Edibles - '08 - Part 2

EAT IT!

Trade the seeds for peppers I can eat....

Wonder if deer would nibble on them...once...

Here's a mild pepper. Alma Paprika:

Wish the deer would! You have eaten them, Sherrie?

If you like salsa and like a tiny tiny,tiny bite, you could use 1/8 of one of them verses 20 jalapenos.

www.wiw.org/~corey/chile/scoville.html

Yes I did try a tiny piece of one last year. It was a slim sliver. It bit but not terribly.

You use 20 jalapenos? How much salsa do you make?

20 jalapenos will make 6 quarts.

I am growing the jolokias also :-)

I do not deseed the jalapenos.

12 LG. CORED CHOPPED RIPE TOMATOES
20 JALAPENOS (OR ANY OTHER HOT) Deseed warm salsa, not seeded HOT SALSA
3 MEDIUIM ONIONS CHOPPPED
3 TEASPOONS CANNING SALT
4 CLOVES GARLIC MINCED
3 CUPS CIDER VINEGAR

CHOP TOMATOES COARSE AND DRAIN OR IT WILL BE TOO WATERY. COMBINE ALL INGREDIENTS IN A LARG SAUCE PAN AND BRING TO A BOIL. REDUCE HEAT AND SIMMER FOR 20 MINS. POUR INTO HOT PINT JARS, LEAVING 1/4" HEAD SPACE. SEAL AND PROCESS 30 MINS IN WATER BATH.


THEN HANG ON WHEN EATING IT.


Myself depending how much I do I might add a small can of tomato paste. It adds color.

Why make so much at once? You freeze it? Doesn't it taste better when made fresh? Thanks.

Victor, I can it. Last year - I forget how many I did like 32 quarts. Its all gone **poof** husbands kids cant get enough of it.

oh - and I WEAR GLOVES!

And I tried her Salsa....came up with a new dance after I did!

My first zucchini I ever grew.

Congrats! Get ready for many - check every day or they will get huge (and seedy) overnight.

Great, Jen. Don't be shy about picking them small, like 5 inches long. They are better small and you'll get plenty.
My blackberries tease me. I get a few for 10+ days before I get more than a hand full. The thornless 'Chester' grow more horizontal and need staking to keep the fruit clean. I hate staking.

So do I and usually don't. Triple Crown is a great blackberry. It has tons this year.

I yanked all the thorny 'Illini', they were a touch sweeter but the thorns were killers. There are still a few popping up.
Here is a root of an old one that didn't quite make it over the fence into the brush pile.
Andy P

My neighbors told me yeaterday that they have been finding pieces of chewed on squash in their yard. No wonder I'm not getting any trombone zucchini - the #$@% skunk is stealing it! Anyone know a safe way of discouraging a skunk (from a safe distance)?

Can't imagine a smell deterrent! Good luck.

Spray it good and hard with a garden hose. I had a skunk hanging around for days until I hosed it. I got it good, too. lol.

A fence?

Put a female skunk in your least favorite neighbor's yard?

My corn is looking good.....

And the Bee's are lovin it too!!

Really lovin it!! It's almost creepy...all you can hear is BUZZZZZZ.

Eggplants have been coming in a while but this morning the first beefsteak tomatoes ripened (along with lots of cherries, Pink Ping Pong and Matina tomatoes)

1 Ferry Morse Cherry Tomatoe

Looks great David and Sherrie.

Jalapenos - just went and picked 20 for salsa tomorrow. The average is 4" and they could grow longer. I mean longer as for time oh and they could grow longer.

I count 18. What happened to the other 2?

:-)

David_Paul - I can't believe the size of your tomatoes!!!!!! I think you had tall ones last year too??? I asked you what kind of soil you use, if I remember correctly. That's just amazing!

Laurel - love your pan flute squash for music lovers!! LOL! Your harvest shot was very attractive!

Pixie and Sherrie - nice looking produce you got there!

I don't have any shots of my harvest yet but last night we had our first wonderful garden supper. I cheated and got corn from our usual corn stand, but we also had wonderful green beans and a salad of tasty tomatoes, cukes, onions, baby carrots, radishes, peppers & mesculin greens. Yum Yum. I love summer!

My cubanelles are looking ready to be sauteed with my Walla Walla onions that are starting to fill out nicely. I planted 3 more rows of bush beans and mesculin greens and pulled up most of the broccoli that has gone to seed. Plum tomatoes are just starting to ripen and are full of flavor. Some of the Red Norland potatoes are ready and looking like pretty Easter eggs under the soil.

Flowerjen, what variety of zucchini did you grow? Very pretty looking. Mine are tasty, but have a weird shape.

Celeste, your corn looks great. I love homegrown corn, but always thought there were too many southern bugs that loved it more. lol Such a hassle!

David, your tomato loot looks like you can invite us all for salsa (I'll bring the chips). Sherrie, you can make a gourmet dinner with three green beens (just call them harricot vert) and your tiny tomato cut four ways. If you serve enough wine, everyone will be impressed.

Louise, I love Cubanelles. They make the best rellanos of any pepper ever. I have pickled them as well. Can't imagine any lettuces or broccoli in our 90+ degree heat. We are all about the beans, southern peas (other beans), squash, okra and cukes. Tomatoes and peppers too of course. Time to start planting the Fall garden, but I'm so sick of picking.
Laurel

I forgot to include this photo. We ate the first figs for three days and the rest made preserves.
L

Laurel, Sorry, I don't know what kind it is, I got it from a fellow dg'r.

Here is salsa getting ready to simmer. 20 jalapenos later and it was treated like it was either battery acid or Anthrax!

I used to have that attitude toward hot peppers too. Battery acid or worse. Never understood why anyone bothered putting jalapenos in anything. The only taste I got was HEAT.....jalapenos, habaneros...not a dime's worth of difference. Thought those who wrote of a "smokey" or "fruity" taste were being snobs....

But now growing hot peppers...they are, if respected, nice. And they are not all alike:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/886317/

Nice Bhut!! What some people eat and dont eat is physological. I like hot stuff. One thing that bothers me even though I will eat it is Water Chestnuts. They squeek my teeth. So if possibly I will push them off to the side. Some people dont like the texture of a certian food. Some dont like the idea ( like deer meat, I wont eat it as I am sentimental. If I was hungry enough I would eat it).

Food is like an object in some cases, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Taste is either you like it, you dont like, you just put up with it or you cant stand the thought.

Must be the texture. Not much taste to them.

Nothing I do pleases my 89 yr old mom more than making something for her that has waterchesnuts in it.

She is one of those swamp yankees for whom "plain" is the highest virtue in food and everything else. Unseasoned crackers, water chesnuts...these are good eats to her. We kid her over her "secret" apple pie recipe. She hasn't made it in 6 decades but when she did, nothing but apples, flour and shortening went into it. Not using cinnamon was her "secret".

My husbands kids wouldnt eat green string beans. So they ended up coming to visit and eat. I said try them...... They loved them and asked what did I put in them, they are good. I said Pickle Juice.

That was approx. 20 years ago. They go back to moms and try to make green beans with pickle juice. It never worked out as it was not good like mine. My "pickle juice" was garlic powder. I just found out they put real pickle juice in 2 years ago. Laugh till tears ran down our face.