What did you do in the garden today?

[Minanora]

View attachment 3782983

This is what we use. I think we bought the 12 ounce size. We fill to just below the shoulder.

Yes, we also do just sweet Italian peppers too- same: chop, freeze, blend with vinegar and salt, age it.


Pots are great, but they also dry out quicker, so they seem higher maintenance in the heat. But, we use pots to grow some veg or greens on the deck.


Yes!

I freeze lots of my mason jars. Yeah, I've ruined some lids learning, but I haven't broken a single jar. I freeze a lot of chicken stock that I make. I make batches every month or so and I absolutely have no desire to get the pressure canner out to process it. So I make sure to leave plenty of headspace in the jars, and leave them cracked like I would for canning, (I stand the jars upright in a standing freezer) so I can freeze it all. I also freeze my refried beans in jars. Because we eat them so fast there's no point in pressure canning them either.

Eventually I'll get a huge stock pot so I can make more at a time, but that'll be a learning curve as well I'm sure. I also refrigerate my jars before I put them in the freezer. Cold jars freeze better than room temp. Slightly less expansion and less frost on the top of the liquid in the jar.

And.... another one of my semi-related rambles! We also preserve a lot of peppers, onions, garlic and green tomatoes with salt and olive oil, I do those in Mason jars and they get stored in the outside fridge for quite a while. We eat them a lot so they don't last a year. We harvest olives for pressing oil every year at my MILs house. Our family is pretty much it's own co-op... Eventually I want to plant an apple/grape orchard out at our big property to make more vinegars for preserving. We currently use grapes from my home, my sister's, and Mom's. At my house we make wine, meads, beers, and ciders so making vinegars is easy with our setup. It just doesn't currently make enough to process allllll of our pickling projects every year and the timing has to be right. We usually have to buy more vinegars in bulk. We get together and have canning parties most years. Mimosas, outdoor camp stoves running the water bath pots, children running around trying to eat all the fruit we cut up, men washing and sterilizing jars and barbequing. It's a great time!

This is why we garden!

 

[Sally PB]

I'm not saying it's for everyone, but it works for me, along with natural herbal & plant derived supplements.

I checked out the links you posted. Very interesting!

I truly believe that "let food be thy medicine" is a great way to treat a lot of ills. YES, there are times when that won't work, but I'll leave that for now.

I had some severe gut pain a few months ago. About 2" below my sternum. Ok, Dr. Google... what could that be? An ulcer seemed the most likely culprit.

Weeks, probably, to get to see my doc, where everything has to start for insurance purposes, unless it starts in the ER. Referral to another doc, and tests. Maybe it'll resolve on its own...?

Natural treatment for an ulcer... hmmm... several links say cabbage juice. NOT cabbage, the juice. (The pulp is a lot of fiber which might aggravate the issue.)

Recipe was along these lines:
Cabbage, apple with skin, ginger root, some added honey. Water, whiz in the blender and strain well. Drink it down, and repeat for a week.

I added a cup of ginger tea instead of water. Did it for a week. Felt MUCH better on the third day, but kept going for a week. Problem (pain) gone. No idea if I had an ulcer, but if the pain comes back, I will buy another head of red cabbage. I liked the color.

 

[WthrLady]

Varieties of Sweet Corn

• Genetic Types of Sweet Corn
• Standard Sugary (su)
• Sugary Enhanced (se)
• Shrunken-2 (sh2) or Supersweets
• Synergistic (syn)

That said, I don't bother growing my own sweet corn. Here it takes too much space. I'd need a massive stand of it to have it self-protect against wind, and the amount of water vs yield is a no-go on my hill. The ranch downhill a mile or so from me grows a large stand, is on a pivot with his field corn, and I simply purchase from him, or do a swap for tomatoes and horseradish.

 

[WthrLady]

We dropped down to 12'F last night.
::grumble::

 

[fuzzi]

Lots of wind here today. Also one heavy downpour, but that only lasted about half an hour.

I'm waiting for Thursday when I can go out to play in the dirt again!

It's starting to rain. We're expecting 2" this afternoon and evening, 2" more on Thursday.

 

[fuzzi]

View attachment 3782983

This is what we use. I think we bought the 12 ounce size. We fill to just below the shoulder.

Yes, we also do just sweet Italian peppers too- same: chop, freeze, blend with vinegar and salt, age it.


Pots are great, but they also dry out quicker, so they seem higher maintenance in the heat. But, we use pots to grow some veg or greens on the deck.


Yes!

When we're expecting a hurricane or tropical storm I fill up the freezer with bottled water, laid on their sides. I've never had one rupture.

If the power goes out the frozen water helps to keep the freezer cold. And in a pinch we can drink the water.

 

[TJAnonymous]

We dropped down to 12'F last night.
::grumble::

We dropped into the upper 20s. Frost on everything in the garden this morning. I covered the canna lilies but haven't checked them yet to see if they survived.

 

[TJAnonymous]

This is the first time I've used net pots with coco coir to start seeds.

Not a fan.

So far I've started broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, and peppers. All of them have germinated well and start off OK. However within a few weeks, every single plant has had chlorosis.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Will start some plants I bought a larger pot
for my aloe get it moved.
Going to candle the eggs tonight again.

 

[Sally PB]

Near freezing today. It warms up in the next week, 40s and 50s. Thankfully, the overnight lows are around freezing. This should keep everything in check for at least that long.