 |
| Today's Harvest minus the whole bag of broccoli |
I've got another question for you guys. See the difference in color of some of the squash. Some of it looks almost orange. They are hard to cut and don't seem to cook well at all. Why do you think that is?
Everything in the garden seems to be behind by at least a couple of weeks, maybe even more with some things. I haven't canned my first jar of beans or peas yet. Not a single one. That in itself is pretty unbelievable for this time of year. I know it won't be long though. There are all sorts of blooms on everything.
My dill, cilantro, basil and other herbs either didn't come up at all and that that did make an effort went to seed before it ever even got big. Some of these are required to be partners in different recipes. *sigh* I'll figure something out though.
I need to find a decent dill pickle recipe this year. Even with the squash bugs on full throttle the cucumber plants are really doing well. Now the question is what the heck will I do with all these cucumbers. There are only so many things I can do with it. I've got several different things I can do with the fresh cucumbers and we are having cucumbers at most every meal.
The broccoli has done well. We are eating it at least once a day and adding it to salads. We just love broccoli! It's starting to bolt however. Do I replant it for a fall garden or if I just leave them alone will they make goodies on their own?
Why is it that the tomatoes never get ready to eat until after the lettuce and other stuff has bolted? lol just one of those things that make you go hmmmm.....
I need to be replanting some lettuce but I'm wondering if it would do better to start in a few weeks, after the heat of summer is backing off.
I had finally got used to having a food processor in the house. It was a garage sale find and I really got my moneys worth for $4 One of those little things that you don't miss until you have had one and then when it dies you realize just how much work it did. *sigh* Just in time for summer too!
I'm still fighting the #$*% squash bug war. It seems to be working though as long as I'm participating in it's destruction.
Speaking of destruction I've been weeding like crazy. In fact I've done so much that I seem to have pulled a muscle or something in my neck. I can hardly move it and if my buddies in the preppe'rs chat room could see it I'm sure they would have a super fun time giving me grief!
Well, like I said to begin with things are
The orange one on the left is too mature. Pick em when they are little and tender.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is that even the little ones are like that. There are three of them in that picture that are "babies"
ReplyDeleteI had as one weird squash like that last year. Mostly seeds, and tough, we pulled the plant.
ReplyDeletelongtime,
DeleteI actually have these little guys come in all the time. I've had them in the past as well. Different seed, different ground and even different climate.
I'm getting ready to pull the plants here too but I want to make sure that they give 100% mutation first. All this time and I've never actually tracked their progress.
Cross polination? Alien squash being secretly planted at night?
ReplyDeleteAlien squash? Like "Show me your papers" aliens? Oh wait... nevermind you must have been talking about the other aliens. "Papers? we don't need no stinking papers"
DeleteNo way I can see me staying up all night to see if it was aliens, although it would probably take them no time at all to learn the language! I carumba!!!
I don't know what causes some of the smaller squash to get hard like that, but we usually have a few each year. We haven't picked any green beans (they're pole beans) or purple hull peas yet either. Both are blooming, like yours, so it shouldn't be long.
ReplyDeleteI tried drying my cilantro this year, like you recommended. I hope it goes well in our salsa so I don't have to go buy any this year. We have a million weeds here if you get bored and run out of things to do.....
Fern
Fern,
DeleteAm I missing something with the beans? So pole beans are green beans? OK I can do that. So what do you call bush beans? Are they green beans as well and called bush beans? See I can always find something I don't quite understand. It IS good to know that they aren't slower than your's. I've looked back over the past couple of Junes here and we were definitely canning bean by now.
With drying the cilantro it's pretty much like many other herbs, use liberally in salsa. I wouldn't want to steer you wrong so you might want to just try it on a small batch. Fresh is ever so much better though this does work. My cilantro was a bust this year. I was hoping to have some to at least freeze in ice cube trays like you can do with basil. I never got a chance to even get that far this year.
Oh and you can keep your weeds this year too..... I'm getting ready to charge mine with whip-lash!
Green beans come in bush beans and pole beans, you just get to pick which ones you like best. Bush beans will generally produce before pole beans, but pole beans usually bear longer in the season, so in the long run produce more. I grow pole beans because my back cannot take the bending to pick a row of bush beans. That, and you can grow a lot more pole beans in a smaller space since they grow up and don't require as much ground space.
