New England, July 2015

CapeCoddess wrote:I'm afraid I won't kill all the pathogens.  Also, I'm a klutz and I always get burnt when cooking, so messing around with boiling jars and lids would bite me fersure.  I know with pressure canning the temps are so high that everything dies and I feel safe with it.  And there's no boiling of the jars.

If you can drive a car you can operate the basic elements of canning.


You need practice. And to follow the recipe and processing time.

I believe in you!

I've discovered two zucchini, a whole bunch of spiny (who knew?) pickling cucumbers, a couple of eggplants, and teensy Bell peppers!

So, even though I hate it, hooray for hot, hazy, and humid.

Thanks for the advice to calm down.

Yay point! Glad to hear!

We had some nice showers this afternoon. I have to say, after that dry May, it's been pretty great weather.

So, after a supper of splendid garden fresh frittata and cream of fresh celery soup, I want peanut butter hand chocolate chip cookies. Those won't be from the garden.

Yum, camprn! Your own celery? I don't know that mine's big enough yet, altho I haven't looked too closely.

For the past 2 nights I've had vanilla ice cream and fresh strawberries. Heavenly!!!

Tonight I passed by the garden and looked at the thriving potato plants, and what did I see in this humid weather but slugs all over those potato plants! So I donned the mosquito netting and sweatshirt and non-latex gloves and pulled probably 200 off into dishwashing liquid. I really need ducks.

Don't tempt me! Doesn't take much.

One gardening guru, I forget who it was, said you don't have a slug problem, you have a duck shortage.

I bought a 6-pak of these, sold as radicchio.  As they've grown, there's no hard center to the plant, and absolutely no red-and-white veining.  The leaves are somewhat tough, and are slightly bitter, like arugula or bolted lettuce.

Looks like butter lettuce to me, nothing like radiccio(sp?).

Well, thank you.  Now I can just have a nice salad.

point wrote:I bought a 6-pak of these, sold as radicchio.  As they've grown, there's no hard center to the plant, and absolutely no red-and-white veining.  The leaves are somewhat tough, and are slightly bitter, like arugula or bolted lettuce.

My radicchio looked just like that...so pretty After some more time it did head up and became very red. And it tasted awful! Apparently it doesn't like my garden so I'll never grow it again. I have a package of seeds if anybody wants to give it a try.

I just finished planting a bunch of zuke, spaghetti and pattypan squah seeds. I'm hoping it's late enough in the season that s VB won't be around when they mature. Also I have a volunteer squash that I'm letting grow. It may be a spaghetti squash, which SVb loved so I picked a bunch of mint and placed it all over the base of the squash. Do you think that will help?

Mint never seemed to keep any bugs away from what I can tell. I have lots of mint and all kinds of bugs all over the place.

Re pattypan squash and squash vine borers, when I grew a mix of different colored patty pan squashes last year, they had solid stems. So yours may be safe.

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with my harvest today. Not sure who's going to eat all this lettuce & sweet peas. I've frozen so much all ready.

CAgirlinMA wrote:

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with my harvest today. Not sure who's going to eat all this lettuce & sweet peas. I've frozen so much all ready.

Wow! That's fantastic! Looks like you don't have to worry about the squash vine borer. What kind of squash is that in the lower right corner? Is your lettuce starting to bolt yet? Or do you have it covered?

CC

CC, it looks like a grey zucchini

Beautiful spread, CAgirl!

Honestly I have NO IDEA what that squash is. It came from my compost pile & for the life of me I cannot remember what kind of squash we ate last year . I know it was nothing that large. For awhile I thought it was a spaghetti squash, but it never rounded out & always stayed this dark green. My spag. squash is a pale white/green. I've never had the squash vine borer problem...not sure why. 

CC....These were my last Romaine heads that were probably going to bolt in the next few days especially with the heat we're expecting. I still have plenty more that are in various stages all under cover  & some newbies under lights. 

Thanks boffer. I think you nailed it!

I'll bet that's a hybrid, CAgirl. One year I grew, from bought seed, a vine that produced a combo of squash/pumpkin, something like that. It was weird looking.

BTW all, I have had my portable greenhouse shelving unit on the deck with the zippers half closed for rain protection and storing my seedling containers in there, and the seedling containers melted! So that's hot. Wow.

Hooh Rah!

It showed up in my garden a couple years ago, and it took me a while to figure out what it was. At first I thought it was a spaghetti squash too.

I double checked my seed packages, and I didn't have any grey zucchini. I'm thinking the seeds may have been mis-packaged. So, we got to try something new. Unfortunately, we didn't care for them. The texture seemed more 'spongy' than other zukes.

Bummer. I'm planning on cutting this up tomorrow. Hoping I like it.

The grey zucchinis seem to get good reviews. Depending on the weather, I get good squash quality some years, and some years they're just blah. I might have grown them in an off year.

BTW all, I have had my portable greenhouse shelving unit on the deck with the zippers half closed for rain protection and storing my seedling containers in there, and the seedling containers melted! So that's hot. Wow.

They melted . That's crazy!

Warped melted, not liquid melted. But I think I'll need new seedling six-packs for next spring...

Picked strawberries yesterday, which surprised me. I thought they'd definitely be all gone by now. When they are gone, they will get thinned, and new strawberry patches started in other places on the property, just for fun. Took off some garlic scapes that were missed from prior pickings and threw them in the compost pile because they were too tough to eat. The garlic itself is looking like it won't be long until picking time, the leaves are starting to get brown. The calendar says it's a little early - usually late July to pick - but the browning leaves say maybe it's time. I think I'll replace the garlic bed with peas. And some new lettuce. And maybe try some carrot seeds.

Holy crow NHG, that is some kind of hot to meltyour six packs!

I was reading the old victory garden book last night and he says to wait until all the garlic leaves are brown and falling over. Sounds just like onions. I've never heard that before and have always pulled when the lower fewer brown. But I'm willing to try a few his way just to see if I get a bigger head.

Today I was out planting corn again in the hopes that the raccoon family has moved along. I also planted beets, kale, collards, more cukes and broccoli directly in the garden. I have some six packs of lettuce started that will go in soon as I have some space. I've been hoping to take down the peas soon so I can use that bed but they just keep on coming. It's amazing! And yummy!

I also wove another trellis for some delicata squash that I'm hoping the squash vine borer didn't find this year. I haven't seen her around at all. Has anyone else seen her?

All that talk over in the canning thread is making me want a can up some soups and some tomatoes but they're not ready yet. I think I'm low on beans so maybe I'll get into that.

With garlic wait until there are only 4 green leaves and then lift. By that time the stalks are sagging, but if you have heard neck garlic, it just doesn't go over.