Summer Gardens 2014, Part 3

Thanks
brendak654, the grilled the zucchini and eggplants will be watering if you let them though ... instead I use the "defrost" button on the microwave and they will taste as I just grilled them.
The frozen liquids on the right are broths: vegetable, meat and fish broths. (if you look there is a lot of Alaskan salmon on one shelf ... I do fillet my own fish too and make broth with the rest).
Yes, I freeze the whole tomato with the peels. Then i just drop them in sauces = PERFECT!
We have really been eating as many raw vegetables as we can ... all the rest went in the freezer.
I love my new freezer ! Electric bill is not any higher ...
Happy gardening

Great - Thanks. Sounds like to have a good handle on things.

Yes - Happy Gardening.

finally got around to being able to make a batch of bread & butter pickles

grapes finally starting to come in, we only have one vine, so pretty much for snacking purposes. a couple of lemon cucumbers will be ready in a day or two, and im giving that mater until tomorrow until it gets plucked, lol

Pickles are a good color and look good. How about your caps on the jars. Is it the angle of the picture, or did a couple of them bulge? I have had the bulge issue myself and not sure why. Other garden produce pictures captures the yummy looking fruit. I had some of the lemon cuck's this year,too. When I was making pickles, I just worked them in. Will you do anything special with your lemon cucks? Tomatoes sure look perfect.

Our neighbor just brought over lots of tomatoes, so I need to work them up into salsa or something. So why am I sitting here?? Better yet, I could be making relish with all my peppers - I think I'm in slow motion today.....................

yeah we did have a few lids bulge upwards, but they still popped back down and sealed anyways thank goodness. The lemon cukes i just like to eat straight up as is ;)

the last of the peppers for the season--the plants finally started pooping out, lol. And todays sun made that tomato ripe enough to pluck!

This is our Charlie Brown tomato plant.

No worries ... soon my freezer will be a jumble too ... I plan to fill it up !

My harvest today !
I didn't pick the okra pods yesterday and they grew of 3 " each ... some of those are weapons !

Then today I realized that all the "red long beans" I planted are GREEN instead !
OMG ! I bough 1000 "red noodle" seeds from Johnny's and they are NOT red !
oooohhhhh I love the red ones, the green long beans are just impossible for me to see ... and they are NOT as sweet as the red ones.
I did email to Johnny's ... but my bean season is gone ... ahhh

major bummer about the beans!

i am SO anxious to pluck my first lemon cuke....any day now, i just want it to lose just a TAD bit more of its green color.

our crape myrtles around here are going stark raving mad. the pink ones in the background , behind the house are around 15Ft tall, like big pink fluffy pillows i think, lol. and now the red one out in the front yard has started. :)

What a disappointment about the beans drthor.

Gorgeous pictures jmc. I keep trying to grow lemon cucumbers but haven't yet harvested one. This year I have three plants, lots of blooms, no fruit yet. Have you tasted them before?

Question for you experienced bean-growers: for pole beans, what kind of root room do they want? I had 100% germination of all my 4 varieties, and I had sown 2 beans per hole. Should I snip half of them off? I have plenty of sturdy trellis, ten foot tall cattle panels!

(Pics are completely unrelated.)

How far apart are the holes (the pole beans)?

I grew Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans in 5 gallon buckets, last season.

Probably 3 plants per sq. foot worked for me.

Probably about 8 inches. And a Foot from any "guardian flowers," 16 - 18 inches from side of bed. Beds have 16 inches of very good loose soil.

From your estimation Linda it sounds as though they might be okay. What do you think brendak?

Thanks for your help!

I agree, about 3 plants per square foot or the equivalent there of. Should not be a problem. I planted some poles 4 inches apart because I had plenty of seed and I did not thin them. But I knew that was a little close. They are doing fine.

Sounds like you are on the right track.

finally, the first of the lemon cukes!

Yum to the lemon cuke!!

Here's my harvest for today. Probably the last from this garden. Three Sugar Baby watermelons, 1 butternut squash, 1 yellow squash, and several tomatoes.

Turtles, the Charlie Brown tomato plant made me lol. Aw he's cute :)

Nice grapes Jmc! One year I'll start some, supposedly they do well around here, just don't think they'd do very well in our stage 3 drought we've been under..

Sorry about the beans drthor, are you sure they won't blush as they mature?

Steph, your summer garden has given so much.. I've learned a lot by watching you, so a big THANKS for that :)

Nope ... they are green long beans

Oh bummer, that sucks!

Drthor,
I ordered fava beans to plant this year, after reading your successful posts. Please tell me when to plant them, and, most importantly, how do you cook them?

I love beans of all kinds, except black eyed peas.

Thanks!

