Hot in the UK too.
Posted on 07/16/2022 5:58:40 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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“...and incineration of their home and children.”
When it comes to wasps, I prefer a Scorched Earth Policy, too! ;)
We have an old country home with lots of eves and overhangs and we are constantly battling wasps and bats. We’ve got the bats OUT of the attic, but they still roost in the ridge line caps of the metal roof, no matter what we do and no matter HOW MANY bat houses we’ve built and placed around the farm. Frustrating!
Inside about 8:45 after almost an hour outside watering the garden AND picking tomatoes!! The very first Celebrity of the season was picked & about 65 Sungolds (I counted). I had to tie up one Celebrity branch that had started touching the ground since yesterday - will likely tie up 2 or 3 more tonight.
Back to the Sungolds - last year I had 2 plants & was taking gallon bags of them about twice a week to the fire station about a mile away. I only have one plant this year - we have new neighbors across the street & I believe they told mom they like tomatoes, so there is an “outlet” for some of the overabundance we are going to be having. The neighbors next to them have two small kids - I think they like tomatoes as well. Another week, and I’ll have plenty to give away.
It is like a sauna here - as soon as you step out the door, it hits you in the face & you’re sweating. Low to mid-90’s all week and through the weekend, high humidity, & the heat index will get to high 90’s every day & forecast for at least 100 on Thursday. Whew!
Coffee is saved until I get the garden done early, then I enjoy my first cup and this morning, it is also in front of a fan!
Will be near 100 this week after today here in the Ozarks. A few days ago it was 99 with a slight breeze and going outside was like opening the door to a hot oven.
Fall is my favorite time of year - I’m looking forward to it!!
Meanwhile, in East Tennessee, we are having 65° nights and things including grass are not growing as they should
Hot in the UK too.
Storms knocked a couple of jalapenos off last night... they were quite tasty in this morning's scrambled eggs.
I am sure you have a “go-to” salsa recipe .... this is mine:
https://farmbellrecipes.com/wonderful-salsa/
Read the comments - people love it! My family begs for it, but I’m not raising enough tomatoes this year for canning.
Here are my notes from making this recipe several times:
NOTE: regarding hot peppers, the original recipe uses hot banana peppers, but I use jalapenos. I make 2 versions “One Jalapeno Pepper” and “Two Jalapeno Pepper” salsas. As the name describes, per batch, use either one or two jalapenos. Cut off the stem end(s) & cut the pepper into rough pieces (4-6), then chop the entire thing (all of it - membrane & seeds included) in a food processor. This keeps the heat & for those who like it hot, 2JP is what they get. For milder, 1JP is good.
I started adding the lime juice to increase the acidity when I was making this with fresh tomatoes - it’s good.
I always make my salsa FRESH, so we have to go without when the ingredients aren't in season. Oh, well...we just consider the jar stuff blasphemy in this house.
An unusual tomato that makes a great salsa is Girl Girl's Weird Thing. When processed, the salsa looks like COVID discharge, but if you can get by the appearance (greenish with red streaks), the flavor is awesome.
I actually leave the sugar out and no one seems to notice. :-)
Don’t know about something that looks like “COVID discharge”. That would take a blind taste test and/or some convincing, I’m afraid.
local gardening expert says our gardens are two weeks late due to the cool and wet June....
I too have to go plant some beets...I pulled my garlic yesterday so now I have room for a few more items to grow....
I finagled the use of a dump trailer for the weekend and spent most of Saturday hauling horse poo from the neighbor lady's stable. Brought home ~56cu/yard. Not spending the $150 to rent a trailer made it a bit easier to swallow the $100 fuel bill for the day. Was hoping for another three or four loads on Sunday but Mother Nature said no to that. Booger was quite impressed by the new heap. After all of that work we went for a swim then enjoyed the first purple cherokee BLTs of the summer. Yum Yum. I noticed the romas are starting to ripen so it won't be long until it's time to start making salsa/spaghetti sauce/tomato juice.
After the rain stopped on Sunday I pulled the straw mulch off the potato row and dug the spuds. 30' row made an even bushel. I planted six pounds, so I think the yield was decent. The two halves of the row were planted two weeks apart, with the later planting providing ~2/3 of the harvest. Booger likes to help in the garden. Any time I'm out there digging she's right there doing her own digging.
Mrs. Augie had a mid-day appointment yesterday so we both took the day off from our gainful employment and got some canning done. It had been a couple years since I made beet pickles and we've been out for quite awhile. 30' row made eleven quarts.
The last big job was harvesting the cabbage and turning it into sauerkraut. Cabbage is hit or miss around here and this time it hit fairly well. Seven heads gave up 15lbs after it was cleaned and shredded. It's salted and packed in a 5 gallon bucket tucked away in the laundry room. I checked it this morning and found it to be properly submerged in salty cabbage juice so there won't be a need to add any liquid. When it's ready in a month-ish (the waiting is the hardest part) I'll repack it into quart jars and store it in the refrigerator
Booger thinks you bought that all for him, LOL! :)
That might work on chipmunks, but it doesn't work on raccoons. The greedy things just eat all of the sunflower seed then move on to the next thing.
Last week I noticed half-eaten fruit on the ground under one of my pear trees. Sunday morning I caught the vermins in the act and called Judge Dredd.
Those were #2 and #3 in the last two weeks. #4 was captured and executed yesterday.
They say that if you paint the eves or porch ceiling blue it discourages the wasps from nesting there. Not sure how that fits in with your color scheme. I suppose it depends on how badly you want to get rid of the wasps.
MWH You can try cut costs by using canned evaporated milk in place of cream in soup. When I run out I use it in place of 1/2 and 1/2. Worth a try.
Celebrity; Thats good because they are pumping out a good number of pretty large slicing tomatoes!
Yes I have Pete, thanks. I grew up having evaporated milk in my tea and now coffee. We have a source for heavy cream, 7.00 for a half gallon. When I buy one I fill up tiny water bottles and freeze them and use up the rest. Nothing beats heavy cream in some cases, especially sauces.
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