DeleteI may be wrong, but it seems to me like everything is a little later this year. I'll let you know how the cilantro works out. That's too bad about the weeds....... (-:
Fern
Fern,
DeleteThanks for the bean clarification. I almost thought I'd missed something (again). I like the pole beans better myself but it took Mars so long to get the lines tight for me I kinda padded with a few bush beans. My back will win out every time. Pole beans are just SO much easier to do..
Sorry to have to "leaf" you with your weeds! hehehe
Sci
I have some bright orange ones. Haven't eaten them yet. They are bumpy where the other ones are smooth. I'm about to raise the white flag to the squash bugs. They have won this battle once again. I probably won't plant squash again for a couple of years :/
ReplyDeleteMy green beans have come on but my free range bunny eats them up every evening. I have enough for supper tonight so I'm happy with that
Kelly
ReplyDeleteI want to thank you for your most smile worthy comment. I've still got a grin! You and that bunny are funny. Sorry to hear about your losses on the field of battle. I hope that the loss and causality list were small. I suppose I will have to delve farther into your blog to understand this free range bunny you speak of.
Sci
I fully understand when you feel like all your work was an exercise in futility. I found an abundance of green beans at a "U pick" farm for free and loaded up. Canned them. Dated them. Stored them. Then heard rifle shots in the garage as every lid blew. And I still don't know why! Never happened before.
ReplyDeletel.j.
DeleteTHAT SUCKS! I have no other words that mean anything at all. THAT just totallly SUCKS. Hey, look at it this way.... At least they were in the garage!
Sci
Thanks for mentioning the rainbow at the end of the thunderstorm. It would have been messy using the garden hose inside the house. lol At least I now have a very clean garage.....that smells of green beans.
DeleteI'm hoping there was bacon in those green beans. If you are going with the green bean smell, bacon can only enhance it. (And ward off the Islamic Al ciada as an added benefit) Win Win.
DeleteThe problem with the squash may be GMO. I have had a few do that in the past few years and wondered why they would mature so small. I have read that most of our corn and squash and a few other type of seeds are GMO. It doesn't say anything on the package so I have no idea how you would know. I assume the free range bunny is a wild one that visits. We have some that regularly visit our garden. I try to plant enough to have for us and the wild animals as well but last year deer totally destroyed my okra. Hope they will leave it alone this year. So far they have found my sunflowers and even ate on my cucumber vines. Pat
ReplyDeleteHello Pat,
DeleteYou may be onto something with the GMO's but I have tried hard to make sure that we aren't growing them. Most of the seed I get are from Baker Creek (love that place!) what I've saved and what has been given to me by folks who feel the same way.
We haven't had wild bunny problems since we've been here. BB the dog pretty much chases anything that moves at night. She barks and runs around the place all night. I know that there are deer and rabbits here but haven't had much of a problem with them because of her.
Good luck on your okra. Ours is sort of stunted right now because of the cooler temps. They like it HOT!
Thanks for stopping by and for the info,
Sci
Look for a recipe for Kosher Dills. I make those and like them the best of the Dills pickles. Yes we are way cooler then you :). But the valley below us sure isn't. I went to town last week for feed and it was 76 de.g at home and 95 deg. down there.
ReplyDeleteSara,
DeleteThanks for the heads up on looking at kosher dills this year. I'd hate to be in your hotspot!
Good to see you!
Sci
Over hard squash that turn brighter colors can result from too much nitrogen getting into the roots usually because of too much water or hard rains. Another good sign of this happening are partial wilting of some plants that are out growing their root system or carrying too much nitrogen from mulching. I see it all the time early in the year like right now. The squash especially will react to over fertilizing by either putting the excess into the fruit and get bright, hard squash or exploding all over the place and then suffering from afternoon wilt.
ReplyDeleteTomatoes and Tobacco plants also cotton and Okra (yuck) need heat to get going. Even when they get heat during the day night time temps down too far into the 60's can keep em growing slowly. We have had some very warm days but still, at least in Missouri, are blessed with some cooler nights still and my Tomatoes and Tobacco and Peppers are not growing or maturing as fast as they usually do. As you said things are running about 2 to 3 weeks behind normal schedule here.
