Do not put tomatoes in the fridge!!
Summer Gardens Part 2
CG may be onto something there as mom will put a half tomato in the fridge often times, and the next day it looks more like a red prune, lol
Aw I like your tomato w personality up there drthor!
Lois, I was told to plant beans next to the corn after the corn is knee high. I didn't listen and that may be why most of my beans died.. Your beans look great though, can't imagine why you'd want to change the way you already do them :)
Jmc1987, nice banana peppers!
Lisa, yes the plants are loving this weather so much that I can barely keep up with my tying! I wish I had a time lapse setup where I could watch the growth from on ready to the next! You direct seeded roselle? I may try that since I have some begging to be planted. What spacing did you use?
Stephanie, you are harvesting tons now! Do you put any of it up? Or are you guys gobbling it up as fast as you can pick it? I had company in town last week and I had a small first harvest, maybe 2 lbs of random cherry and pea sized tomatoes, I ate them before I could ready my camera! What a pig lol!
Some tomatoes almost ready for the picking!
Pink bumblebee
Dark copia
Blueberry (need a real ID on this one)
Tlacolula, loving those ribs!
Ace 55 VF, perfect tomatoes on this one, hope the flavor is good!
Grubs mystery green, a real mystery now since it's not green at all!!
Yellow Bell
Matts Wild Cherry, thicker skin but so easy to grow here!
Opalka, these paste tomatoes are heavy!
Odessa squash is producing like mad! And the bees have noticed the flowers and have taken over pollinating duties :)
wow ... well done !!
Well, it rained a little, but not enough. I am grateful for the bit we got though!
Your photos are wonderful! Very encouraging! And yummy!
Becky (playswdirt), Thanks for your reply to my question about planting with my corn. Knee high sounds just right and I am nearly there. I'm planting cowpeas though... I didn't mean beans. Thinking about maybe a few more small pumpkins too. Or maybe that's too much for the space. I want to put up a lot of pumpkins this year, canned, dried and frozen. There are so many things you can make with them both savory and sweet. I'm looking for more Butternut squash recipes though! We are going to have a bumper crop if all goes well.
drthor - Gonna see if I can find some of those red asian beans you are growing. Hubby's going to make me a trellis (thanks gymgirl!) and I am looking forward to trying them. Don't have a local lumber yard, but I have some wood left over from another project.
Loisf10,
Please be sure to post a pic of your new trellis here!
loisf10
here my favorite long beans:
http://www.rareseeds.com/chinese-red-noodle-bean/
or here if you want to buy lots more seeds:
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-6802-red-noodle.aspx
Happy gardening !
More rain today! We got at least another inch of the blessed wet stuff! Caused some local street flooding, though.
Becky, I don't put any of the up. We eat all we can and share the rest. Everything I eat is served with a side of tomatoes.
Oh shoot, sorry no experience w the cowpeas!
Steph I bet you're very popular on your block, giving away fresh veggies you'd be my favorite neighbor for sure!
The odessa squash are giving me a squash a day and almost every plant has a small one forming. I have already found a favorite recipe for them.. dipped in a egg wash, dredged in cornstarch/flour and then fried. Soooo good!! 😋
My corn is finally ripening! I grew 2 4x8 raised beds of Mirai bi-color. Picked 20 ears yesterday. Use my new Lee Corn Cutter,
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BI8E40/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 This is one of the best gadgets I've bought in a long time. It really zipped though the corn cutting in no time. I cut this batch in full kernels. Later, I'll do cream style corn.
I froze the corn in 2 cup amounts in vacuum bags. From 20 ears, I got 7 bags. This corn is so sweet, you can eat it raw. Planning on making a lot of fried corn with it. Of course, I had to count how many ears are left. and the count was 87. Lots of corn in the coming months!!
Oooohhhh ! jomoncon I am pea green with corn envy! We are growing field corn this year to make cornmeal and hominy. I'll have to buy my sweet corn. Fortunately I have a friend who is a farmer who grows deeee lishous sweet corn.
Gymgirl, I will absolutely post a pic of my trellis. Can't wait!
drthor - Thanks for the links! There are red beans in my future....
Loisf10,
There are red GREEN beans in your future...
Don't ever tell a southern girl you're cooking "red beans," then serve up GREEN beans on the plate!
It could get ugly in the kitchen, LOL!
Uh, just to be clear, "red beans" (most places in the south) refers to KIDNEY beans -- cowpeas -- more specifically, Camellia Brand Red Kidney Beans...
Slow cooked with sauteed onions, bell peppers, garlic, spices, sliced smoked sausages of all kinds, pig tails, pickled meat, and served over a bed of FLUFFY white rice, with fried chicken and fried plantains on the side....
And a splash of Louisiana Red Hot Sauce is a requirement!
Enjoy your green beans, LOL!
