Here is that Monster Zuke! The Tray is 19 Inches Long, The Zuke is 15 Inches Long and weighs 4.5 pounds!
Posted on 07/29/2011 5:22:39 AM PDT by 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.
He does have a video that addresses soil; I just haven't gotten to that one yet...he has another one where he rates seed catalogs, and I was proud to note that I have four of the five. :-)
He gave this catalog an 'honorable mention' for all the fans of fruit trees and shrubs...worth checking out.
(Growing dread.)
Ok, just tasted one of the barrel pickles. Kinda salty. Surprising considering the low salt to water ratio. Hmmm...
Hubby mixes it up and uses a liquid sprayer, IIRC. I wouldn't do it properly, or would mess up *his* sprayer, or something. *smile* If you're going to be growing tomatoes in the SE it might be a good idea to get at least one liquid sprayer for copper. It's useful for other plants as well if they get fungii or something. We use it on our roses and blackberries too.
That finished off the peas. Besides what we ate, we ended up with a quart of dried soup peas, plus 200 for seed; not bad from a packet of 100. The blue pods really make finding them easy; they can't hide against the pea green foliage.
I've also been digging the Norkotah Russets and Yukon Golds, finishing yesterday. The Yukons were so-so, but the russets were a terrible disappointment: few; small; not a single baker...nothing like last year's crop. The Red Pontiacs still have a week or two to go before harvesting; I'm really hoping for good news from them.
Most of the Walla-Walla and Sweet Red onions are out of the ground, and curing. Really happy with them!
Last Sunday, I dragged out the smoker grill, and fired up with a mix of mesquite charcoal and apple wood, plus a mix of hickory & cherry chips for smoke. Three cut up fryer bunnies, and two split chickens, plus fresh pattypans, garden oinions, and small potatoes were on the menu for us and and another couple. Several packages of BBQ rabbit went into the freezer for future quick meals. The chickens were in 8 week old “in-betweeners”: too big to be game hens; too small to be fryers...but very good and tender. I'll be butchering more this weekend...and in the weeks ahead.
Sometime in the next week we'll be hitting the raspberry patch. Last Thursday we were going to check them out after a dental appointment, but there was a new, closed, gate across the access road. When we got home, I called the Forest Service HQ, and the District Engineer told me that the new fence was to prevent liability for grazing cattle getting onto the public road, but the gate isn't locked, nor the area closed. He also told me the berries were just beginning to turn pink, and should be ripe in a week or two...and it's been a week. ;-)
We are getting a few pickling cukes every day, as well as our daily pattypans...but still no peppers or tomatoes ripe. The volunteer “squashkins are producing like mad, mainly ‘winter’ types. Our Pink Banana Squash is also starting to set fruit, as are the cantaloupes.
The beans are covered with blossoms; and the lentils are almost ready to harvest. Another week, and I'll be cutting the barley.
Wednesday, I “harvested” the first of the dying spinach, and got a ridiculously huge amount of seed from it. More...LOTS more...to follow in the coming days; leaf lettuce seed, too.
Last night, I planted a few feet of the fall carrots, where the Yukons came out. I'll be putting more in, just as soon as I remember where I put the packets.
Happy Gardening, all!
Oh, meant to add. We spray copper on the tomatoes prophylactically when we set them out. Dose them really really good. And the ground under them and them mulch as well. Especially after losing every tomato plant last year. It’s fairly cheap, ‘organic’, and doesn’t burn if done correctly. We considered it insurance this year.
If you already have blighty/yellowish leaves you might want to look online for pictures of blighty leaves. If it looks like you might have it you’ll need to pull off the infected leaves. Carefully so as not to touch the rest of the good green leaves. I use gloves and dip those in bleach when done so I don’t spread the spores. Remove the infected leaves from the garden altogether. I put them in my garbage can with a good spritzing of bleach from my household sprayer. I have a plant that looks that way that I’m going to have to deal with tomorrow. Can’t be too careful.
Early blight, from what I’ve read, is in the soil in places. So mulching with papers and straw or something helps. It’s spread by raindrops/splatters. So if you can keep the soil ‘under’ something so it doesn’t splatter on the bottom tomato leaves when it rains that helps control its spread.
