called it 'spicy bread'.

If you are interested I would be pleased to send you the recipe.

[afraidfortherepublic]

This is one of the squash before I cut it off the vine. I found documentation on this squash that says you should let it get to 4" across before cutting. Mine is bigger than that -- more like 5 1/2-6 inches. The skin is still soft and can be marked with my fingernail. According to Joy of Cooking I can treat it as a summer squash or a winter squash, depending on its size, etc. Do I peel this? Stuff it? Bake it? Steam it? Season it? Here is the rest of the harvest so far:

There are 5, or 6, large zucchini. One yellow zuke and one green one that are the appropriate size. 3 nice sized cucumbers. 2 Chinese pea pods. 4 small cherry tomatoes. 2 oversized Flying Saucer squash.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Here's another picture of the Flying Saucers off the vine:

How should I cut them These are the size of a small canteloupe.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I’ve got to go to bed. I have EARLY church tomorrow, a quick breakfast, and then home to meet the most exasperating piano tuner I’ve ever had. I haven’t had the piano tuned in more than 25 years. (I know, I know. That’s irresponsible.) The pianist doesn’t live here any more, and I just let it slide.

Someone called us on the phone last week and offered pianno tuning for $95. My husband said yes, so this Hungarian man came out. He worked on the piano for THREE HOURS. I thought he’d never leave. Then he said that he could make it look like new by “cleaning” it, get all the dust out, blow out the action, and polish the strings. My husband invited him back. He came on Thurs, but he got tired (after 2 HOURS) and asked to come back on Sunday to finish the job. I was against it, but my hisband said sure.

So, I have to rush home from church, etc. to be here at 10 AM and I’m supposed to go to a picnic for one of the WIS Senators who is being recalled at noon. What do you want to bet that the tuner will not be out of my house in time for us to go to the picnic?

In the mean time there are piano parts laying all over my living room. And there will be one more tuning after this because he was unable to bring it all the way up since it had been so long since it had been tuned. Of course the price has gone up for all this service. I’m not complainng about that because it is justified. But, this man is beoming as annoying as our Congress and our Pres’ent.

I need sleep. Happy Sunday, all.

[tubebender]

The head chef has gone to bed hours ago but she would probable slice it and saute it in what I do not know and don’t want to know but I will try to remember to ask her...

Oh, and she would not peel it if she could puncture it with her nails.

ps... I hope you get your piano put back together

[tdscpa]

I do not believe you will find a “fountain of youth” for your old tomato plants.

I think it is time to clone! I had to do that this spring, when my seedlings I had outside got infected big-time with early blight and septoria.

Luckily, I always grow about two times the number I need, (spares and give aways). I discarded many that were badly infected, but had some varieties that had only one survivor.

Most of these had infected lower leaves, so, I cut off the tops (mostly lightly infected or fine), discarded the heavily infected lower portion, sprayed them with daconil, and replanted in potting soil. I managed to save them all, and now they are as good as the ones I initially grew out that did not get infected.

[Red_Devil 232]

Your piano tuner must have taken lessons from Mark Twain’s lightening rod salesman.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thanks, this is very useful. I’m going to try the cutting route. But you did your cloning in the Spring. At this point (early August) can one expect them to develop a sufficient root system to flower and fruit?

[afraidfortherepublic]

I don’t remember that Twain story about the lightening rods, but I know where you are going. I have another reason for my reservation. I looked him up in the Circuit Court records, and he has an arrest. Twenty years ago, but it is a creepy arrest regarding a child. I won’t allow him to come here unless my husband is home, and I want this job done and him gone.

I know this man has a right to earn a living, but REALLY! Mainly I resent having to give up part of my Sunday.

Regarding the squash, I’m glad that Mrs. Bender said not to peel it. It is too pretty to discard.

[rightly_dividing]

We harvested a bout 7or8 Romas, and 4 small Atkinsons today and see that we have 2 more red bell peppers on the one little plants that gave use 2 red peppers already. Our larger maters that were blown over by the storm a couple of weeks ago are recovering. They slid down on the stakes to a huge mass that was only about hlaf the previous height. I checked them carefully for hidden maters but found none. They have many new runners with flowers though, so maybe we will get more maters soon. We have decided that next garden, we will grow big boys and Atkinsons,and grape tomatos for snackin, along with red bell peppers, and acorn squash and butternut. I planted 6 yellow squash this year and only got 3 squash from them. Hot peppers did not survive.

[Red_Devil 232]

The lightening rod story is called "Political Economy" written in 1870. A very funny short story!

Political Economy

[tubebender]

I imagine it would depend on your first frost date Mrs Don-o?

[tillacum]

Thank you, I’ll give it a try. I love barrel pickles.