Jo-Ann,
Congratulations on your urban corn crop!
Almost 100 ears from two 4x8s gives me serious encouragement that I can do at least one of my 4x8s next season. If you remember, please contact me when you set your next crop of corn, so I can tag and grow-along.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE corn on the cob, cream style, whole kernel, maque choux, ANY kind of way you wanna fix it, LOL!
Hugs!
Linda
I love sweet corn too, but earwigs here are a terrible problem. I am really watching for them on my little patch-I have 4 half 55 gal drums planted- 7 hills in each-4 different varieties. I know it will be a tiny harvest if it makes it, but I just had to try! Our local corn will be starting soon- can't wait!
Mmm all this corn talk! Mine is starting to tassel but no silks showing down below yet, don't know what the heck is going on!
My pickings this morning.. 2 odessa squash and some cherry and currant tomatoes. Smallest ones are 'sweet pea', next size up are 'Matts wild cherry', and the 1" size are a mystery. Prolific and prone to splitting, but sweet flavor, wish I knew what they were as they are NOT the grubs green I thought I was growing LOL
Don't cha just love a good NOID tomato, LOL!
Gymgirl - LOL! I guess ya'll are right about them GREEN beans that just happen to be RED!
I might take offense, except for the mouth watering recipe which I am going to try just as soon as I can get the ingredients! Don't know if I can find any pig tails though. Can I settle for side meat? My mama used to make the fluffiest rice in town, but I just didn't inherit the fluffy gene.
Love me some Louisiana Hot Sauce! I was born and raised in Mobile , Alabama and we drank coffee with chicory and used hot or pepper sauce on EVERYTHING!
I picked and cooked up tomatoes, zucchini, and summer squash this morning. Added onion and bacon. YUM!
after another day or two, its confirmed, i definitely have a mega bloom 'mater in the works
Lois,
Community Coffee with Chicory is a staple at home in New Orleans. Takes me about two sips to get used to the taste when I go visit.
Throw in some toasted French bread slathered with butter, and, well, need I say more?
"...toasted French bread with butter,..." ...need >anybody< say more?!
Oops, forgot, 'midst visions of butter slathers, that I meant to say I have lots of blooms, but still only the one green Early Stupice. I'm still tending about 30 plants, including in my front yard with my fanciest iron trellis!
This message was edited Jun 25, 2014 8:40 PM
I had to upgrade my harvest basket today to my larger basket. Yippee!!
Gymgirl - You're from the Big Easy? Used to love going there from Mobile back in the '70's. Haven't been back since Katrina. Very sad that. Used to have relatives down there but they have gone now. Took some doing... but I finally convinced my local grocer to carry Community Coffee.
13 turtles - Is there a pic of your fancy trellis anywhere? I'd love to see it.
jmc1987 - Is there anything better than the anticipation of a big, juicy tomato on your plate? Doesn't it seem to take forever for them to ripen?
Here's my pickin's from this morning. I need to get back into canning mode.
Lois
Wow! Stephanie, what a haul! Are you canning or freezing all those tomatoes? Wish I had a cool basket like that. Very pretty picture.
Ya'll are soooooooooooooo funny! I LOVE this thread, LOL!
Lois,
Yes, I "know what it means, to miss New Orleans..." The city has changed dramatically to insiders who know what it used to be. Looks great on the outside. But, the infrastructure, economically, emotionally, socially, and ESPECIALLY culinary-ly has changed, and not for the better....
About a year and a half after Katrina (which is as soon as my heart could take going home for a visit to see the city), I remarked that a Beignet I was eating at Cafe Du Monde' didn't taste the same. My "Bestie BFF" informed me that the place had been sold to the Asian community. The waitstaff looked the same as always, but the cooks there (and at restaurants all over NOLA) are very different.
The taste of food everywhere is not what the city was once renowned for...
There are some local Mom and Pop holdouts that came back and rebuilt, but, overall the feel and the vibe of the city has changed in ways imperceptible except if you grew up with the original...
Steph,
Girl, you are kickin' tomato butts! "I'm gonna need a bigger basket!" LOL!
StillPlaysWithDirt,
Call me when that next batch of fried squash is ready!
Hugs, Ya'll!
what fantastic harvest y'all ... keep posting pictures.
stephanietx what variety are those huge cucumbers?
still getting a slow but steady flow of blueberries, and to my pleasant surprise, ive made the discovery of a wild black raspberry vine, and blackberry vines at the bottom of the yard
Gymgirl - Say it ain't so! Not the beignets! I have some very fond memories of beignets and coffee in NOLA...... Are the old ladies still selling pralines on the street corners? Best candy in the world. I still think their secret is a little dollop of coffee in the mix.