It's been a really strange growing year so far here in the Midwest. Not enough rain then too much, cool then hot, some plants seem to really love it while others seem to be just unsure what to do yet. I am also seeing pests I never had to deal with before and other afflictions like fire blight in my Pear trees that have never shown it before.
PP Thanks! Always the voice of reason. Too much rain/ water is definitely a problem this year. It would also explain some of the afternoon wilting we are seeing.
DeleteGardens this year are pretty much all over the place what with the weather everyone has been having..
Sorry to hear about the fire blight. That sucks.
Sci
Normal genetic variation. Mendel saw the same thing with sweet pea flowers. True bred peas suddenly throwing out variants completely variant from generations before.
ReplyDeleteI would tend to think that the hard/tough squash, it you were to select it for seed and do recursive selection over the course of several years, you would end up with what is effectively a gourd.
I would wager that you are trying out non-hybrid, organic seeds. A good thing granted. I support you completely, but when you do this, you radically increase your probability of genetic outliers.
Why do you think commercial farmers love hybrid and engineered seed so much? This doesn't happen.
Keep going the way you are going, you are doing the right thing. This is just a part of life's rich pageant.
Degringolade,
DeleteYou might be on to something here. Unfortunately I haven't been keeping good records but I'm starting to see the need. Hey, at least the chickens will eat them so all is not lost with them. But add that to the #@%* squash bugs and overall it's really sort of a daunting task.
I love your last line! It gives me something to ponder while killing squash bugs!
Sci
The rain has really taken a toll here in MN with the farmers. Soy beans can be replanted, but corn is lost I think our wheat is safe. We are 1 1 1/2" short of breaking the record. Guess what yep, rain the next 2 days or so. Wish we could send some water out west to help them.
ReplyDeleteDang Rob,
DeleteSorry to hear that. You guys get enough crappy weather as it is. We as a nation are already in sort of a "food drought" so the timing of these storms makes it doubly bad.
Take care up there,
Sci
My favorite recipe for dill pickles is called "Pop's Dill Pickles." If my link doesn't work, Google it and it'll be on the allrecipes's site. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pops-dill-pickles/ I make it with and without the garlic and dill in the jars. It's wonderful!!
ReplyDeleteWoo Hoo Cristy!
DeleteThis is exactly what I was looking for!! Thank you SO MUCH!! I haven't tried it yet but man oh man I'm gonna! I'm already swimming in cucumbers so the timing is perfect.
I love ice box pickles but I sure don't have room for more than a jar or two of them.
Thanks again!!! (Don't you just LOVE Allrecipes?)
Sci
The squash are too big.Weather stunted from too much rain and cool nights.As for the big cucumbers look up apple rings recipe. If you like red hots you will love them.I slice mine and cut the middle out to make the ring. It takes three days to make them and worth every minute of it! Kosher dills are the best pickle I believe. But I like sweet pickle relish for my tuna and potato salad.Its also a way to use sweet bell peppers if you have too many.Just chop a few in to the mix for the color.Mom used to make a dill relish with the over sized cukes to eat with beans, we all loved it! Ball has some good recipes on line too if you need them.I don't use as much salt though, seems too salty to me.Good luck with our weird weather! BTW the rabbit Kelly is talking about is a tame rabbit she has running loose!! LOL
ReplyDeletezz,
DeleteI love a good sweet relish! This sounds like a good recipe to have some fun with. I'm still searching for a Kosher Dill but I'm definitely going to try the one Cristy pointed me to. I've got enough cukes to try all sorts of recipes.
LOL I thought Kelle was talking about a tame rabbit but still wasn't sure. How cool would that be! Except the getting into the garden part but....
Sci
Get a good foraging book to find out what weeds are edible,then harvest those to. Mabye that will help make up for your losses. Linda Runyon has some good books that even have recipes.
ReplyDeleteAnon,
DeleteOne of the weeds that grows everywhere here (including the garden) IS edible. If/when shtf you just watch and see them shrivel up and disappear.
Thanks for the author suggestion. I'll have to check her out. (note to self- check library)
Sci
Sci,
ReplyDeleteHey Girlie,
Darn squash bugs!!!!!
