Vegetable Gardening

[sunlightbrite]

OMG that looks yummy! I'm so jealous! I have to learn how to make applesauce one day. We can go through applesauce like crazy

[NoNo]

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:

That must be it. Mmmmm....35 pints. Of course, I'd need to buy more jars for that

[smilingcat]

Been meaning to post a pic. this is about a week ago.

The little green peppers in the bowl are Japanese pepper "shishito".
The dark green ball is an 8-ball zucchini.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Smilingcat, what a pretty photo!


I rigged up a plastic A-shaped tarp thingy over my long lettuce bed to ward off the first few frosts. Hopefully the winds won't make a mess of it. Crossing fingers.

Going to make organic pickled beets tomorrow, and lots of them. I bought about 55 organic beets from our local farming family.

[shootingstar]

What flavour are those Japanese peppers, smilingcat?

Bleeckerstgirl, guess you try to make the precious applesauce "stretch" in terms of lasting a long time? My partner buys a dz. apples from market and makes applesauce..he's the applesauce freak. Whatever he makes lasts only a wk. or less. For his daily breakfast yogurt...even on top of steamed brusssel sprouts (a traditional German way of serving sprouts).

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Bleeckerstgirl, guess you try to make the precious applesauce "stretch" in terms of lasting a long time? My partner buys a dz. apples from market and makes applesauce..he's the applesauce freak. Whatever he makes lasts only a wk. or less. For his daily breakfast yogurt...even on top of steamed brusssel sprouts (a traditional German way of serving sprouts).

Yes, fresh apple sauce is great! (like your partner makes)

We are canning many jars so we can both give as Xmas presents and also have some last throughout the winter. Even canned in jars, our chunky apple sauce made from orchard fresh local apples is so much better than what we buy canned from the supermarket the rest of the year. The apples are best in the Fall, for sure.
Two years ago we made several gallons as well, plus apple butter...but stored it in the freezer in pint containers instead of canning it. Since we don't have a dedicated storage freezer, it took up way too much of the freezer in our kitchen refrigerator. The jars are better for us- we can just stack them on shelves in the basement. They get used up within a few months.

[shootingstar]

Yes, fresh apple sauce is great! (like your partner makes)

We are canning many jars so we can both give as Xmas presents and also have some last throughout the winter. Even canned in jars, our chunky apple sauce made from orchard fresh local apples is so much better than what we buy canned from the supermarket the rest of the year. The apples are best in the Fall, for sure.
Two years ago we made several gallons as well, plus apple butter....

Mmmmm apple butter. And healthy stuff ..at least the stuff I buy from Mennonite area in Kitchener-Waterloo area (100 kms. west of Toronto) since it has no sugar. I actually find apple butter a rare commodity in stores here on the Northwest coast.

Xmas presents sounds like an excellent idea.
It wouldn't work here at home...he eats it up. He decided to make his own after calculating cost of unsweetened applesauce from the grocery store. He piles in grated ginger root, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamon and anise, sometimes all or some of these spices. It works and does taste great. Does it regular that it's down to a fine proficient art...seems to chop up the apples and have this large pot of hot spicy applesauce done under 1 hr.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I pulled my first young carrots from the new garden today, along with some turnips, parsley, and scallions. They all went into a big crockpot of vegetable soup for tonight. Added to the chicken broth were some local friends' broccoli, kale, tomatoes, celery, and red cabbage. Some store bought onions , red pepper, and garlic too. I ground some black pepper to top it off and started it simmering....

[smilingcat]

Wow.. Carrots look delicious. And the scallions look really good.

Soup.... yumm... My partner and I were commenting the other night that our food definitely tastes better. Only produce we buy right now are avocados, onions, potato and occasional bunch of scallions. And oh stone fruit.


We think we have a racoon problem in our garden one of our flowers were dug up and newly planted tulip bulbs were scattererd every where. Couldn't make out the foot print but the animal is too heavy to be a cat and too small for a big dog and too heavy for a small dog.