Here is that Monster Zuke! The Tray is 19 Inches Long, The Zuke is 15 Inches Long and weighs 4.5 pounds!
I will pick up the one gallon jars as the presents... and the two gallon for me. I find them very “homey” and attractive!
Oh my goodness! It is the size of a baby!! Better keep the recipe... looks like you are going to need it!!!
Did you name that thing “Bear Beater”? ;-’)
Going to scoop & stuff it with meatloaf; or just grate & use for breads, etc?
Do you have a recipe for the zuke stuffed with meatloaf?
Thanks for the info :o}
I am also looking for recipes for a great stuffed Bell Pepper if anyone has one.
Three years ago we lost all of our tomato plants to blight - everyone here in upstate NY did. The blight presented as yellowed leaves with round black spots. Even though we picked all the tomatoes (just beginning to turn red) we could not get them to ripen using any of the usual methods - they all ended up rotting. That’s what the blight does.
We pulled the plants by the roots and discarded them far from the garden. We did that as soon as we knew it was blight to cut down on the impact it would have on the soil.
The soil will hold the “spores” for up to three years, so it’s suggested that no tomatoes be planted where the blighted plants were for - you guessed it - three years. My husband re-planted the one space after only 24 months, but so far I haven’t seen blight.
I had also read that potato are in the tomato family, so they shouldn’t be planted in those areas where blight was for the same three year period. I don’t know how true that is though.
1 favorite meatloaf recipe, sized to fit the two canoes;
————PRECOOK the meat for the meatloaf, then add the rest of the ‘loaf’ ingredient's————
Stuff the loaf into the zuke shells, and top with any combination of tomato/spaghetti sauce; cheese; bacon strips/bits, &/or crumbs; and place in preheated oven long enough to tenderize the squash, and thoroughly heat the rest & melt the cheese, if used. (I would never leave out the cheese!)
To serve, cut into sections and enjoy.
Now those look delicious! Yippy! Yummm Dinner tonight!
My green beans are proding enough to be worth cooking, and I’ve chosen a couple of plants to let go to seed. My watermelons have tiny baby melons on them, the largest is still just a bit smaller than a tennis ball. the strawberries are ripening again, and the raspberries are producing about 1/2 cup a day. My cucumbers have blossoms opening, and my zucchini has reached the top of the arbor!
Now the bad news. Sunday morning when I went out to the garden, I found a pile of vomit in one of the veggie beds. Using my (admittedly mediocre) tracking skills, I’d say some drunken jerk climbed over the back fence, peed on the maple tree, stomped around in my raspberries, then threw up in my garden because he couldn’t find his way out of the yard again (fenced on all sides). Fortunately the corner he chose was where the seedlings had died during the 3-week stint of no rain, and I hadn’t gotten around to replanting it. I cleaned it up as best i could, then sprinkled a few tobacco seeds there. No one in my family smokes, but it’s a good insecticide/antibacterial/antiparasitic, so after growing tobacco in that spot it’ll be safe to plant there next year. And, those tobacco seeds were given to me by an old Hopi fellow, who said his tribe had been cultivating that patch for centuries, so it’s kind of special, but that was 7 years ago so the seeds need refreshed.
About once every 3 years someone will let us know they will be visiting and Lady Bender and her First Husband go into a yard cleaning/renovation frenzy 8 hours a day and continue until the guests drive in the driveway. They stay a few hours and leave and we collapse. The Lady went to bed at 7PM and I fell asleep in front of the computer for 2 hours last night.
I have a Doctor’s appointment this morning so will check in later...
I baked some bread about three days ago and a couple of slices cubed and chopped then soaked in tomato sauce will be a perfect ingredient to add to a mix of hamburger and Italian sausage - along with some sauteed chopped onion, garlic and garden fresh green bell peppers add chopped garden fresh red pimiento and fresh basil then top off with a homemade tomato sauce topping. Ooooo Ooooo! I could add some chopped jalapenos to one half, (Peggy does not like the heat). I am drooling here!
Lamh Foistenach Abu!
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