WEEKLY GARDEN THREAD SEPT. 30, 2018

freerepublic | SEPT. 30, 2018 | greeneyes

[Oshkalaboomboom]

Since this is the time of year when everyone is picking their vegetables, canning, pickling, making sauces, etc., let me share a cautionary tale that might save you some pain.

One recent morning I decided to make Sriracha Sauce. I picked my peppers, got together all of my ingredients and got to work. The sauce looked, tasted and was coming along beautifully when I missed one important step in the recipe: Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes then transfer to a blender.

Since I didn't cook it on a high heat I thought it would be cool enough to transfer to the cup of my smoothie maker right away, and it seemed like it was. I put it in the cup, scraped the excess out of the pot and into the cup, put the cutting blade on and put it in the mixer. It blended beautifully but when I went to take it out it was stuck. Because it was a Magic Bullet style smoothie maker instead of a standard blender there was no way for any built up pressure to be released. Instead of walking away and trying again in a few minutes I tried to force it, and it blew up in my face.

Luckily for me I had worked around chemicals for many years and knew what to do in an emergency. My wife had been sitting at the kitchen table doing some paperwork so she was right there. I asked her to lead me to the shower because I couldn't open my eyes and I stripped off my clothes as she led me in. Once I got in the shower I first rinsed my head off with cold water so no more sauce would run down into my eyes, then I opened my eyes and let the water flush the sauce out for about 15-20 minutes. The hurt like Hell but I could still see and the more I rinsed them the less it hurt. I finally stepped out of the shower, looked in the mirror and my eyes were blood red. I went back in for another rinse and started feeling better so I got out again, dried off and went out to the kitchen. Sauce was everywhere from floor to ceiling so we spent the good part of a day cleaning up and then we had to get a painter in to repaint the ceiling and back wall, but I got off cheap. My chest and arms have burn spots all over them but I have my sight.

Do yourselves a favor and learn from my experience. Take your time and work safely. No food product is worth getting hurt over.

[Redleg Duke]

Duckulation explosion, here in southern New Hampshire! One of our Blue Runners has hatched ten ducklings this past week. Cute little so and sos. Two other Runner hens are on nests as well. Late in the season, but welcomed none the less. Don’t miss our chickens at all!

I gave the one active hive a mite treatment last early in September. After two weeks, the bottom mite board was loaded with dead mites. Hopefully, this colony will winter over.

[Geronimo]

Thank you for the ping greeneyes...I’ve been too busy travelling this year to do any gardening but always enjoy reading this thread...🌻🌾❤️

[Oshkalaboomboom]

He had them with hamburger and beans but left the seeds in. He told me they were really hot

That's a common misconception. Seeds aren't hot at all. However, the membrane that the seeds attach to is the hottest part of the pepper so if they let the seeds rub all over the membrane when removing them then taste them they assume that the heat is coming from the seeds.

[SaveFerris]

Hmmm. I always pull the seeds, lately, for growing the following year. This has been the best year so far for growth. I probably bought these at the store at least 2 or 3 years ago. Just keep recycling the seeds.

I usually pull the immediate flesh with the seeds so I must be taking that hottest part out (and letting it air dry).

[Oshkalaboomboom]

I save enough seeds for my own use and trading with other pepper growers then either toss the rest or grind them up along with the peppers to make powders.
If you are a Jalapeño fan you should check out the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University. Their botanists are developing some crazy strains of Jalapeños like pumpkin spice, lemon spice and orange spice as well as a lot of other new varieties of other peppers.
https://chile.nmsu.edu/seeds

[SaveFerris]

Not as much as I used to. Not killer hot but definitely with a zing.

Now I mostly like these little bits on pizza. I tried drying some in the oven like when I baked on a pizza. 425 was too much. I should have gone with a much more moderate 275 or 325. I was used to them being just fine on the pizza but they were getting moisture from the pizza which required 425 but the peppers did not burn (like they did on aluminum foil). Oops. Oh well. Some of these are supposed to be Serrano but none of them ever look like the Serranos they came from (been buying just a few last 2 or 3 years - half the reason is just for the seeds). I’ll get like 4 and when I check out, it’s 17 cents or so, lol. Enough for a couple of pizza toppings, lightly and for me to grab the seeds! (yes I try to buy a few other things, too, lol).

Burned up about 2/3 but the slightly-burned ones, dark-almost-black-red and some remaining red were just fine. Put most of those on a pizza last night. Still some good kick without destroying your mouth.

Now I’ve got just one good-sized red and a small red on the vine out there. Probably harvest about the same time I pull the 5 orange Sweet Snacking peppers to cut up. We are supposed to get warmer temps in a day for 3 days followed by rain. That should work just great. There are at least a dozen peppers of various types out there waiting to go from green to orange or red, depending upon what they are.

Freezer has a few - plus some still from last year.

[greeneyes]

Thanks, we have been saving quite a few pepper seeds.

[greeneyes]

Painful lesson. Thanks for sharing. I sometimes wear safety glasses, but not too often.

[greeneyes]

Congrats on the ducks and good luck with the winter hive survival.

[greeneyes]

You are welcome.

[JockoManning]

1. Does anyone grow goji berries? We have a lot of them and they are sending underground runners all over like raspberries. They are evidently quite healthy but tiny enough that picking them is time consuming.