It has been quite a few years since I grew FAVA BEANS and I miss them.
The fava is actually not a bean at all, but a vetch that originated in western Asia. Fava thrive in cool, wet weather. In areas where they can overwinter.
Grow fava as you would peas
Like peas, fava grow best when temperatures are 60˚ to 65˚F and soil is moist. Temperatures much over 80˚F result in loss of quality, reduced production, and pest problems. Therefore you should time fava as you would peas.
I will direct seed them at the end of September for a late fall harvest or spring crop if you can overwinter (you should be able to do that in Houston)
Fava germinate amazingly well in cool soils and they need 2-1⁄2 to 3 months of cool weather.

Here a lot of recipes. This is an Italian website, if you will open with Google Chrome it should ask you to translate it: http://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Come-pulire-le-fave.html

Good luck

Thanks!

grapes are pouring in today, a couple more cukes (seems the vines are entering their declining phase), and moms lone german johnson tomato, before her plant met the same fate as mine--the entire plant yellowed up and just pooped out. which leads me to think that if hers eventually done it too, perhaps there was something wrong with that specific batch of seed to begin with.

This message was edited Jul 29, 2014 11:48 AM

Yum - looks like lunch in the makings.

Oh wow ice never had grapes fresh from the vine!! Lucky!

they are pretty tasty, although it seems that, with any home grown grape i have ever eaten, the entire inside is quite gelatinous compared to the grocery store grapes (and much more tart). i guess everyone around here is growing the same variety then lol

Been harvesting up loads of Waltham Butternut squash this last week. Made my first casserole last night and boy was it good! Been looking for recipes and found many good ones, including a cake. Have a bumper crop of okra this year also. I have canned up okra in the past, but I don't really like it from the jar except for soups. I've never tried to freeze okra. Any advice?
Still getting about a half pound of green beans every other day, even though only the tops of the beans (the extreme where the deer can't reach!) are still growing. I'm letting some of the pods grow and dry on the vine so as to have seed for next year. My corn is about 9 feet high! Two ears on each stalk. I'm growing Neals paymaster this year to make hominy. There's something so lovely about a corn field....

yes, you can freeze okra. Just cut in pieces and freeze.
I use it in etoufee or gumbo.
Happy gardening

You can also dice your okra into 1" rounds, and bread them for frying. Lay the coated pieces out on a foil-lined cookie sheet and freeze them. Then, use a spatula to scrape them and portion them off into Ziploc baggies.

This way, they're ready to fry and they won't stick to each other when you need a portion.

Will you fry the okra frozen?

Yes, drthor!

Deep fry in oil, then sprinkle with some spicy seasonings of your choice. Usually S&P is enough, maybe add a little cayenne pepper and paprika for some smoky-ness. You can play around with the seasoning flavors you like. Yummy!

Just use a basic egg wash and breadcrumbs when you freeze them.

Or, you can bake them for less calories. Check the net for some recipes for "Fried Okra"

I rinse the pods, dry them on a towel, then place whole in a freezer bag in the freezer. When I have a quart sized bag full, I eat it. I love it plain boiled with salt, pepper, garlic, and onions then topped with plenty of butter.

Lois I'd like to try that butternut casserole recipe.. Planting some this week :)

I had never liked okra until a girl I waitresses with made me dip a breaded/fried okra slice in ranch dressing.. yummo!! Lucky I live in the south.. It's easy to find served that way at any BBQ joint, if not I'd be growing some myself.

Been taking advantage of this cooler weather by adding an arch to the top of my "tomato alley" so it is more of a tunnel shape now. Also have pruned the plants back by over half and now am working on untying them from their supports and reattaching them a little tighter to the fencing. The side on the right is almost done, you can see they are a little cleaner looking. Gonna underplant with the long beans I got in the mail yesterday :))

Had to add a pic of my tomatoes (yellow) masquerading as peppers, and vice versa!

wow ! I loove your tomatoes arch!

The tomato/pepper photo is hillarious Becky! It's made my day.

I'm impressed by the arch too. Those tall skinny-looking plants are tomatoes? Mine are short and squat, lol.

Thanks guys! Still have a few full days of retrying plants since there are four plants on the end that are going to be a real pain to thin out before I can put on the last section of "roof". Also my lightweight shade fabric should be here this week and I'm so excited to see the difference it makes, if any.

My MIL has the rest of the space you see in the photos of the garden plot, she has a few tomato plants left, some cantaloupe and is in the process of putting in 3 rows of bush beans. I still have some peppers and herbs in a raised bed and another bed needing planted with various melons and pumpkins. I've just been so consumed with this project.. There aren't enough hours in the day!!

Turtles, my plants were all short and squat at first too, then as the season progressed and I started trimming lower branches and tying up the vines, some have reached over 7' tall! The arch from one side to the next (up and over) is 15' so now they have a lot of room to grow before running out of space. The total length/ width of the tunnel is 34' x 4' and now I'm considering enclosing it after first frost and growing winter stuff inside. Does anyone have any recommendations for a frost protection fabric that's cheap??