This may answer your question regarding the color differences and the tough squash. Check out #2 on this site. http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/vegetables/squash.html
I just planted some of your Cherokee Trail of Tear seeds and they've broke through the soil. I'm going to setup a trellis for them this weekend. We just finished pulling some vines out from my other beans, and I will work the soil and plant some Lincoln peas. This evening, I pulled some more carrots, beets,potatoes, and parsnips and roasted them in the oven to go with dinner. I have to say, it was mighty tasty.
Yes, wait a couple of weeks before planting your lettuce because of the heat. This way you'll have tomatoes at the same time your lettuce is ready for harvest.
Have you tried making cucumber water with your cucumbers? It's actually pretty good, I add cucumbers, mint, and ginger to my water and let it set in the refrigerator overnight. Oh talk about good. Kymber has a good recipe for cucumber water too.
My mom used to make a cucumber salad with cucumbers (of course), fresh parsley, onions, sugar (to taste to cut the strong vinegar), vinegar and let is sit for a couple of hours before eating. It's a German salad and it's pretty good.
I need to get moving and start some laundry, so I'll catch you later.
Sending hugs to you and Mars.
Sandy
Sandy,
DeleteIs it already time to be planting lincoln peas? I've decided what with all the weird weather we've had this year I might as well try to do a fall garden this year. Of course that being said, here it is the end of June and I've not had the first green bean or tomato either for that matter.
Thanks for that link. Those orange colored squash will now be picked off and discarded for chicken feed or compost. Thing is I know that they need to be picked early. (all of them) but it doesn't matter what size they are. I even have tiny little orange squash. So I know it's not staying on the vine long enough to be over-ripe. Ahhh the many exquisite sides to a squash.
I'll definitely have to try the cucumber water. I go through gallons of tea around here. It gets kind of old after awhile. Oh wow!! I just realized that my hibiscus hasn't bloomed yet. Wow is it ever late this year! Oh look..... squirrel!!!! *snork*
Those beans love to climb for sure. If you want to see something neat (well I think so anyway) once they make their pods check out the inside in one week cycles. The bean turns from white to the darkest of purples. I am fascinated with them. The shell will also start turning too but it streaks red. Oh and did I mention how freakin' good they are? hehe
I'll see if I can whip up some of your mama's cucumber salad. It sure sounds good.
You take care and make sure BDM does too! (scritches for beaner the weiner)
Sci
SciGurl - sunstroked but got most of the stuff out in the actual garden from the greenhouse. pepper plants took a real hit from the aphids. here's the link to the cucumber water - it's to die for - i hope that you and Mars enjoy it:
Deletehttp://framboisemanor.blogspot.ca/2012/06/nice-greyish-kind-of-day.html
gotta go feed the man and can't even see clearly. a little too much sun a little too early for around here but i am not complaining. i looove the sun! much love to you and Mars! your friend,
kymber
kymber,
DeleteYou of all people should know when to say when, especially when we know your favorite way of dressing in the garden! You could probably use some of that cucumber water yourself gurl. I need to pick up a couple of items but I'm looking forward to trying it. It sure looks and sounds good!!!
Sending Okie love to you two,
Sci
One year we had cucumbers coming out our ears, and I made more pickles than we will eat in the next 2 years. one good use I found for them was I put them in homemade spaghetti sauce when I canned it. By the time I opened it up the cucumbers had absorbed the flavor from the maters, bell peppers, garlic & such and you couldn't even tell that it was cucumbers in there. So it wound up being a nice stretcher for our pasta sauce for us. hope that helps with some of your excess. God Bless...
ReplyDeleteAnony,
ReplyDeleteThis may be MY year for cucumbers. You know you have too many cucumbers though when you even consider putting them in spaghetti! LOL!!! It's very interesting though that it blended right into the flavors of the sauce. Hmmmm..... I've heard of putting zucchini into sauces though and I've put carrots in mine so I'm wondering why the heck wouldn't it work.
Thanks for the tip,
Sci
I like to cut up fresh cucumbers, put salt and pepper on them, and eat them chilled. Alas we can rarely get fresh cucumbers here unless someone is selling them by the roadside.
ReplyDeleteHarry,
ReplyDeleteHow in the world do you stand it? Loving fresh veggies and being cucumberless (is that a word?) On top of that. I promise that if we lived closer I would gift you with enough cucumbers to eat cold with salt and pepper every single day I had them! I just went out and picked another 6-7 lbs this morning!
Thank you sir for stopping by.
Sci