1.1 If you grow them, how do you store them? Dry them? Make preserves? Freeze them? Any favorite recipes?

2. Our other main bushes are elderberries. Very healthy for lung problems etc. They are about as tiny as BB's. I've found that cutting the cluster stems as close to the berries as I can and then using a clean hair comb to gently pull the berries off works reasonably well.

2.1 Alternately, in a rush, I shoved the grocery bag collection of stems & berries in the chest freezer to deal with later. Taking them out is a bit of a mess--they thaw quickly and are so mushy as to be bothersome. Leaving them in the chest freezer and jostling them, banging them off the stems while frozen works better.

3. How do you keep, use, prepare elderberries? Any methods to make syrup for medicinal uses?

[SaveFerris]

Got something growing in the garden below which I don’t know what it is. Nothing I planted there came up. Maybe the onions just for a bit.

Two big plants about 4 feet in diameter and about 4 feet tall each. They put out medium-sized leaves (green of course) then these bunches of green berries - about 20 in each group. Multiple groups per plant. As they mature, the berries turn dark purple, almost black. The branches just behind the berries (or whatever they are) take on a red appearance like cabbage or rhubarb (they look like thinner versions of rhubarb on the branches).

I don’t know what these things are.

[Oshkalaboomboom]

Not as much as I used to. Not killer hot but definitely with a zing.

I grow mostly superhots, peppers 1 million Scoville units and above, though I will have a few unusual varieties like Farmers Market Jalapenos and Aleppos to make appetizers with. That is also why I have lots of powders. Even with the hottest peppers you can control the heat of your dish when you use powder to spice it up.

[SaveFerris]

[1 million Scoville units and above]

We need to get you some protective eyewear!

Just the fumes off my Jalapenos were making me cough 2 or 3 times. And this was a small group - of a lot of small peppers (some were 2 inches long or so - had one BIG one - like a small green pepper).

THIS time I finally wore thin protective gloves. Last time I washed my hands no less than 9 times and wiped with a cloth rag each time to dry.

Didn’t help. I still got a couple of, ahem, “surprises”.

[greeneyes]

We tried to grow goji berries and they did great until something cut them down - We think cut worms-tried several different ways to protect - none worked, so we gave up and planted honey dew berries.

We have wild elderberries, but the critters always beat us to them. I would probably freeze them or make a simple syrup. One cup of juice to 2 cups of water, and maybe a squirt of lemon juice and then pressure can them. For a thinner syrup, use less sugar. Thicker-cook it down a bit.

[greeneyes]

Sounds weird - maybe post a picture.

[Psalm 73]

"Can people who make their own compost explain their process?"

- I have two 4'x4'x4' bins made out of scrap 2x3s and chicken wire.
- In goes ground up leaves, kitchen scraps (coffee grinds, egg shells, banana peels, etc), and chicken manure and bedding.
- I stir with an auger every week or so, and water if we get a real dry spell.
- At about six months or so I shovel the dark brown earth into a wheelbarrow (about 7 loads per bin) and dump it in our box gardens.

I know some people get pretty technical about it, (maybe even some gardening Freepers, I'm sure), but I try to keep it simple. It's just dirt after all....

[ApplegateRanch]

Summer's over; winter's here: no transition.

We ended up with 70-75 peaches, which gives us maybe a dozen or so for out of hand eating. They are SOOOO good! They're clings, which improves flavor, but buggers prepping to process. They also gave us 4 pints of peach sauce made & processed (along with 3 more pints of applesauce) last night. Today I'll do about 3 pints of peach-pineapple jam.

Dug out the cherries & cherry juice that were put on hold when the spousal unit had to be hospitalized again (life-flighted from our Custer Regional Hospital to Wyoming Medical Center ICU, in Casper; no available beds in Rapid City) and have about 3 quarts of cherry syrup ready to jar & process.

Yes; after 1 night in ICU, and 3 days on the med floor, she came home 2 weeks ago, and is back to normal. Her problems that were treated locally as primary problems, were actually caused by a smallish kidney stone that was considered a minor secondary condition; so their meds' metabolites were building up & poisoned her to the point of sepsis & pancreatitis, on top of the heart & liver problems they were treating. Heart rhythm & function are significantly improved, the pancreatitis is resolved, and her liver & other blood chemistries are vastly improved. Kidney stone is GONE, kaput, passed.

Since getting back home, she's helped tremendously in putting up 51 pints of carrots: sitting peeling & chopping. She also prepped the apples and peaches, and did the sterilizing, while I did the cooking, seasoning, packing and processing. She also made enough applesauce on her own, while I was at work, to freeze two half gallon tubs.

Despite woeful summer neglect, the garden gave us several meals of green beans; 2 very heavy for their size pumpkin type winter squash, and 6 or 8 Table Queen acorn squash. We still have several cocozelle in the fridge.

All of the garden is totally dead after 3 nights of light to moderate frost, followed by over a 1/2 inch of snow on Thursday night/Friday morning. The snow was a total surprise, as it was only supposed to get down to about 1,500-2,000 feet higher than we are; instead, they got about 3 times what was predicted, and we caught it, too.

Still have apples to pick, and potatoes to dig; all of the German Butterballs, and about a third of the second planting of Yukon Golds--first planting was a total bust.

(center) The apple tree next to the gate to the garden area:; hence, "Applegate Ranch". There's also one next to the main driveway gate, as well as next to most of the other gates on the ranch. It was taken through the kitchen window, and the screen gives it that 'softness'.

[SaveFerris]

Yeah, if I could I would. I’ll have to see what options are available to me.