Better Be Planting This Year. 2022+ And Up MEGATHREAD

Round two of canning. I almost bought an immersion blender today for this sauce. I am mixing in a lot of slicing tomatoes so my first batch was pretty watery after straining it - even after i reduced it about 50%. But we skipped the blender, didn’t strain it, and left it pretty chunky. It looks pretty good!

I haven’t done all these yet. About half of the slicing and cherries are left. I plan to crush or dice them for canning tomorrow.

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Mountain said:
Ima plant Romas next year. Mrs. Mountain picked up an immersion blender for my bisque making adventure and it did a fantastic job of turning the lumpy cooking tomatoes into a smooth bisque. Ridiculously easy- just put in cooking pot and press button.
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Ah yes, the immersion blender (a.k.a. the "boat motor") - we had a battery operated one but it bit the dust some time ago - they really do do a great job.
 
Mountain said:
Ima plant Romas next year. Mrs. Mountain picked up an immersion blender for my bisque making adventure and it did a fantastic job of turning the lumpy cooking tomatoes into a smooth bisque. Ridiculously easy- just put in cooking pot and press button.
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Mine did well last year but I did indeterminates this year. The nice thing about Romas (determinate) is that you get the crop all at once and you can process all at once rather than here and there. I plan to do some next year as well.
 
Mountain said:
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LOL, fancy! I will have to try these next season rather than Roma. Good source for seeds? Might try some indoors over the winter- I have lights.
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Yes they get the sophisticated bowl… 71082418-9528-4293-AB77-C2B6038740A1.jpeg

I haven’t bought tomato seeds in years. I’m fairly certain they’re widely available. If you can’t find them, PM me and I’ll send you some.

Any good chef prefers the San Marzano. The taste is spectacular.

I have an Italian friend. She’s hard core and refuses to admit these are San Marzano as true San Marzano must be grown in San Marzano.

When I give her some for sauce I call them San Edwardos.
 
Medicine Man said:
Any good chef prefers the San Marzano. The taste is spectacular.

I have an Italian friend. She’s hard core and refuses to admit these are San Marzano as true San Marzano must be grown in San Marzano.

When I give her some for sauce I call them San Edwardos.
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Your Italian friend is correct [pot] - nice harvest on the San Edwardos !
 
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Anyone else pick their 'maters near this stage? Paranoid about bugs/birds so I usually try to get them if theyre far enough along (note these are the Rose variety). Also lots of green ones still on the vine so I try to free up their resources so to speak.
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FunnerGunner said:
Anyone else pick their 'maters near this stage? Paranoid about bugs/birds so I usually try to get them if theyre far enough along (note these are the Rose variety). Also lots of green ones still on the vine so I try to free up their resources so to speak.
View attachment 655223
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So, if a perfectly ripe tomato is a value of 10.
I pick when around 8 and finish on my counter...
 
Cross-Pollination Note:

I had planted traditional green zucchinis and Golden zucchinis (first time for the Golden.) In the beginning I was getting correctly colored zucc's, but now I am getting
Golden zucc's with green crowns and bums with a little green streaking. They look nice and taste nice. The greens have not deviated at all.

Bees must have had a busy week... 🤔
 
enbloc said:
Cross-Pollination Note:

I had planted traditional green zucchinis and Golden zucchinis (first time for the Golden.) In the beginning I was getting correctly colored zucc's, but now I am getting
Golden zucc's with green crowns and bums with a little green streaking. They look nice and taste nice. The greens have not deviated at all.

Bees must have had a busy week... 🤔
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The golden seed mustve been crossed already or its some other mutation. Cross pollination only affects the next gen fruits, not the current season fruits
 
FunnerGunner said:
The golden seed mustve been crossed already or its some other mutation. Cross pollination only affects the next gen fruits, not the current season fruits
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Weird. The first dozen or so I picked were perfect goldens. Only the last few were FrankenZuccs.

We live in a crazy world...
 
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Tonight I made Gnocchi Bolognese (GF). It was great to source the veggies from my garden. I used my preserved tomato sauce,
carrot, scallion, zucchini (subbed for celery), basil, and parsley. The yellow onion was from the farm stand. Other ingredients were lean ground beef, gf gnocchi, and seasonings. Sautéed and simmered in cast iron skillet. Added some fresh grated parm and mozzarella for in oven melt. Ridiculously delicious and fresh. 🍷
 
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I had a lot of success in the garden this year, but this is what I’m most excited about. I have never had success with watermelon before. I have another one this size still in the garden and one or two slightly smaller. Plus two almost this size that I picked a bit early.

I think a lot of my success this year was because it was a first year garden, near the bottom of a hill, on a property that I believe was heavily fertilized forever (lawn), in a town where everyone (except me) heavily fertilizes their lawn. So I think my organic garden may have been working with the cumulative effect of years of non-organic fertilizer. We’ll see what happens next year. I’m still hopeful I’ll be able to keep it running on chicken manure. I have a lot of that.



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Boarder700 said:
I had a lot of success in the garden this year, but this is what I’m most excited about. I have never had success with watermelon before. I have another one this size still in the garden and one or two slightly smaller. Plus two almost this size that I picked a bit early.

I think a lot of my success this year was because it was a first year garden, near the bottom of a hill, on a property that I believe was heavily fertilized forever (lawn), in a town where everyone (except me) heavily fertilizes their lawn. So I think my organic garden may have been working with the cumulative effect of years of non-organic fertilizer. We’ll see what happens next year. I’m still hopeful I’ll be able to keep it running on chicken manure. I have a lot of that.



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Sometimes you just get the right nutrients, water, sun, etc... and great things happen - congrats!
 
I'm thankful for the bounty we have received. I would just ask for more time in the day to process and store it all!

Did another load of tomato sauce in quarts. I'm getting flack because "we dont use that much sauce at dinner, just a pint will do." Sorry, hunny buns, we used twice as many pint jars for your cucumbers than we planned for.

Will be doing a batch of cowboy candy tomorrow with the lemon spice jalapenos. Yum.
 
Picked some basil so my wife can make and freeze pesto - those are qt jars.

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I planned to pick it all, but even after that haul I still have this left.

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Thank you God for this garden and what it has provided. And thank you for letting my boys witness it from seed to table. Really perfect timing because I started reading my boys Harry Potter and my 4yo quickly fell in love with it and “magic”. I’m glad he gets to see that His magic is real and all around us if we pay attention and put in faith, love, hope, and hard work.
 
@Cara Fett and I came into some lemon seeds from fruit-bearing trees from her grandmother's SoCal home. We're not in a position to start indoor/greenhouse growing yet and no longer have access to the trees for additional fruit or seeds.

Suggestions for long-term citrus seed storage? Sealed mylar with an oxy absorber? Fridge or cool basement?

Since we can't get more seeds from the garden, these are potential heirloom seeds and we don't want to mess that up.
 
kieron said:
@Cara Fett and I came into some lemon seeds from fruit-bearing trees from her grandmother's SoCal home. We're not in a position to start indoor/greenhouse growing yet and no longer have access to the trees for additional fruit or seeds.

Suggestions for long-term citrus seed storage? Sealed mylar with an oxy absorber? Fridge or cool basement?

Since we can't get more seeds from the garden, these are potential heirloom seeds and we don't want to mess that up.
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You really need to get them in dirt, even if you need to grow them indoors to start. Citrus seeds are not meant for storage and will either rot or dry out
 


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