What are you eating from your garden today?

Tomatoes, green beans and cucumbers.

I decided to go poking around under the blossoms of the potato plants on our nation's birthday.



and came away with a nice meal. Had a couple of split ones, not sure if it was the amount of rain we had in June(6.30") or what, but they were sure tasty



Hope everyone had a great 4th
Brad

zucchini chips, lemon cucumbers, tomatoes and still lettuce (fingers crossed it can survive our heat).

Lemon cucumbers! So far, zero lemon cucumbers. But, lucky to get 4 naturally pollinated pickling cucumbers. Even over ripe, big and yellow, they are mild. First success of any cucumber.

sanderson wrote:Lemon cucumbers!  So far, zero lemon cucumbers.  But, lucky to get 4 naturally pollinated pickling cucumbers.  Even over ripe, big and yellow, they are mild.  First success of any cucumber.

Congratulations on your success with cucumber! 

Yeah grats! I find them so sensitive to cucumber beetles and the bacterial wilt they carry that even if I get some initial success, it's only a rare plant that gets through and produces much of anything. Heck, most die within a couple of days from bacterial wilt or become so withered and stunted there's hardly a plant left to speak of. Good thing somebody is having some success with cukes, because they ain't easy!

Roasted beets!!!!!!!

My pickle bushes yielded their first harvest today - 4, to be exact.  Just enough to make one pint jar of refrigerator pickles.  20 minutes out of the garden they were pickles.  Talk about fresh.  The recipe recommends letting them sit in the fridge for a few weeks before serving... not gonna happen.  They might last, ohhh... 3 days, tops.

 

Kate, Did you give it a water bath or is this just a cold pickling?

Hey, Kate, please post your recipe for making those pickles.  I want to be ready when mine start growing.  They are just short vines here in Maine right now.

Yesterday we fired up the BBQ pit and we had some butternut squash and yard long beans from our yard and some speckled corn from our friends garden.  It was a wonderful group to side our chicken.  I'll try to make a blog about it and show yall all the good smoked veggies

I can't post pictures....not getting steps, I have only an iPad.

Pulled a few beets, a large kohlrabi and a few shelling peas.  The beets and kohlrabi are going to be cultured.

sanderson wrote:Kate,  Did you give it a water bath or is this just a cold pickling?

Cold pickling... I heat my jar(s), boil the brine mix, pack raw cucumbers into the jar, pour boiling brine into the jar until the cucumbers are submerged, put the lid on, and let them cool.  The brine boils in the jar for maybe 10-15 seconds, then starts cooling down.  After cooling at room temp for a spell, they get stored in the refrigerator.

This is really fast and easy if you only have a few and you know you're going to snarf them down as soon as they're ready to serve.

When I start getting larger amounts of cucumbers all at once and want to store them longer without refrigeration, then I'll use the water bath method to pickle them.

The plants are really starting to get going now, so I should be getting a ton of them in another week or two.

quiltbea wrote:Hey, Kate, please post your recipe for making those pickles.  I want to be ready when mine start growing.  They are just short vines here in Maine right now.

The only "recipe" I've used for the brine to make dill pickles so far is Ball's kosher dill pickle mix, and I'm pretty happy with it.

Just harvested and ate my first "pineapple" tomato.  Delicious.

I'd really like to try those sometime. That sounds so cool.

I grew a pineapple tomatillo last year, but even though it was surrounded by other tomatillos, none of the jillion little blossoms turned into a fruit.

How much like a pineapple did it really taste?

Disappointment:  I had some Swiss chard last night, and it no longer has any flavor.  It is not bitter, but it was like eating solid water.

This morning, I put a few mustard green leaves in my smoothie.  They are the only greens left in the garden.

My neighbor came over for a basket full of Mortgage Lifters.  They are doing okay in this heat, and I gave her about 8 that were in the 1 1/2 to 2 pound range.

I noticed that our low temperature last night was 82!  Today may be the worst one yet with actual temps between 100 and 105 with humidity pushing the heat index well above 110 and maybe to 120.

We have severe weather forecasted to happen twice today:  once around Noon and once in the late evening.

I just came in after the morning iced chai tea and wearing the cooling towel, and my wife could feel the outside heat on my arms without actually touching them.

I can only imagine what it must be like to live in the part of Northern California where the temperature is always like late March here.  Sunny with 70 and 55 are excellent hi-low extremes.  We get that maybe 10 days a year, but 8 are not during the growing season.

Razed, Your weather sounds yucky right now! Just to clarify, there are inland areas of So. Cal. that are just as hot as the area I live in. We are going to the coast tomorrow where the weather is delightful. That's what folks in the Valley do for heat relief. The hotter the inland, the foggier and cooler the coast.

Sanderson, I feel worse for your water needs out there in California than the miserable conditions that we have to endure here.  It scares me to think that I would not have potable water when I am in need of such.

Still, when my friends in Sonoma brag to me about how incredible it feels, and how they even use a space heater at night in July, I do envy their situation, until I get thirsty.

Today, it hit 100 on the weather gauge nearest our house,  but it quickly dropped when a severe thunderstorm swept through the area around 3 PM.  The temperature fell to the upper 70's, and wind and hail caused a lot of damage.

At one point, about 18,000 homes were without power as numerous power lines were knocked over by fallen trees or power lines.  This afternoon, my wife had to take two detours to get home from the hair salon to the house.  Traffic lights were out for a couple miles, and too many people did not know that they were supposed to treat them as 4-way stops.

This weather did affect my garden.  A large tree limb fell on top of one of my raised bed squares.  My wife says it is punishment for using "Razed Bed" as my moniker here, as that is exactly what I have now.

Cucumber and tomato, a miracle!