What's going on with your Veggie Garden: Part 3

Todays harvest made for a long tiring day.

The next couple days will be busy ones with shelling peas and canning more cukes and tomato sauces.

Still watching things grow. Baby peppers, tomatoes, cukes, and zukes. The time of year of pulling weeds, waiting, watering, and killing bugs.


-Vaughn

Looks great TRock!!

TRock,
Next year, I might hire myself out as your sous chef/apprentice/assistant, so you can teach me canning and pickling!

Linda

Kev,
I once ran to get the camera to take a pic of a snake napping in a sago palm. I think I'll stick with the snake...

kevcarr59 - will it eat voles? If so, send me a few.

Not too sure, but it is insectivorous. I haven't seen him since, so I doubt it's still around.

watermelon plant has blooms tomato plant has blooms,still and always at it.As you can seeThe black plastic didn't stay in the exact place it was placed. The plant is doing well though.Little cucumber plants a week old.

Linda,

There are several "Ball" books of canning and preserving. They have very complete instructions for things that can be canned with a boiling water bath as well as things requiring a pressure canner. If you follow the instructions, canning is not hard. (It is still a lot of work, but not rocket science.)

If you are going to make jams or jellies, I recommend ordering "Pomona's Pectin". It is available from the manufacturer or on Amazon. With Pomona's, I've found getting my jams & jellies to set properly a no-brainer. The benefit is that you can use different sweeteners, or just reduce sweeteners to your taste.

Like TRock, I have found the Mrs. Wages pickling mixes to be a simplified but good way to make pickles. I mostly use the Kosher Dill pickle mix, but there are several other mixes too. For Bread & Butter sweet pickles I use a family recipe that my mother used--it's more work than a mix, but it is family, after all.

Don't let a lack of experience deter you from trying canning. You can do it with equipment you already have in your kitchen. A kit with jar lifter, lid lifter, and funnel is inexpensive and makes it even easier.

David

We have rain going on in the garden this morning!! Lots of cucumbers will be ready to harvest soon. As always, the beans are going like gangbusters.

The wee little maters have their rain hats on.

David,
Thanks for the canning advice and leads. I hope to get there, soon as I grow that bumper crop! I already have an All American Pressure Canner that I bought back in 2006, when I just knew I was going to be a veggie gardener, pioneer woman, canning afficionado! It's still in the box!

Yesterday evening, I spent time cutting suckers to root for fall tomato starts. The plants are healthy, and one Sioux is full of green tomatoes that are taking their time to ripen. I have a Virginia Sweets that isn't doing anything but being lush. So, I figured I'd use them to get a jump on the fall season.

I rooted 7 nice long suckers into some potting mix I put into a galvanized nursery plant can. It looks sort of like an umbrella can, but only half as tall. I dipped the tips into ground cinnamon as a rooting hormone.

Five other suckers were started in individual 2-liter soda bottles, and are inside, under the lights. The canned suckers are outside under the patio cover.

This'll be yet another experiment to see which set of suckers does the best. If they take root, I can replant them around mid-August, and hope to see tomatoes by mid-November. Or, hopefully, for the Thanksgiving table where I'll be giving thanks!

Linda

Cross-posted.....nice Linda....that's The One!

Speaking of canning and preserving, I attended a class last weekend about this subject. Some nuggets in brief:

- anything with a seed is a fruit

- instead of a boiling water bath, which takes about 45 minutes just to come to boil, use the steaming method. Same idea, same principles, same timing - less water to boil and that huge pot of hot water is negated. Here's the steamer on my wish list on Amazon....hint hint.... ;-)

http://www.amazon.com/Back-Basics-400A-7-Quart-Aluminum/dp/B0000DDUCJ/ref=pd_sim_sbs_k_1

- steam/water bath acidic fruits and veggies

- you must pressure can non-acidic veggies (carrots, turnips, potatoes)

- acidic vs non-acidic seems to fall into the seeds vs no seeds camp although I'm not certain that is truly a blanket statement

- if your pressure cooker has ONLY a steam gauge type measure for pressure, be sure to calibrate it before every season. Best bet: a weighted gauge (pressure regulater valve). Here is the pressure cooker the instuctor recommends and uses herself. It has both gauges and her steam gauge is 2#'s off. Proper pressure is achieved when the weighted gauge 'spits' one to four times per minute.

http://www.amazon.com/All-American-921-2-Quart-Pressure/dp/B00004S88Z/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1338477007&sr=1-1

- do not buy a canner that requires a rubber seal. They wear out and by the time you replace them a few times, you could have bought a better cooker without the gasket.

This message was edited May 31, 2012 8:18 AM

Mary_McP!

Thank you sooooooooooooooooooooo very much for the feedback. Glad to know I bought the RIGHT stuff!!!!

I may need to call you, soon as I get enough veggies (and fruits) to can!

Working on getting a new upright freezer to store the other veggies from my fall/wtr projected harvest! Last season, I must've grown about 21 cabbages, and kept ONE for myself! I maxed out the freezer space on all the Arcadia Broccoli I put up!

If you love broccoli, grow Arcadia!!!

Linda

P.S. I left a couple broccoli stems in the buckets, and checked Saturday. Well, there's broccoli on the way, almost 9 months later!

My mother used to can.

I remember my dad having to scrape food off the ceiling (more than once) because the thingy on the top of the canner had blown off!