I've decided to pull up the ravaged green bean plants and put some new dirt down and new seeds for an early fall harvest. The damaged plants have attracted bugs which are now attacking my healthy plants also.
jmc1987 - wild blackberries make the BEST jelly! We have scads of wild blackberries around here and I send my grandchildren out to pick them when they come in. I usually get anywhere from 12 to 20 pints of jelly each year and it never lasts through to the next picking season, LOL.
I have great hopes for a good fig season this year. I dearly love figs and they can up very well.
Praying for rain tomorrow, we have a 60 % chance. We need a good soaking rain here. I think I'll go outside and wash my car and leave the windows down.....
I was at Sam's Club yesterday. They're selling MG Garden Soil for $2.90/40 qt. bag, trying to get rid of it.
Too bad they've put so much trash in it lately, it's not even worth $2.90...
Lois, you have a great haul today! I am eating A LOT of tomatoes!! LOL I also like to share. I don't know how to can and don't have the equipment, so I eat and share. The cherry tomatoes just stay on the counter and get eaten over a few days.
Linda, I usually use a smaller basket, but it got full after harvesting the cukes and that one huge zucchini. LOL I love those baskets and have had them for many years. They are handmade from a couple that lives in the Ozarks and sold them at craft shows in the late 80s. (I told you I've had them many years! LOL) I have a really huge one, too, but it holds my yarny projects.
drthor, the cukes are on the left in this pic and they are Muncher. Very prolific, great cucumber taste, and they are supposedly burpless. The zucchini, on the right, is Gray Striped zucchini, also very productive and hubby says it has a bit of a milder, sweeter taste. He loves them!
lois, i am thinking of propagating that wild black raspberry vine, as it is the only one i have seen around here, compared to the much more common wild blackberries.
jmc1987 - I've never tasted a black raspberry, is there much difference between that and a blackberry? I tried once to raise "bought" blackberry bushes and failed miserably. I just depend on wild ones here since there are so many.
Gymgirl (Linda?)- I've noticed that my favorite brands of dirt have a lot more "pine fines" this year than before. I don't use anything made by MG. Very wary of it. I really wish I could get my composting ducks in a row and make my own dirt. I have loads of leaves and actual leaf mold available, just not enough grandsons to help me load and tote it to the compost pile. I'm not intentionally lazy....just gettin' older! I love this thread too! And I'm learning things!
Steph - The nice thing about canning tomatoes is that if you put lemon juice in with them you can water bath can them which is much cheaper and easier than pressure canning. I've been freezing more tomatoes this year and look forward to lots of good soup all winter.
Today harvest.
We have been eating yummy tomatoes everyday at every meals and I absolutely love it !
I never eat tomatoes during the year ... I only eat my tomatoes.
This year It has been the best so far. I have been freezing tons of tomatoes to make my winter sauces. Now my freezer is almost full and I just bought a new freezer.
I have been roasting my tomatoes with onions and herbs, then freezing them.
On picture #2 you can see the tomatoes before roasting .. then on picture #4-5 , after roasting.
On picture #3 is a "tomato tart" which is amazing. The recipe is from the latest baker Creek magazine (the only difference is that I made my own crust).
So yummy !
Last year I attended "taste of Spain " class at LCB and learn how to make GAZPACHO, which is a cold soup that has tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions ... ... very easy. i just put everything on the blender ... yummy !
This message was edited Jun 26, 2014 2:53 PM
Long Beans are growing under the tomatoes. Some have been decapitated by pill bugs ... but I did plan tons of them.
I have a few melons and watermelons getting bigger.
Okra is forming daily !
I removed the cover from my squash ... this is the first time I am really growing squash successfully (so far ...)
Plants are loaded with tomatoes
Okra is about 4' tall !
Peppers are turning colors.
Tons of eggplants and cucumbers (even Lemon cucumber for the first time)
Can I just say I LOVE checking on this thread daily and seeing what y'all are up to. Keeps me motivated, and I learn so much, so thanks for letting me be a part of the fun :))
Jmc1987, I'm not sure if it's just a coincidence, but I've noticed that the first few flowers on each of my tomato plants was a mega bloom, and now those almost ripe fruits are catfaced as all get out, but I figure they'll still be good in salsa! I wonder if it's common for the first fruits to be doubles? Hmmm.. And those berries have me swooning. I love fresh picked berries so much I can't put it into words!
Steph you're killing me with these harvests! Will you adopt me please? I'll clean house and fix supper! LOL
Lois, if Steph says no, I forward my request to you LOL!
Gymgirl, making more fried squash tonight, if you leave now you can still make it by dark ;)
Drthor, yum to all the pics!! I need to pull out my baker creek catalog and find that tomato tart recipe.. My tomato cheese pie recipe is good, but I think there's too much mayo and cheese in it and they make it greasy.. And is that big mama posing in the second set of pics? She says, "feed me hornworms please!" Lol!🐛🐢