What did you do in the garden today?

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. We got a heavier frost this morning. Surprisingly the okra plants still look good. I did pick two okra yesterday afternoon. There are still green beans hanging on and the four "personal size" butternut squash are starting to ripen. The temps are warming up to the 70's today and the overnight temps only in the 50's so I just may get a few more vegetables. There are about 4 jalapenos developing so I'll wait and see on them. I went shopping for mums yesterday and was delighted to find some black eyed susans. I'll be planting them in my cutting garden. I think with the two plants they will spread and help fill out that space. I have the tulips and allium bulbs as well. I'm saving the zinnia seeds for next year. In spite of the drought they did pretty good. Those tiny gourds are adorable @Acre4Me. I'm not sure if I'm trying gourds again. My bird house gourds were totally non productive. I've got sourdough bread working its first rise and I need to mow and tidy up the front yard. After I mow I want to fill in a deep dip in the yard and plant grass seed on it. I'm hoping it'll use up a lot of my remaining pile of dirt in the driveway. No garden pictures today, but I got a nice shot of Lou, my groundhog crossing the backyard headed for his "doorway" under the chicken coop. In this shot he was about 18 feet from me. He doesn't bother with the chickens and they pretty much ignore him as well. Have a great day everyone.

 

[Battles house]

Thanks for the info @NewBoots and @Sueby. Don't have compost and the hubs is not going to be too happy to hear i am starting one. He thinks I am going through a mid life crisis because I want better food grown at our house at it is. Between the chickens and gardening he has been very accommodating and helpful. He still thinks I'm a little crazy. Though he has always known I was.

Nice catch on the pic @Wee Farmer Sarah. I have a mole I have been trying to get a glimpse of for a couple years. Almost did once. Wish it would quit tearing up my yard.

Checked on the peppers still growing this morning and something is eating small bits of my bell peppers. Just enough to ruin the pepper and it is driving me nuts. I have lost more than I have gotten to harvest. Any thoughts?

 

[Sueby]

@Battles house my DH gave up even bothering to question my insanity - it is what it is. He just helps me when I ask & knows somehow in the end he'll get a tasty bite to eat out of it. Sooner or later.

So here's my attempt at hot sauce @Compost King! On the left is just a cooked, not milled sauce - I'm working on flavorings & such with those. In the middle is a jar I have fermenting, getting a bunch more from a neighbor to ferment. On the left, 1 is pineapple ginger & garlic & the other is mango lime - both made & then milled from the sauce on the left. They are all WAY too hot for me to eat but so far DH has liked them. They are made with mostly habanero, thai chili & a tiny bit of carolina reaper & jalapeno. Basically a mix of what my friend grew. I'm hoping to test the PH & to can some of them.

Lou is too cute! I have one living under my shed. He doesn't bother anyone.

 

[Battles house]

How come every time I come into this thread I get hungry.

 

[Compost King]

@Sueby it could take some experimenting until you make something you really like. I can say I liked all the hot sauces I made this year when I tried them but I also got sick of all of them after a few days. I am making them in smaller jars now so when I get sick of them I will have less waste. Eventually I will have a fermenting recipe I like enough to go back to larger jars.

 

[Sueby]

@Compost King that makes total sense. It's super hard for me because I can't taste them to test them, they're too hot for me! But those little jars of finished sauce are only 4oz so I wouldn't be sad if he got sick of them quickly. He likes to add suuuper hot sauce to sriracha to give it a good kick so he may not get sick of any of them, we'll see.

Do you like the fermented sauces better? I (obviously) haven't gotten that far yet. Have you canned any of yours, like water bath canned? I just tested & the PH is 3.4 & 3.6. I'd add a little lime juice to the pineapple to bring it down under 3.5 just to be safe & compensate for error.

 

[NewBoots]

I made and canned the Rotel Tomatoes that someone posted on here for me. They turned out really good!

That was @igorsMistress, and the reason I know is I just looked it up to find that recipe.

It's a little too early for garlic, but I've been collecting it from my own garden, local farmers & online so that'll be ready to go in the ground soon, I'm planning on planting a whole bed of it, tons!

I finally got off the dime this morning and started clearing the beds for fall planting. I'm planting a ton of garlic too, the stuff I so casually planted last fall turned out great! And I even moved it once after it was planted. I think I'll fill the first bed with garlic and shallots. The shallots planted last winter did crazy well so i want to see if I can get the same results with a fall planting.

Checked on the peppers still growing this morning and something is eating small bits of my bell peppers. Just enough to ruin the pepper and it is driving me nuts. I have lost more than I have gotten to harvest. Any thoughts?

I've had that happen with my sweet peppers this year too, tiny hole=ruined pepper. In my case I think it's slugs or snails, we have hoards of both here. They don't seem to like my hot peppers enough to damage them.

I just tested & the PH is 3.4 & 3.6.

I've been meaning to ask, what ph meter do you use and do you recommend it? It would be nice for canning I'd think. Then I'd know if I could water bath the salsas I keep thinking about making. Or if I make too much fresh salsa and need to can the excess.

Actually got out and dug up the first raised bed except for the carrots that are actually doing well now that all the overgrown kale is gone. I mixed in some bunny poop and mixed it in. That's going to be the garlic and shallot bed this season. I think I'll plant the winter greens in the squash bed once I get that cleared out. The squash did well, I'll plant the same varieties next year, just arrange them differently.

Now I need to look up the recipe for mini corn-dogs I saw in a video last night. I could add a little chopped jalapeno to half of them. @Battles house, we don't eat breakfast in our house so I usually hit this board close enough to brunch that all I can think of is the food I'll be fixing soon and the recipes posted.

 

[Battles house]

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we don't eat breakfast in our house so I usually hit this board close enough to brunch that all I can think of is the food I'll be fixing soon and the recipes posted.

I dont eat breakfast either just my girls. Everyone makes such good sounding food in here for sure. Even the hot sauce makes me think of sour cream with fresh fried chips and hot sauce.

 

[Sueby]

I've been meaning to ask, what ph meter do you use and do you recommend it? It would be nice for canning I'd think. Then I'd know if I could water bath the salsas I keep thinking about making. Or if I make too much fresh salsa and need to can the excess.

I use this one. It came with 3 packs of solution you can mix up to calibrate it. I have no complaints, but I don't know much about them. Seems pretty accurate, I was sticking it in everything, LOL!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M5IASHD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

@Battles house sour cream with the hot sauce that's too hot for me is a GREAT idea! Thank you! Now maybe I can eat some of it!

 

[Compost King]

Do you like the fermented sauces better?

Not really, I prefer vinegar based sauces, that's why I started soaking (more like dissolving if left long enough)) Cayenne Peppers in Apple Cider Vinegar and mixing that vinegar with the ferments. The Ferments seem to put the flavor of a fruit into the sauce without the sweetness. Vinegar can be too tangy for a sauce so the mix with a hot vinegar is working out nice. I noticed I like mine light on the ferments and heavy on Vinegar, its likely a personal preference more than a norm. I took all the peels from the fruits I used to make ferments and froze them until I had enough to fill a gallon container and I am currently making vinegar from them. Last week I removed the fruit peels/chunks and it stunk (told its normal). It smelled like rotting fruit and Nail Polish Remover last week and this week its starting to smell like Vinegar. I have another 1 to 3 weeks before its ready. Its my first time making vinegar.