What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

Rounds? Or large squares? I put in regular 50-60lb bales.

Around here plowing under or chaff a field of alfalfa isn’t really an option, we can always get a 3rd and many times a 4th cut. Need to remove what’s there to let it grow up again.

Such misery trying to get hay in. Well it’s will think good thoughts for you - and here is hoping next year is a more normal year for you

Mini rounds. 70 pounders.

 

[WthrLady]

The laugh is for the hay comment , past two years I had to put it up with help from my family - usually I purchase and have them put it up for me. But next to impossible to get small squares and absolutely impossible to get anyone to put them up if you can.

My garden is flourishing with all the rain here! No veggies but lots of flowers - my fruit trees blossoms got hit by an extremely late heavy frost, so no pears, peaches, cherries or plums this year.

That's why I put up my own hay. We used to be at the mercy of a square bale contract baler. He never showed up when I needed horse quality hay done. It would get rained on. Bales were poorly tied, etc.
I do it all, but DH does help me stack it in the shed, as I cannot lift them above my shoulders. It is my least favourite job on the ranch. By design it on the hottest most miserable days of the year.

 

[WthrLady]

Rounds? Or large squares? I put in regular 50-60lb bales.

Around here plowing under or chaff a field of alfalfa isn’t really an option, we can always get a 3rd and many times a 4th cut. Need to remove what’s there to let it grow up again.

Such misery trying to get hay in. Well it’s will think good thoughts for you - and here is hoping next year is a more normal year for you

not plowing under, mowing it, chopping it so it fertilizes down.

 

[TJAnonymous]

OK peeps... I need some advice. Since my food mill has COMPLETELY DISAPPEARED, I gotta figure out a way to process these tomatoes to can for spaghetti sauce. I started to simply mash them through a strainer (see below) but that seems to leave behind a lot of pulp that I imagine I'd want in the sauce, right? So should I just put the boiled tomatoes in the blender to mash them up and forget about trying to strain out the seeds? Should I continue using the mesh strainer? If so, what to do with all the pulp left behind?

 

[WthrLady]

When I was a kid, we cored them, 'X' the bottom and dipped them in boiling water and then into ice water to remove the skins easily. Then we cut them in half, scooped out the majority of the seeds and squishy pulp, then tossed into a pot and simmered them. Then the whole thing was put into a french mill, and sometimes simmered more then canned. OR we would just raw pack the cleaned halves

 

[TJAnonymous]

When I was a kid, we cored them, 'X' the bottom and dipped them in boiling water and then into ice water to remove the skins easily. Then we cut them in half, scooped out the majority of the seeds and squishy pulp, then tossed into a pot and simmered them. Then the whole thing was put into a french mill, and sometimes simmered more then canned. OR we would just raw pack the cleaned halvesView attachment 3589187

When I run it through the mesh strainer, I'm pretty much only ending up with juice. No pulp. That's why I'm frustrated.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

When I run it through the mesh strainer, I'm pretty much only ending up with juice. No pulp. That's why I'm frustrated.

I throw it all in my vitamix blender, blend it up and simmer it all day.

 

[WthrLady]

When I run it through the mesh strainer, I'm pretty much only ending up with juice. No pulp. That's why I'm frustrated.

Difference between the mesh you look to be using and a tomato french mill which is holes. You can try a colander if you have one, otherwise an immersion/stick blender or a regular one and call it a day, Crack the opening on the lid if your tomatoes are hot, let some steam out.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Difference between the mesh you look to be using and a tomato french mill which is holes. You can try a colander if you have one, otherwise an immersion/stick blender or a regular one and call it a day, Crack the opening on the lid if your tomatoes are hot, let some steam out.

Seeds will easily slip through the colander which is actually what I want to filter out. Oh well. I ended up with 6 pints of crushed tomatoes and a gallon of juice from the first batch of tomatoes. I'm putting them in the canner and then calling it a night. I will do the 2nd batch of tomatoes tomorrow night. Maybe by then I'll figure out how to filter out the seeds. Or maybe I'll just put them through the blender and simmer all day.

 

[DotToDot]

Today the garden was tough. Mostly because there were so many cute animals in it! I let my chickens loose to weed it out for me, and found two toads! Luckily I let them out before the chickens could grab them. And I also found a chipmunk. As for productive work, I planted some lavender and oregano. One of my chickens managed to lead me to an unexpected strawberry patch as well. Guess I’ll be making jam this summer.