Posted on 09/23/2023 6:03:30 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Happy Saturday...and Gardening...my Early Girl tomatoe bush is producing but got so big even my props couldn’t hold it up...hoping it hangs on till frost...gotta get busy preserving!
I’ll wear him down, eventually. ;) He has Big Plans for digging up part of the side yard to make a Root Cellar and I’m like, ‘WE HAVE A ROOT CELLAR ALREADY, it’s just full of your junk!’ Man, I cannot WAIT for the barn re-model to be finished!
I’m laughing because I’m remembering how Greeneyes always complained about her husband’s either total immersion into a ‘project’ or a complete lack of effort, LOL!
The tradition continues on the Weekly Garden Thread! :)
Busy too here. Hubby found this link and wants me to check it out. It occurred to me some here may know about this company. I am not really interested in more herbs but I said I would ask you all. Thanks. https://strictlymedicinalseeds.com/
Nothing on tarragon, evidently not a medicinal herb.
Oregano- info is that it’s a general nectary herb & perennial.
I have oregano in my herb garden & it is blooming now - bees love it.
Early this spring, I found the oregano had majorly spread & was like a ‘mat’ on one end of the raised bed. I literally chopped the whole mat out (several large pieces), then replanted a piece about the size of a bread plate. That little piece is now about the size of the mat I had this spring, so it looks like I will have to chop it back again. I might try a half buried rhizome barrier to see if containing it that way will work.
I checked my other herb book ‘Alchemy of Herbs’ - no tarragon or oregano discussed.
Ok, thank you. I use my herbs for cooking. French tarragon is hard to find, but I do enjoy using it.
I almost bought some tarragon at a local nursery, but I don’t really cook with it & I ended up putting my money towards a bee balm.
I use it in eggs frequently, in bearnaise sauce, and in a chicken dish with mint. Always looking to include it in recipes since I have so much (right now), but those others are my go tos.
I stored some Korean Golden sweet potato last year by wrapping them in news paper and putting them in a wine box with the dividers left in. I left them covered in the garage overwinter.
You might try this but also put some Coconut coir or rice hulls at the bottom of the box. for them to sit in, but not cover them up. A couple of times in the winter maybe sprinkle some water over them, 1 or 2 table spoons.
Good Luck!
Post-Ophelia:
After a nervous day of gusting winds and rain, the heaviest rain being from about sunset to 11 p.m. as Ophelia’s remains passed directly over, we ended up with 4.75 inches of rain in the gauge.
I haven’t checked the place yet, but I am sure there will be plenty of “pick-up-sticks” to do, since I can see small stuff down around the maple trees along the driveway. It will be soggy for a couple of days in the fields. This was about the same level event as when some hurricane remnants have passed through our area.
I’m going to add my ‘Lessons Learned’ for 2023 here, as I forgot to add them last week! Zone 5a, SW Wisconsin.
Best tomatoes 2023 for Slicers/Salsa/V-8 Juice: ‘Celebrity Plus’, ‘Bella Rosa’, ‘Grandma’s Pick’ & ‘Chef’s Choice Orange’.
Best Paste-Type Tomato 2023: ‘Roma VF’ and ‘Bush Roma, Italian Roma’
Best Cherry-Type Tomato 2023: ‘Valentine’
Best Red Pepper: ‘Big Red’ (can be used at green stage, too.
Best Jalapeno: Bonnie Brand ‘Jalapeno’ (plant from Walmart)
Best Broccoli: ‘Lieutenan’t, Bonnie Brand, 6-pack from Walmart
Kale: ‘Prism’, by far. Scarlet got very tall and very leggy but kept it’s color and flavor nicely
Brussels Sprouts: Again, Bonnie Brand, 6-pack from Walmart. They are HUGE, easily 5’ tall and just LOADED with sprouts. Keeping them in the ground untill we have a few frosts for better flavor devlopment.
Best Marigold: ‘Fireball’
Zucchini: EZ Pick green and yellow
Sunflowers: Most were volunteers from previous years, but ‘Soroya’ will always be a reliable favorite.
Zinnia: ‘Queeny Mix.’ Those were fun to grow and the green/pink ones were my favorite (’Queeny Lime’ I think?) but I’m going back to clear, true colors next season.
Lettuces & Spinach: All performed well, as usual. Easiest thing in the world to grow. ‘Double Choice’ spinach from Burpee was nice as a baby spinach and mature sized. Lettuces: ‘Red Velvet’ ‘Bronze Attowhead’ ‘Simpson Elite’ ‘Grandpa Admire’s’ and Burpee ‘Looseleaf Lettuce Blend.’
Basil: ‘Lemonchello’ great flavor and aroma. Worked well in the Pestos I made & froze.
