Edibles '10 - Part 3

The new thought is that cats are only supposed to eat meat - no veggies, no carbs. So I try to do that. Usually they get meat but since Sampson got sick, they are getting canned cat food which is 95% meat. I will go back to straight meat before too long - it is just too easy and doesn't smell up the house with stinky cat food or litter boxes. The two stray cats I feed get kibble but I am giving them more leftover cat food now. Their problem is that they won't eat the meat I give my cats. So when the canned food goes away - they will just have kibble.

Bill - I moved it into a quart pot. I thought I would put it in the earth in about October - as soon as I decide where to put it (in my neighbors yard, that is.) I might have given it a bit of fruit tree fertilizer - I don't remember - but it did get compost.

Going to where I hike to pick blueberries with the kids.

My blueberries are all done. :(

I planted 3 more bushes today, for a grand total of 7 new blueberry bushes this year!

I get hungry reading this thread.
I picked the grapes yesterday, 2 weeks earlier than usual.
Sticky sweet seedless Reliance.
Andy P

Yum, Andy....I can taste them! I did pick blueberries today at the farm, which was closed to everyone else this morning because my granddaughters' nursery school was picking....so strange to see a big yellow school bus there! Still quite a few berries left on the way-back bushes....cannot imagine the berries when the youngest crop starts bearing.....

Those do look yummy Andy. Everything seems early this year. Hope my new grapes eventually will have some nice tasty grapes like that, three of them are 'Reliance' and three are 'Himrod'.

One of my pepper plants......there are 5 peppers on it!

Apples

I found a couple of Paula Red drops that were almost worm free....I ate around the yucky parts & the apples were very tasty......

Not for me to eat but the tree rats ought to be happy!

Ngam, the Reliance bare at a the tender age of 3. A couple clusters of small grapes, just enough for a taste.
Watch for the Grape Plume moth larva in early spring. It eats the center of new buds. Curled new growth is the tell tale sign. Then you have to dig in to remove the one mini caterpillar.
Andy P

Thanks for the warning. I wonder if BT would take them out?

Oh joy another stinking moth to be on the look out for. Yes I did not expect any grapes for at least three years. Good to know the info is correct from real life experience though. Hope I can remember the good advice on the plume moth by then too. The wild grapes around here seem okay so maybe that is a good sign. It is just a battle isn't.
Pixie looks like things are doing well up there for you and the squirrels.

My compost is way down a steep hill at the bottom of my yard....yesterday rested under an oak-hickory double trunked tree on my way back up....could not believe every leaf on both trees had a zillion holes....hail damage I never noticed.

Picked a bushel and 1/2 of tomatoes today. Geeze I know what I will be doing.

How much better than last year!

Yay!!! Sherrie has Matos!!!!

Yeah!

i do not except a GEEZE after last year!

Congrats on all the lovely tomatoes! Sooo much better than the outcome last year.

Nice!

10 pints of fresh hot salsa :-) - so far

made my first batch of gazpacho today - fantastic!

anyone make bread and butter pickles? i do not like them but i am going to make a batch tomorrow night for my better half - there is an ingredient called turmeric - is this really needed? have all the other spices.

I make a batch every year....usually just for the fridge...turmeric turns the pickles yellowish, it's a good spice, with antioxident properties.

My mom made the best B&B pickles. I didn't actually help but tumeric was involved.

Turmeric is good stuff.

Wha, you have inspired me to make gazpacho today, if I get bundled up and go out in the rain to pick the veggies for it. I love it on a hot summer day, which it is definitely not today. Sorry about your Bambi invasion.

DH is finishing up the 100 jars of Beach Plum jelly he has made. We had zero last year, but this year was a bumper crop. We even have grapes on wild vines that have never produced one since 1981. Not enough to do anything with, but nice to see.

I made up a couple of trays of eggplant rolls stuffed with cooked rice, cheese, mushrooms, slow roasted tomatoes, onions, basil and other herbs and an egg for binding it etc and then baked in some of the last of last years tomato sauce with mozzarella and Parm. It was a big hit with the house guest. I made a batch stuffed with ground buffalo instead of the rice and all the fixings. I froze those trays for the winter. We need more freezer space. We will tackle the first of the tomato sauce later this week. Have to get it done as we are leaving for Canada soon. Plus the tomatoes are ready.

schickenlady, your hot salsa sounds great plan. I grew more tomatillo this year. I made up a small batch of avocado & tomatillo salsa with it the other day and took some of it to Boston for an appetizer for my BIL and his wife who we were staying with, but it turned out she hates cilantro so it was not a hit with her. But it all got eaten as my DH and his brother loved it. No cooking makes it a snap. I think it needed more lime. I should have more tomatillo by the end of the week, so I have to see what I can do to can it. Patti

bundle up it is worth it - brought some for lunch today at work - my wife says i am rude and no one will speak to me with garlic/red onion breath :)

My tomatoes are "asploding" from the rain. :(

Made pepper steak last night with my peppers. Was great!

I ditched three of mine that asploeded too Memory

:(

A baby eggplant fell off - I'm going to try frying it.

Patti, those eggplant rolls sound yummy...Victor, I had 2 peppers that turned red...both had insect damage, but I cut it out, & they are awaiting a good recipe idea...with steak sounds pretty good! Many of my tomatoes rotted when I was in NY....no one picked.... I do have a few green ones left.

Did mine with 'beef stew' meat in the pressure cooker. Perfect!

yum, I keep telling myself I need a pressure cooker

I'm too chicken to get one....

don't blame you - my stomach finally is not reddish from my little explosion last year.

I love it. Makes everything so tender and juicy.

Can't blame you Bill, after your accident. In my case, maybe since I worked around high pressure so much I am more aware of it. At least I hope so.

i just thought if the pressure was at 2 and dropping it would be safe - learned to wait until the steam stops:) or else you and the kitchen get power washed!