What did you do in the garden today?

[akroberts1085]

@TJAnonymous and @gtaus i have the Food Saver brand vacuum sealer (Walmart carries it as does many other places here). I have had mine probably 10 years and use it all the time. I recently found a bag of sliced peaches in my freezer from 2017. They looked perfect. I used them to make a cobbler and it was delicious! I had other bags ( just ziplock , not vacuum sealed) of peaches from last year and they had turned brown and were very soft and mushy. I had to throw those out.
I also vacuum seal meats and veggies (yes, I blanch the veggies first) and it works wonderfully for those too.
If I have liquid ( like soups) that I want to vacuum seal I first seal one end of the bag, fill with the soup ( or whatever ) stand it in the freezer until frozen and then vacuum seal the other end.
Hubby still in the hospital. Might come home Saturday

I hope your husband gets better soon.

 

[CNJ]

Evidently, I need to use a sterile growing medium or some kind of hydroponic system so the bugs won't infect the plants.

Soilless potting mix like peat mixed with perlite, coco coir, coco chips, rock wool or clay pebbles work with Kratky systems.

 

[MotherofOrpies]

I personally have come to the conclusion that fair judging is biased, and who should subject themselves to human rules and judgment? Beauty and taste are in the eye of the beholder, as well as value. I have never entered anything in any fair, though tempted to want to compete for the ribbons and honors. Others may feel different, but man has no right to judge anything God creates, or that I make. What man deems not ribbon worthy all has a purpose. We know when that batch is or is not according to our standards. We are stewards, gardeners, kitchen wizards, and we do what we can to the best of our ability.

I personally think that exchange is the way to go! Since I’ve got chickens, I’ve got to know so many other chicken and garden owners, and I’ve learned a lot from them!! Just as a few have learned from me, so, comparing things isn’t always bad, es long as you don’t “degrade” others and am ready to learn new stuff.. just for example, I was always lugging a full (!) pot of clean water out to the chickens, trying not to spill it, what did my friend do?! She easily carried the empty pot to the chickens, then filled up a watering can with clean water and filled the pot with it! Easy, peasy, but I had been lugging full pots outside for 3 years
And most plants I have in my garden I also got from exchange among other garden friends, I got autumn raspberries, peaches, empress tree, the list goes on, in exchange I gave dahlias, walnut tree saplings and other seedlings, I love it

 

[saysfaa]

...
My hubby got to come home today from the hospital! He now has gout too but he’s glad to be home....

, , .

He might try tart cherries. The equivalent of ten per day. The easiest way is dried. Then juice, jam, or keeping a bag in the freezer to take them from.

If you dehydrate your own, you can get them without the sugar you usually find in grocery store options (and they taste better, I think). Cherry season is over but you can dry frozen cherries, if y'all like the dried.

I saw research on this for gout (long ago; I don't have it easy to get to now) so I think it is more than an old wives tail. On the other hand, we don't have gout and eat that many nearly every day in our oatmeal.

It has to be tart cherries, though, not sweet cherries. Balaton is a tart cherry that tastes closer to a sweet cherry than the typical tart variety (Montmorency) if taste is an issue.

Gtaus, you might be interested too.

 

[MotherofOrpies]

I am sure they told you in the hospital that hubby has to steer clear of innards like liver, heart, kidneys ?! Also no canned meats , sausage or certain fatty fish like salmon, trout or chicken skin …to stop smoking, reduce weight and get exercising should be a no brainer , and alcohol isn’t doing him any favors either it sucks, but if he leads a healthy regiment, he is allowed some meals with forbidden stuff, as long as it isn’t too often

 

[littledog]

Along this topic... I had several jars of blackberry jelly from 2020 that never set up properly. It's all basically syrup. Someone told me previously to use it on ice cream but that will honestly never happen here. I will probably end up just dumping it....

A couple years ago I had blueberry "supposed-to-be-jam" that was runny like that - I kept it and made it into "blueberry soda" by mixing 1-1 with soda water, one liter at a time to take to work.

 

[littledog]

At any rate, I paid almost nothing for this one, so I won't feel bad if it does not work out for us.

Looks like an excellent score!

 

[littledog]

Someone here posted something about blanching green beans in the microwave. You might research that to see if it's something you'd want to try.

That was me, but some others of us have tried it and didn't get good results.

When I blanch green beans in the microwave, I use a flat rectangular dish that holds about a quart of beans 3" deep, fill with water about 1" deep, then microwave on high for 2 minutes. They get steamed, but not too cooked - then I let them cool to room temperature, pack them in freezer bags or containers, and put in the freezer.

 

[chickengr]

I make single sized freezer bags of soup now whenever we make chili, chicken tortilla soup, potato soup, etc. I like being able to pull out a bag for lunch here and there since I work from home. Currently, I put the bag in some boiling water just to help the thaw process a little. Once it's a little slushy, I dump in the pan to reheat fully or in the microwave.

I don't like to microwave plastic such as cling wrap, baggies, etc. Too much potential for harmful toxins to seep from the plastic into your food. If food needs covered, I will use paper towels instead.

x2

 

[littledog]

We finally got our laundry room back!
We got the adolescent chicks put in with the adults, and the 6-week-olds into the adjacent pen where the adolescents used to be. Then hosed, bleached and stored the brooder and chick feeders.
So fun to see the little ones explore their bigger area, and to see how the adolescents stay in their own group but start to interact with the adults.