My neighbor found two full sized racoons in his attic the other day. AND WE LIVE IN A CITY!! We've been told that the racoons live in the storm drain during the non-rain season.
Time to borrow a racoon trap. I really don't want to deal with racoons. They are vicious. I also don't want them to mess with our dogs. Dogs wouldn't have a chance.

smilingcat

[tulip]

I finally got around to planting my garlic today! Something's been munching on the kale, and I found out what it was...green worms that are the exact same color as the kale. I picked them all off, and I'll keep doing that every time I water. I think my collards and kale and mustard would benefit from some fish emulsion, so I'm off to Southern States tomorrow to pick some up. That always makes plants happy.

I mulched the leeks and watered everything. We have not had a frost yet, and I've got a few more weeks before I'll put the scavenged storm windows on the raised bed boxes at night. I still have tomatoes ripening, although at a slower pace than before. I'll also have a big load of basil for pesto. I'll harvest that before the frost.

[OakLeaf]

Great carrots BSG! I've got some pretty nice ones this year too. Hope I remember the variety, so I can get some more seed next year.

Smilingcat, bummer about your flowers I don't know if raccoons dig randomly like that though, they're usually after something (usually a beehive). Someone's been tearing the heck out of our lawn in the last week or so - I'm pretty sure it's skunks. They do that, hunting worms and grubs.

Raccoons sure can be destructive when they find something they want, though. But the good part of them being smart is that, once you've found something effective to deter them, they'll learn and quit trying. Once I had an electric fence on my garden, they stopped trying, even when I let the grass grow up too high and ground the fence out. Same thing with my bird feeder pole - I greased it for about two weeks and the 'coons don't even try to climb it any more.

I've still got some basil that survived the frost since it was so well sheltered by weeds. Maybe make another batch of pesto, maybe we have enough already - not sure.

[GLC1968]

I finally got around to planting my garlic today! Something's been munching on the kale, and I found out what it was...green worms that are the exact same color as the kale. I picked them all off, and I'll keep doing that every time I water. I think my collards and kale and mustard would benefit from some fish emulsion, so I'm off to Southern States tomorrow to pick some up. That always makes plants happy.

I mulched the leeks and watered everything. We have not had a frost yet, and I've got a few more weeks before I'll put the scavenged storm windows on the raised bed boxes at night. I still have tomatoes ripening, although at a slower pace than before. I'll also have a big load of basil for pesto. I'll harvest that before the frost.

Green worms - kill them now or they'll turn into cabbage moths and you'll never get rid of them!

If you blanch your kale, the worms fall off and die (and turn yellow so they are easy to see). I had to do that to quite a bit of ours before I dehydrated it. It's even worse when they get in the broccoli because they have lots of tiny little places to hide!

[Photoflygirl]

We harvested about 15 one gallon bags of basil leaves over the last week. We gave several bags away and froze the rest after pulsing with olive oil in the food processor. The temps are down into the high 30's this weekend, so the basil bush is finally dying out. We were in Italy for two weeks so no one picked the flowers off. I picked the rest of the tomatoes and squash from our garden. Have to forget about the lovely swiss chard and broccoli that are out in the bed the yellow jackets are underneath.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Have to forget about the lovely swiss chard and broccoli that are out in the bed the yellow jackets are underneath.

You might get lucky- swiss chard can supposedly withstand some light frosts, and by that time the yellow jackets may have gone into dormancy in the cold. Keep an eye on the situation, you may well get the chance to harvest your chard.

[deeaimond]

Hey Lisa, just saw those carrots, indeed beautiful.

So yeah my tomato plant has had loads of flowers but no fruit. I think its the lack of direct sunlight... but that i can't help. We only get direct sun on the plants for half the year. next time i will start growing in January so when the sun comes over it'll be ready.

but i still feel kinda sad coz its really tall and looks gorgeous.

D

oh and i will try to get some heirloom seeds when i'm in the US in dec. here we have like... one kind of tomato in the markets.. and thats about it. small, mealy and quite tasteless