Vegetable Gardening

[papaver]

Next year I'll build a new bed for Brussels sprouts, that's a great idea! They are so funny-looking in the garden. But now I don't have enough room, sadly.

Brussels sprouts are at their best after a couple of nights of frost. Yum!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I finally planted my winter garden today! I planted one whole bed of mustard greens, two types of collards (Vates and Georgia) to see which does better, one whole bed of kale, and finally planted an herb garden with flat and curly parsley, cilantro, two types of thyme, garlic chives, and Greek oregano. Oh, and a few Swiss chards, too. This is in addition to the leeks that I planted a few months ago and that are doing quite well. I still need to plant some lettuce in the bed that will also be under a cold frame come the cold weather.

Wow, you have such a LONG season down there! Just planting your winter garden now?? I'm envious!

[deeaimond]

When the stem looks dry.

Any that you plan to keep over the winter (longer than a couple of weeks after harvest), after you pick them, wash them and let them cure in the sun for a couple of days.

You may want to use a lopper or even a little saw to harvest any squash you won't be using right away, so as not to risk damaging the shell of the fruit. Those stems are very hard when the squash is ripe!

I have a couple that are probably ready right now... eat some next week probably. Yummmmmm.

oooh... there are three yellow flowers on my plant now. Well, in general tomatoes do not survive our wet humid tropical climate so I'm really stumped for advice around here. However, its in a pot and so i can control the water etc.

which reminds me, Lisa, it gets plenty of light, the pictures were taken at night in the dark... is that why you thought they needed more sunshine?

It's right in the middle of my corridor and mine is the block nearest the grocery store, so.... the entire neighbourhood walks past. so i think it won't survive the two legged pest...people are just not very nice.

I'll google for a picture of a tomato cage and i think i need to build one soon...
then maybe get my dad to add on a full size cage temporarily. They at least need to fight a wire cage if they wanna damage my poor tomatoes...

thanks for the helpful advice!!

[tulip]

Wow, you have such a LONG season down there! Just planting your winter garden now?? I'm envious!

I did it about a month later than is ideal, but it'll still work. I bought plants; next year I will be more organized and do everything from seed . I'll plant lettuce this week in the cold frame and I expect to have lettuce all winter long (under glass). I did plant my leeks from seed way back in the spring and coaxed them along in pots in the shade all summer and then planted them in the garden in August. They are growing very well.

I still have tomatoes on the vine and lots of basil, but the zucchini and cucumbers succumbed to wilt and my watermelons succumbed to neglect. I dug up the remainder of my potatoes for the herbs, and had a wonderful tortilla espanola with those potatoes for dinner last night. I love eating what I grow!

[papaver]

No land to have a veggie garden? That's no excuse!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSFJPqzJp8M

[tulip]

That is wonderful, Papaver! Where do you find these things??

[papaver]

That is wonderful, Papaver! Where do you find these things??

http://zestyperspective.blogspot.com/

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

My husband and I spent the day doing apple sauce...it pretty much took the whole day at a pleasant leisurely pace.
After breakfast, we bought a bushel of Paula Red apples at a local orchard that uses very little spraying compared to others. Cost more, of course.

Anyway, DH peeled the apples on our old peeling/coring countertop crank machine. then he made pot after pot of apple sauce and I filled the pint jars and processed batch after batch of them in pint canning jars.
In the the end we wound up with 35 pints of wonderful chunky apple sauce- it didn't even need any sugar at all, it was so good...just a touch of cinnamon.

They'll be going down in the basement next to my 16 pints of sweet pickles.
Later this week I want to make another 20 pints or so of organic pickled beets....I adore pickled beets.

It was fun working together with my husband today side by side on our little apple sauce 'assembly line'....him churning out the sauce, me canning it. A great way to spend a rainy autumn Sunday.

[Grog]

Hey Lisa, can you smell the apple butter simmering in my kitchen? I'll unplug it at 5 a.m. tomorrow before going to work. I'm following your instructions.

[OakLeaf]

Waaaaah, I'm so jealous. A late frost took out all my apples. The flowers had even been pollinated - I saw plenty of bees - but I guess it was just too soon for frost-resistant fruits to have formed. All my neighbors have plenty of apples, but my tree is a later variety plus my hilltop is cooler.

I still have two quarts of last year's applesauce (one wild raspberry, one cinnamon) and I'm hoarding them, now.

[NoNo]

I made applesauce on Friday Didn't have quite the output you did, though. After taking a few apples out to make a crisp, the rest of the bushel I bought only made 7 pints. Perhaps I'll buy another bushel and make another batch. My aunt's boyfriend said he made green tomato pickles. I've never heard of them, but he says they're delicious, so I'm looking forward to trying them.

[tulip]

Okay, I am SO going to do some canning this fall. What's a good one to start with? I haven't canned since I was a kid, helping my stepmother. We did it the big, hot, messy way full bath way. Now I understand that steam canning is easier, but not good for acidic things like pickles.

I don't have enough of my own home-grown produce to can, but I can certainly buy a bushel of apples.

I do have a slow cooker (for apple butter?). Thoughts and resources are appreciated!

[Jolt]

Okay, I am SO going to do some canning this fall. What's a good one to start with? I haven't canned since I was a kid, helping my stepmother. We did it the big, hot, messy way full bath way. Now I understand that steam canning is easier, but not good for acidic things like pickles.

I don't have enough of my own home-grown produce to can, but I can certainly buy a bushel of apples.

I do have a slow cooker (for apple butter?). Thoughts and resources are appreciated!

I would suggest you get the Ball Blue Book of canning/preserving--it has lots of recipes as well as general instructions for canning. For acidic foods (pickles, fruits etc.) you do need to use the boiling water bath. Making a mess is unavoidable when you're canning .

[GLC1968]

Waaaaah, I'm so jealous. A late frost took out all my apples. The flowers had even been pollinated - I saw plenty of bees - but I guess it was just too soon for frost-resistant fruits to have formed. All my neighbors have plenty of apples, but my tree is a later variety plus my hilltop is cooler.

This hurt us, too. The only apples we got this year was from the one early tree and one branch on a later tree (a branch that is somewhat protected by it's odd location!). Such a huge difference from last year! No applesauce for us this year.... Our pear harvest was minuscule as well - only the earliest ones made it!

We are making due with masses of blackberries, grapes and pumpkins!

Okay, I am SO going to do some canning this fall. What's a good one to start with? I haven't canned since I was a kid, helping my stepmother. We did it the big, hot, messy way full bath way. Now I understand that steam canning is easier, but not good for acidic things like pickles.

I don't have enough of my own home-grown produce to can, but I can certainly buy a bushel of apples.

I do have a slow cooker (for apple butter?). Thoughts and resources are appreciated!

Tulip - go here: http://pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm

Sooo much good information and inspiration for canning!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I made applesauce on Friday Didn't have quite the output you did, though. After taking a few apples out to make a crisp, the rest of the bushel I bought only made 7 pints. Perhaps I'll buy another bushel and make another batch.

7 pints? Surely you must be thinking of peck baskets, not bushels? A bushel is a huge boxful, and our bushel of apples made 35 pints of apple sauce.

Here is our apple sauce from yesterday: