What did you do in the garden today?

[pennyJo1960]

Not so old if we can keep learning every day!

 

[akroberts1085]

Not so old if we can keep learning every day!

I know because I'm learning how to can my pomegranates into jelly I'm just really hoping that I don't mess it up to bad.

 

[Sally PB]

35 degrees up at the house. This is the coldest I've seen yet. It might be the end of the bean plants. I'll see in a few hours. I'll be really impressed if they made it.

 

[jerryse]

Another frosty morning. Warming trend next 5 days. I will start my day around the fire pit hulling walnuts. I washed what I had hulled in a barrel and stirred them with a paint/drywall mud stirrer. Removes a lot of the black. Laid out to dry and covered with wire to keep squirrels out. About half float but due to how much hull or black gunk is on them. Most of the floaters are good. Learned a lot over the years. Cracked with a hammer as a kid. Then with a vise and now with a cracker. Dog will keep me company and I have a radio on.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Heavy frost this morning. I did not sleep all that well last night. The moon was so bright it was like daylight all night. I’ll be checking on the fall garden after I finish my coffee and feed the chickens. Busy for the next few days so likely no garden work until Sunday.

 

[Sueby]

Morning. Doesn't look like we even got a frost, but I'll know in a couple hours if stuff is dead.

Here's my report on making zucchini flour.
View attachment 3960966
The biggest one (bottom) weighed about 5 pounds. I didn't weigh the rest. I sliced it with a mandoline, about 1/8" thick. The problem with that is the thin slices do this when you try to peel them off:
View attachment 3960968
Yeah, they stick to the tray liner, which is a plastic mesh.

So the next batch, I sliced by hand, about 3/16-1/4" thick. And, after about 4 hours of dry time, I turned each slice over. This did two things: It put a semi-dry surface against the mesh, and it put the damper side up, so it could dry faster.

When it was time to remove the pieces, they came off very cleanly.

Next step was to pulverize them in the blender. I have a Blendtech, and I used it on speed #9 for about 20 seconds. Powder! In fact, I learned it was a good idea to leave the top on for a few minutes, so the flour would settle and not floof out when I took off the lid.

Those zucchini made 2 pint jars of flour. I haven't made anything with it yet. I think a loaf of zucchini bread might be a good thing to try it out. I have a GF recipe that uses almond flour and I think I'll look online to see what kind of ratio people have used successfully.

Have you used the flour yet? I'm so interested in this! Maybe even as a breading for like...fried zucchini. . (I don't eat regular flour)

I just got a delivery from Baker Creek, with some amaranth seeds thrown in as the free gift. Not sure what to do with amaranth, but I think it's edible.

I'm going to try planting some of the onion and shallot seeds in the garden this fall.

View attachment 3966673

My neighbor always grew amaranth, I think she made a flour out of it. I think you can also eat it like a quinoa.

 

[Acre4Me]

I’m probably digging up sweet potatoes today. Pic is from pre-frost, a few days ago. Looking pretty good. Today, they are rather unhappy with 2 nights of near/at freezing.

Husband had surgery yesterday, is doing pretty well, but restricted for awhile. So, he’s going to help me from sitting in a chair. I’ll let him brush off dirt and place into containers. I have to set up the curing area beforehand. We use the portable greenhouses. Tented with plastic, a heater inside and a source of water. Give them 10 days to cure before storing.

Then, I’ll probably dig up a section of carrots to bring inside for fresh eating and cooking.

Peas, beets and mustard planted for the fall is looking good. Not sure if we will get much from the peas or beets, might have planted a bit late. But, time will tell - hopefully we have some success!

 

[TJAnonymous]

I have a hawk harassing my chickens and ducks. It hasn't attacked any yet but it's been here for 4 days straight now. I keep running it off and it keeps coming back. I don't have any way to keep my chickens contained. My overhead nets got destroyed and I had to take them down so a lot of my flock just flies over the fence to let themselves out to free range. Anyway, I started shooting off fireworks (bottle rockets) in hopes that will be a more forceful deterrent but I have to be careful because we are under a burn ban and extreme wildfire danger.

 

[Smokerbill]

I started prepping half of another raised bed for next year but got sidetracked into pulling some T-posts out of the ground. Some of them were pounded deep in clay soil so it took nearly 1.5 hours to get them all out. But it was good exercise, and enough work for one day.

The bed-half I was working on (the south half) will be where I plant onions and shallots this fall/next spring.

The raised beds are oriented with the narrow sides facing north and south, and this spring I made the mistake of planting tomatoes in the south half of the bed. They got so tall that they shaded the plants growing in the north half of the bed. That was one reason my peppers did so poorly. They were in too much shade.

So from now on, tall plants go in at the north ends of the beds and short crops in the south ends. That should prevent any shading problems.

 

[Smokerbill]

I have a hawk harassing my chickens and ducks. It hasn't attacked any yet but it's been here for 4 days straight now. I keep running it off and it keeps coming back. I don't have any way to keep my chickens contained. My overhead nets got destroyed and I had to take them down so a lot of my flock just flies over the fence to let themselves out to free range. Anyway, I started shooting off fireworks (bottle rockets) in hopes that will be a more forceful deterrent but I have to be careful because we are under a burn ban and extreme wildfire danger.

Would it be possible for you to run strands of cheap monofilament fishing line where the overhead net was? Hang a few pieces of fabric or other things here and there on the line and it might be enough to stop birds from passing in or out.

This thread mentions using fishing line.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/hawks-fishing-line.1101729/