Beans: ‘Saychelles’ green pole bean and ‘Good Mother Stollard’ pole drying bean. Pole green beans didn’t produce as well as other season; I think the massive Brussels Sprouts were blocking some of their sun. The drying beans are still drying on the vine. I planted ‘Scarlet Runner Beans’ in two spots on hog-panel V-shaped trellises Beau made for me, and they were gorgeous all summer and the Hummingbirds loved them. I will harvest the seeds from them and use them again next season. :)
Next season: Seriously? FEWER tomatoes. I do NOT need to feed the NATION anymore! And don’t bother with potatoes - they were OK, but a full 4x8’ bed can be put to better use. I also want to do more ‘Square Foot’ garden beds according to the REAL rules of the game, versus just planting things wherever, to see if it REALLY makes a difference in production. Also, more flowers. Always, more flowers! :)
NOTE: We had a VERY dry growing season, so disease issues were minimal - we have more problems in wet seasons.
Amazingly, the crops all around us have done well and soybeans, alfalfa and feed corn production doesn’t look like it took a hit. We are still in drought conditions. If the weather pattern continues, it will be a low-snow winter, which isn’t bad, but Farmer’s Almanac is predicting colder than normal conditions. Ugh. :(
Have you ever grown German Johnson heirloom tomatoes?
We visited a cousin in NC back in July & he gave my mom a German Johnson tomato. He said those are his ‘sandwich’ tomatoes - he grows Celebrities, but those are his canning tomatoes because most of them tend to come in at the same time.
Mom LOVED that German Johnson - said it was one of the best tomatoes she’s ever eaten. I am probably going to have one German Johnson next year and one cherry tomato plant and that is all. I tore myself up (GI tract - I have a nightshade ‘allergy’) eating too many tomatoes this year, trying not to waste the Celebrity produce. I did do some ripe tomato canning, had 8 lbs of green tomatoes for relish canning, plus we gave tomatoes away to the neighbor & to the fire department (twice!), too. All this with only TWO Celebrity plants!
I have to grow jalapenos for pepper jelly or certain relatives will come ‘looking’ for me LOL! I had one bell plant & one Giant Marconi pepper plant this year - waaaay too many peppers & they are still producing. Usually bell peppers are a ‘bust’ in my garden, but this was an outstanding pepper year - ALL the peppers did great.
Spaghetti squash - will grow it again, but not in a raised bed. The plants are ‘prickly’ (very!) so the deer won’t touch them. They also did not chew on any of the squash that developed outside of the fencing. I will plant them ‘out’ somewhere ... they take up a lot of room.
Next year, I would like some green beans .... tried last year, but with the knee, I planted too late. The leaves were eaten up by something.
More flowers for sure - will spread the dahlias out more & support them better as well.
Barely garden thread related, but yesterday, I cooked a regenerative farm pasture raised meat chicken in the slow cooker until the legs were falling off - literally, one got left in the cooker when I lifted the bird out! I made chicken soup out of it - the standard ingredients - chicken, onion, carrots, celery, bay leaves, salt/pepper, chicken stock. It was so “blah” ... I added some ground thyme which helped a little. There was no ‘depth’ or ‘complexity’ to the soup/stew. What to do ... I had an idea, but looked up ‘flavors to add to chicken soup’ and on one blog, I saw my idea .... fish sauce! It doesn’t taste fishy for those that are going ‘yuck!’. I tried it in a bowl of soup & boy, that was the answer. I added 2 tablespoons to the slow cooker & it was perfect. Even my mom was saying ‘this is such a tasty soup broth!’ The missing ingredient was “umami” & the fish sauce gave me that.
Umami: often described as ‘the fifth taste’.In the U.S., there are four words that we often use to compartmentalize the taste of food: sour, sweet, salty, and bitter. But what’s the word you use to describe more complex flavors such as the ones prominent in various types of cheese, miso, and even mushrooms? The answer is umami. Umami is a flavor often attributed to meats, but you can find them in eggs, plant-based foods like tomatoes, mushrooms, miso, seaweed, fish sauce, and soy sauce. [https://www.eatthis.com/umami-taste/]
What kind?
Best tomato we have grown them for years. Sabre. A Ukrainian variety. If you can find them. Not only are the fruit solid, maybe only 5 seeds in each one. The plants are the hardiest for a northern climate. Ours are still green and have new green fruit and flowers. They also do not get blight. All our other 4 varieties plants dead brown and yanked.
Great tip! Those are all the things I use when making chicken stock, and it usually turns out OK, but I will try the fish sauce for that ‘something extra.’ :)
Vegeta is great in homemade chicken soup too.
What kind?
Over 60 plants, and mainly "4th of July," "Big boy" and Rutgers Heirloom Tomatoes besides many cherry toms from seeds I had saved. Thank God.
“Vegeta...”
Wasn’t familiar, so I went looking. Really high in salt/sodium, though. No wonder it tastes good! ;)
OK. Maybe I’ll add just a little... :)
Re: German Johnson tomato.
Oh, yes. That is a tasty one. My home gardens had been ‘test plots’ for both Seed Savers and Jung tomato varieties through the years.
Highly recommended. ‘Mom Was Right.’ :)
So I’m not the only one growing Early Girl - late in the season. I just picked a cluster of three green ones to try fried green tomatoes. Was also thinking maybe that will help the plant put more energy into ripening the remaining fruits before frost.
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