Wandering Wednesday

Enter if you dare!

 It's been a really cool summer here. We've yet to reach triple digits around here which is pretty unusual for the end of July.  I'll take it though.  It's sprinkling now and the weather man's calling for rain up to two inches this afternoon and evening with temps in the 70's today.  Crazy!!

I don't think the tomatoes know exactly how to act. I haven't been covered up in them like I was last year. I noticed yesterday there were some more blooms set.  I haven't been able to put up any salsa yet, I keep waiting till I have enough tomatoes to make a big run of it.  I just want to be able to put up 12-14 quarts for the year. 

Random Lilly Picture

 I've been making up some Ro-tel with the tomatoes that are getting overly ripe. I really don't like doing them that way because there's really no consistency of taste between the batches. It's just that I'm not getting enough ripe to do a big batch yet either. It looks like after the rain clears out and it dries up a little I should have enough for them. One thing I do have plenty of is peppers.

Speaking of peppers I went out yesterday and picked almost a five gallon bucket full of jalapeno's, Serrano's and hot banana peppers.  There are enough still left out there in the garden to fill another one. I've got a couple of trays of each out in the dehydrator right now.

Another random flower picture for Sandy

It seems every year we get a flood of peppers.  Of course that's because I've been buying the plants rather than starting them from seed.  I've had very little luck starting peppers.  And when I buy the plants they come in 4 packs.  Which means we end up with enough peppers to feed the incoming masses of illegals flooding across the Texas border.

 I've been thinking of talking to the Mexican restaurant in town to see if they might be interested in buying some Serrano's and jalapeno's.  I've got two jalapenos plants that are putting out these gorgeous large peppers just right for stuffing. 

We need  to do some grilling soon so I can toss some stuffed ones on the pit.  Yummy!! Which reminds me...  I need to start saving the ones that are turning red so I can make some more chipotle peppers.  Those really turned out well last year and I've only got a tiny bit left from last year.

I didn't plant nearly as many onions as I did last year and now I'm regretting it. We use tons of onions around here and I find that I've not planted even 1/4 of the onions we need for the coming year.  Why?  I just wasn't paying enough attention to the time of year it was when I was able to find the onion sets. Before I knew it they had all disappeared from the feed stores and even The Evil Empire.  I'm hoping they'll show back up again for a fall planting but I don't really think they will. 

  I don't know why but folks around here just don't really plant fall gardens.  Weird, really. But then who am I to talk.  We haven't planted a fall garden since we moved here. It is hard to drag myself out in the sweltering heat we usually have to plant anything.

This year just might be different!  I planted another row (100 ft) of purple hull peas yesterday and have planted more lettuce and some spinach. 

 

 Once all the vine type plants keel over I'll work on getting some things in those areas.  It shouldn't be much longer as most are starting to die back already.

The corn did ok this year. It just takes so much room for so little corn.  We aren't big corn eaters around here anymore because most all corn these days is GMO.  I'll leave that discussion for another day. 

My dad sent this seed to us and has been growing it for a long long time.  It's wonderfully sweet and juicy.  We put up 8 bags (2 cups each) of cut corn and about 30 whole ears in the freezer.  We also found out that the rabbits LOVE corn.  I wish I'd have taken pictures of them devouring it.

OK that's enough to bore you to death for now.  I sit down sometimes and can't think of a thing in the world to write about.  Then once I start I can't seem to stop!  I've got some cucumber chips drying and they should be about done.  I've not done them before and am curious to try them. If they turn out good I'll let ya'll know!