What did you do in the garden today?

[karenerwin]

Yesterday a friend participated with me in a 5K (we walked it) to raise money to research PSP. I don't remember what the initials stand for but it is a rare disease/illness that my niece's father in law has. Over a year or 2 he has lost the ability to walk and talk ( and that is just what I see as an outsider not involved in his life on a daily basis). He is only in his late 50's/early 60's.
Afterwards we went back to my friend's house and canned Cave City, Arkansas watermelon jam. She swears Cave City watermelon is the best! Neither of us had ever made ( or even heard of ) watermelon jam before! It turned out really good. We made 3 batches and only used 1/3 of a big watermelon.

WATERMELON JAM
2 cups watermelon mashed up ( include all the juice)
1/4 cup lemon juice ( we did 1 batch with lime juice and it was really good!)
2 cups sugar
Cook to a roiling boil while stirring
add 1 pack low sugar or no sugar pectin while whisking!
boil for 1 minute (roiling boil) while stirring
turn down and simmer for 20 minutes ( we stirred continuously, but the recipe said stir every minute.
Then put into jars and water bath 10 minutes
We got 3 to 3 1/2 jars each batch ( 1/2 pint jars)
10 jars from 3 batches plus a small dish to eat right now!

 

[pennyJo1960]

Adding it to my list Thank you Karen never heard of it but BF said worth trying

 

[Sueby]

That jam sounds interesting!

I held the girls in for a couple hours, then let them out when i no longer saw that hawk.

 

[pennyJo1960]

have you any bushes or shrubs that can be used for protection

 

[WthrLady]

Afternoon all.
I took the tomatoes from the last three days and ran them through the kitchenaid puree thingy. I now have a gallon of puree. I WANT to can it, but I can't stand the lemon/citric acid they tell you to add now. CAN"T STAND IT.

So I think I'll just small batch freeze it to make it into sauces later.

I have another batch on the counter that will be ripe enough to do the same in a couple of days. If I don't grab them just before they are fully ripe, they crack and explode for all the rain.

Next few days we'll be over 100 with the humidity. The tomatoes will love that.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Sounds like a good days work there @WthrLady might do some of the myself if I can get enough to bother mine are not showing color fast enough

 

[Melky]

We had half green half red tomatoes and made smoked salmon on toast made by my husband. Me made low-fat sour cream dill spread for the bread. We brined the tomatoes in my dill pickle brine. Laid out dill pickle spears left that I canned from the garden. Made salad on the side. Way good! I find I like green tomatoes like this if you can’t ripen all the way epicurious has darn good recipes for green tomatoes. We also planted herbs and salad lettuce for fall.Sadly my cucumbers died out and none for pickles this year. I have to plant twice as many next year because my husband eats those up raw in hummus so fast. No zucchini took this year but have squash coming in now. We also planted kale for fall.

 

[pennyJo1960]

World class corn dogs here tonight

Corn Dogs
Ingredients

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus 1 cup more to precoat the digs
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 1 /2 cup milk
• 1 quart vegetable oil for frying
• 2 (16 ounce) packages beef frankfurters
• 16 wooden skewers

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, salt, pepper, sugar and baking powder. Stir in eggs and milk. mix should be less thin than a corn pup

2. Preheat oil in a deep saucepan over medium heat. Dry dogs with a towel then insert wooden skewers into frankfurters. Roll frankfurters flour then in batter until well coated.

3. Fry 2 or 3 corn dogs at a time until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

 

[Sueby]

have you any bushes or shrubs that can be used for protection

No, just gigantic oak trees for the hawks to sit in, LOL! They have a pallet leaned against the fence they can go under but I'm not sure they're that savvy! They never had any older birds or a rooster to teach them anything & they're young so I don't think they're very street smart, if you will.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. I got a nice little surprise in the garden this morning. I found a slightly overgrown pickling cucumber hanging vertically so it was hard to see and on the squash plant I pulled up last week (?) I found a fully developed yellow squash. I picked a couple of pounds of Roma tomatoes, some carrots and cherry tomatoes. I don't wait until my tomatoes get too ripe @WthrLady, last year the squirrels ate a lot of them and this year I don't have any to spare, so they finish ripening inside. I canned the last of the pickles and froze the rest of the peaches yesterday. I'm taking it a little easier today. It was so hot last night I had to turn on the AC. It is so noisy I didn't sleep well at all. Today is supposed to be in the 90's again and humid, ugh! The chickens are laying like crazy so I started refrigerating the eggs. They should last a few months in the frige thankfully because my hens will likely stop laying soon and my 3 pullets are laying smaller eggs. Oh @penny1960 I so love corndogs. I'll save this recipe to make sometime. Thank you. Have a great day everyone!
Here's my mid August surprise.