What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Dahlia]

Harvested all the hot peppers. Habanero, cayenne, tobacco and anchor chili are in the dehydrator. Once dried they will be turned in to flakes.
Jalapinos and Thai chili were turned in to cowboy candy. Used 18 lbs of peppers to make 18 pints of cowboy candy!

My father in law makes a wonderful red pepper and he uses 4 different spicy peppers to make it. I believe cayenne and habanero are 2 of the 4 peppers he dries and uses. Soooo good!

 

[digitS']

With all the Summer heat, '21 & '22 have been good years for peppers.

DW and I aren't quite on the same page about peppers. I find it surprising that she doesn't like much spiciness but is happy to have Super Chili each and every year. I taste nothing but Hot with those. She has almost no interest in jalapenos.

The Giant Marconi that she likes for a sweet pepper has come through. I think that the hailstorm targeted those plants. We bought Park seed for the first time in years and have Whopper bells again. Good year. The fruits are fairly thin walled but that's okay. Stuffed and baked they are tender and flavorful.

DW does make a tasty and simple salsa. The problem is having the cilantro and green onions at the same time as ripe cherry tomatoes and hot peppers. That's it, those 4 ingredients (with a little salt later). They go in the toaster oven with the cilantro a little later than the other 3. A few minutes then they can go in the blender. ...boom shakalaka ...

Tried growing cilantro in the shade. Still haven't tried direct sowing onions late, doubt if it would work but could save sets in fridge for late. Buy cilantro and green onions after all that we grow? Yep.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

Have you considered freezing your onions? I cut up and froze onions last year. They don't, of course, work as fresh with a crunch, but you cook salsa anyway. I'll bet you can freeze the cilantro too.

 

[digitS']

I'll bet you can freeze the cilantro too.

You might be right, @ducks4you .

I have been surprised with freezing the leaves of things. For example, I have frozen lemon verbena for years, after DW slipped it into the freezer in a sandwich bag without telling me what she was up to. It worked fine! In fact, I have been drying the anise hyssop because so much of it has been flowering like, immediately after producing a few little leaves. Okay, I've never frozen the flowers .... probably be okay. So, every morning, I put a few dried cranberries in the tea basket, go out to the South Window and put some dry anise hyssop in there, and pull a bag of lemon verbena out of the freezer for the basket and my cups of herbal tea thru the morning .

In 2022, we have tried to freeze green onions for the first time. Have frozen leaks for several years. Now that there is an abundance of tomatoes, we could try the green onions from the freezer.

Steve

 

[Zeedman]

Spent most of the afternoon in the garden today. Picked a bucket of cukes, a bucket of bitter melon, and a few of the late-planted zucchini. Still a lot of small cukes on the vines, and there is a round of young fruits forming on the luffa. Picked more okra; will be making okra pickles, and tomato/okra salad, tomorrow. And maybe slice & freeze some of the bigger okra for gumbo, if I drink an extra cup of coffee for motivation.

Seed saving is starting to pick up. I've processed quite a few ripe bitter melons for seed. That can be a sticky process, since when ripe, the melons split & drop their slime-covered seeds on the ground. I've found that the best way to separate the seeds from their slimy red coating is to dump them in a small bucket 1/2 full of water, beat them vigorously with a wire whisk. The bad seeds float & can be skimmed off, then pour the bucket onto a wide-wire straining ladle. I rinse them with a hose, and the gel is forced through, leaving only clean seed.

The ground under the Painted Mountain corn was finally dry enough to walk through, so I took a look to see how close it was to maturity. @baymule had warned me to watch for spoilage after rains, and I found a few rotten ears. Much to my surprise (given how late I had planted) about 1/3 of the ears were nearly mature... and with rain likely over the weekend, I picked those. They are now drying under a fan on my screened patio, along with one of my soybeans.

Dry bean harvest is picking up: ?Atlas? (probably misnamed), "Zlatak", and "Uzice" common beans; "Gigandes" runner bean; "Madagascar" lima; "Galante" yardlong bean; "Washday Pea" cowpea; and 4/8 soybeans are all drying down.

 

[seedcorn]

What is best way to save tomato seeds? What I did last year was a complete failure.

 

[baymule]

What is best way to save tomato seeds? What I did last year was a complete failure.

Squish the seeds out, put in a cup and ferment them several days. That gets rid of the slime coating that can inhibit sprouting. Rinse, dry on a paper towel and put up for next year.

 

[ducks4you]

@seedcorn , Last year I fermented Cherokee Purple seeds. Since you live in the Midwest, like me, the key is for you to Really dry the seeds out. We have a LOT of humidity here.
I kept my seeds, after fermenting them, in a cup and had them drying on a coffee filter for THREE MONTHS, to be sure that they were really dry before I stored them.
Otherwise it looked like every seed I planted this year sprouted.
It is the same method that you use for squash seeds.

Collecting seeds from your garden

There are many awesome reasons for collecting seeds from your garden; it's easy to do, will save money & preserve favorite varieties.

savvygardening.com

 

[digitS']

@ducks4you , That's a new line of gardening research learning that Nikki Jabbor teamed up with 2 other authors.

I am very successful with the simplest tomato seed saving method imaginable. My most recent saves out on-paper, held down by bricks on the deck railing, will require attention to weather. Really, no rain in forecast and the deck roof would protect them but not from humidity, during their weeks-long stay out there.

I'm not much of a tool collector, @seedcorn , but I see those kitchen mini strainers mentioned often for the important rinse. Also, some folks use a mini whisk for the daily stir .

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

I got ALL of my garlic planted!!! Do you know how HARD it is to remember to plant bulbs?!?!?!?
Anyway, I am proud of myself.
I heavily watered and did some mulching, covered my first patch of garlic with straw, per Inga Witscher's advice on Her acre of garlic that she planted on her 2018 show, and re planted beets.

Around the Farm Table | a food and farming adventure

aroundthefarmtable.com

I have experiemented with old seeds, but THESE beet seeds were REALLY, REALLY, old, and you can see their germination rate. I decided to re plant beets bc last year I Could have started spinach late, but I didn't, and it didn't get cold in 2021

until December. Re: spinach, I am going to start it inside this winter and transplant. Judging from the amount of August fog, I think we are in for a cold and snowy winter.
Meanwhile, here is my beet/garlic patch. I should get a meal or two of beets and maybe, more.