Edibles '11 chapter 3 Harvest Time!

HEY!! LOL
Next year i'll have a bigger patch and will plant more of the 100lb pumpkins.

so cool

Just made awesome jelly from black chokecherries and raspberries! Now on to the gooseberries for some jam. Canned some tomato sauce last night.

Very cool, Celeste!

Camping out next year at Celeste's to wait for the Great Pumpkin!

That's a mighty fine looking pumpkin, Pixie! Memory, that jam sounds good, but I thought chokecherries were poisonous....do you treat them?

This is also called Aronia - it is a cultivated bush. The berries I have are not good to eat out of hand - too much tannin. But when I cooked them up with some raspberries and made jelly from the juice - they are exceptional.

Oh, OK...I have a chokecherry tree, & the cherries are only good for the birds....

I think it is different than the tree variety. http://www.aroniaberry.org/

Yes, that's a totally different plant!

Went back to researching that new ingredient PGPR(Polyglycerol Polyricinoleate) that the large chocolate companies are now putting in all their chocolate...which you know first and foremost is a cost cutting measure so they can use less cocoa butter...but is it to the detriment of our health?????

When it first was invented they used to use it as a lubricant in all types of oils for machinery...what I am trying to find out is WHY they decided to EAT it???? and then in 2006 started using it in chocolate products
Based a lab studies on it "NO carcinogenic effect was observed. no adverse effect on growth, food consumption, longevity and haematology. Organ weight analysis revealed an increase in liver and kidney weight in both male and female rats and female mice. "

Now what I want to know is if there is an increase in liver and kidney weights...what exactly does that mean??? Down the road will they suffer from liver and kindey damage or failure??? Is it worth the risk to eat second rate chocolate bars? Which now they can't even be considered "real" chocolate because of the % of chemicals

You're such a buzzkill, Jen. ^_^

Hey, just trying to keep everyone healthy. Believe me, I as a woman need my chocolate!!!!!!!!! Why they got to mess with it?...so their ceo can make 10 million a year instead of 5 mil??????

Yep. That is the reason.

so sad

Buy organic chocolate....

Oh yeah I'll def be doing that from now on

first figs this morning. Super yummy!

Oh, yum is right! Saw 'Extra Virgin' on the Cooking Channel the other night...they were in Tuscany, eating fresh figs, ricotta cheese & honey on Italian bread toast.....a wonderful breakfast....

nice Memory.. I will dream of them!!!

Sweet peppers, Nardello, bananna and sereno.

Now have some Jalapeno, Harbranaro and some of the BHUT Jolokia's.

These little things are the bhut's. Not the hottest pepper in the world anymore.

end of my story for the year I think.

Sherrie you have a nice haul but the picture of the basket is so pretty! LOVE IT!

That's a LOT of peppers

Awesome peppers....that 1st photo would make a great painting!

That is what hubby said - nice picture painted. Well I aint doing it.

Jo has the talent to do it!

Ate my first paw-paw. I liked it - very interesting texture and feel in my mouth. Now I have an after taste that isn't all the pleasant. Picked an eggplant to day and looked at the watermelons wondering if they are ripe.

I did sugar babies and they looked ok and opened one up and it was well past done

I always wanted to try a pawpaw, but maybe not if there's a strange aftertaste! Still picking beans, tomatoes, peppers....

Maybe I should just pick all my watermelons?

Is the vine yellow? If it's still green, they are still growing.

If it ever stops raining, I need to go pick most of my pumpkins. I'll try to remember the camera and take pictures of the vines to show you what I mean. I have some that were still green and some not the other day.

The vines are still green and none of the internet resources says to wait until the vines are dead to pick them. Two years ago my only watermelon was over ripe and the one I picked this year wasn't ripe enough. Watermelons are so hard to tell. Unlike paw-paws (laugh) who never did turn yellow and yet got ripe. If it hadn't been for the thieving critter who broke one open, I would have never known they were ripe.

How long ago did you pick one and it wasn't ripe? What color was the one you picked inside? Slightly pink, pink, med?

Aren't melons supposed to sound hollow when ripe....after you thump them, I mean......and how about scent? I remember passing a field of ripe watermelons in NH, the aroma blew me away....

I'm just not a good thumper. :( It has been maybe 3 weeks since I picked the first one and it was pink inside but sweet enough to at least eat.

Then they should be just about ready. ^_^