Canners are MUCH safer now ^_^

Then there were the times she let it run dry and we had to open all the doors an windows to let out the smoke!

Oh, my goodness...

I'm not surprised to find everyone canning :0) Been stuck in the kitchen all week myself. Getting hard to manage the garden and canning at the same time. I do so enjoy watching my canning cabinet fill up though...I feel like a squirrel.

I had my first armenian cucumber..WOW..it really does taste just like a cucumber. I had my doubts.lol

I'm infested with squash bugs, and I do mean INFESTED! I don't where they are coming from this year. I've pulled up half the squash. The other half I'm not sure if I should pull out or not. Part of me thinks if I pull those, the bugs will move to my melons, etc.

My pet cow jumped over the garden fence and destroyed nearly half the corn. Kind of a bummer, but she could have caused far more damage then she did, so I'm grateful. Dh say's he's going to replace the corn with fresh beef, if she does it again.lol He is joking, he wouldn't dare.

Oh, I just planted Armenian cucumbers for the first time this year and am really looking forward to tasting them.

Okra is cranking up nicely. Just put two quarts in the freezer.

Mary, don't be surprised if you receive negative comments about the steam canner. This is my second season using one. I have nothing but good things to say about it. Mine is aluminum and the instructions say to put some vinegar in the water to prevent for something I forget why now. I did and occasionally last year I would let the canner set with water in it for a couple days at a time. Well this year it had a pin hole in the bottom. It was an easy fix with JB Weld. I no longer use the vinegar and I never leave water standing in it.

When I bought my canner I didn't want to spend a lot so I went with the Back To Basic brand. I like the low profile water pan. It makes it easy to lift and move aside quart jars without getting in the way of the microwave that hangs over my stove.

There is a stainless steel Victorio steamer/water bath unit with a deep water pan. This will not work for me without my having to move the canner from under the microwave to work the jars. I don't have the room for that kind of process.

Lynea, isn't she supposed to be grass-fed?? LOL

Rain-soaked green beans

Mushrooms growing near the maters.

Today's harvest basket.

t-rock - the vinegar is to prevent the aluminum from turning black. It's just a stain, like many of my favorite t-shirts! Still clean though.

Stainless is only required if you are actually *cooking* in the pot. We are not, we're placing jars in a water bath so no food is being compromised by the aluminum cookware.....but I'll go dig up that flame retardant suit anyway. Haven't needed it in a while. ;-)

I can't get either the okra or the armenian cukes to germinate....the buggers.

Stephanie, send some of that rain my way. There are no ready to ripen tomatoes on my vines at this time. :)

Does anyone do the refridgerator pickles?

I'm starting to pick Snap peas! YUM!

Yumm is right. Sugar snaps are my favorites. Mine usually get eaten before they get into the house.

LOL! Mine too! Although these are in the freezer for now. More on the way though!

Can I just toss my green beans in the freezer after I wash and snap them? I'm being overrun and don't have canning supplies.

My guess is yes! I would! I WILL with my pole beans.

I used to freeze my home grown green beans all the time. Blanch them first and then freeze.

When I blanche them, it makes the beans limp. I like 'em crisp.

blanch and shock. put them in the boiling water for like 45 sec. then drop them directly into some ice water for a minute. keeps the crisp and the bright green

-Vaughn

I was going to say really? I always blanched mine and it never made them limp. The ice water is a good tip.

A cheap way to freeze different veggies is with a vacuum sealer. With the roll of bag material you can make bags to the size you need. They work GREAT for meat also. We buy the big pork loins from Sam's along with the 10# tubes of hamburger meat and divide them into separate packages.

Blanching the veggies, then partially freezing them before sealing the bags keeps the shape of the vegetable. We've had real good luck using them for veggies, with better than a year freezer life for most.

BTW, the cold ice water shock is the second part of the process, as it's necessary to stop the cooking process. If you don't shock it everything will tun to mush. Made Cabbage Rolls last week and the wife asked why did I put the leaves in the ice water. Actually could have let the cabbage cook about another 30 seconds, but it's easier to let them cook a little more after stuffing than to reverse the process, as you can't "uncook" them.

This message was edited May 31, 2012 9:29 PM

The ice bath is the trick to crisp blanched veggies. Steph, do you do that step? If not, try it next time and let us know if the results are better.

Mary -

Yes we blanched and then did the ice bath. Maybe I left them in the boiling water too long.

It only takes a hot second in the boiling water. By the time you mash 'em down under the water, it's time to start fishing them out!

I have 3 tomato plants growing. One is a Sioux, loaded with tomatoes that are just now turning. The Sioux variety cranked out tomatoes all last summer, through the drought, whether I watered or not. Which is why I'm growing them again this season...

But, that's not my report.

My report is based on the beauty of growing over 200 tomato seedlings, just because I love growing seeds inside in the cool, more than I like growing tomatoes outside in the heat. And, so, I gave all of the seedlings away to friends and co-workers, and kept the 3 I'm growing.

But, that's not my report...

My friends and co-workers have decided to return the tomato seedlings. Look what they morphed into...^^_^^

P.S. That's a quarter sitting on that tomato...

Last year, someone suggested that I was exhibiting "sharecropping" at its best!

Very nice!

Thank You, Texasrockgarden!
Nothing makes me prouder than to see my neighbors' gardens growing my seedlings!

Here're the ones growing across the street from me.