What did you do in the garden today?

[karenerwin]

More pears to can today . 9 quarts yesterday . Trying my hand at crossing tomatoes this year .

What is crossing tomatoes? Did you mean canning tomatoes?

 

[karenerwin]

We had LOTS of rain and more flash floods here this evening. We took my daughter, her boyfriend, his 2 yr old son, my mother, my husband and myself out for dinner to celebrate my daughter's 22nd birthday!! Of course we get to the restaurant in the middle of a torrential downpour! My mother uses a walker so both she and I were drenched by the time I got it out of the trunk and she was able to get out of the car and make her way to the door of the restaurant. My dress was soaked all the way through and that was with me wearing a jacket! But we had a real nice dinner.
When we got home I tried my hand at making the Grape Conserves that @IamRainey put on here. I just made a half batch. It turned out really good,although I have a hard time getting used to the nuts in it.
The rooster that I traded for tomatoes did not end up making it. I told the story in the "how many eggs did you get" thread.
My friend had gotten a rooster from me before ( a coyote ended up getting him as he was protecting the hens) so I did not think there would be a problem. I am going to give/trade him another rooster but this time I will insist that he travels in a box or that his wife is with him.
Also, he heard that I had made salsa and wants to trade salsa for his tomatoes, but I really don't think the salsa will be spicy enough for him. Does any one have a good tomato salsa recipe? The one I made was from a kit at the store that comes with all the spices pre-measured out for you.

 

[jerryse]

What is crossing tomatoes? Did you mean canning tomatoes?

No breeding tomatoes . Crossing 2 varieties to make a hybrid then stabilizing the traits in following generations creating a new open pollinated variety with traits I want .

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. Yesterday was my birthday and I had a nice day. My freezer was delivered, awesome! I ran it for a few hours and then transferred the food from my little freezer. It's so cool, I can actually see what I have in there without have to dig. I discovered a number of jars of stock I had made last winter. So while picking tomatoes this morning I pulled a leek (still small but good) and I thought a nice quick leek soup would be nice for tonight's dinner. I need to can the ripest tomatoes today and try to get some baking done. I do need to make a quick trip to the store to buy among other things, some ice cube trays. While hanging with my peeps yesterday afternoon I saw a hummingbird. This was the best picture I could get with my cellphone. Salsa recipes @karenerwin, try the ball canning website. I've only made the cherry tomato and corn salsa but it was really good so I have made 2 batches of it. But they have other salsa recipes as well. Good luck. Have a great day everyone.

 

[WthrLady]

Hay is cut and laying wet on the ground for day 2. Heaven forbid the guy that cut it actually LISTEN to a meteorologist when she says, it's going to rain, are you sure you want to cut it?! Dang it.

The quality of the bales will be nutritional crap, but at least the herd gets it's vitamins and minerals from their feed. Most herds aren't as lucky.

As soon as the rain lets up, I'll walk the garden and remove more tomatoes for puree.

I took one look at my chores chart yesterday morning after feeding the animals, and said, out loud, the heck with it. I went to the city to a honey shop, and to the market, and the outlet mall for the whole day. OC all my garbage is still waiting for me today, but I had to get off the ranch.

Beyond walking the garden, I'll work on organizing the storage area on the lower level, then maybe head out to the workshop and get some stuff done out there. Maybe I can talk DH into going into the village for pizza for lunch. (first day of university football here, so pizza/pub might be full)

 

[karenerwin]

Good morning gardeners. Yesterday was my birthday and I had a nice day. My freezer was delivered, awesome! I ran it for a few hours and then transferred the food from my little freezer. It's so cool, I can actually see what I have in there without have to dig. I discovered a number of jars of stock I had made last winter. So while picking tomatoes this morning I pulled a leek (still small but good) and I thought a nice quick leek soup would be nice for tonight's dinner. I need to can the ripest tomatoes today and try to get some baking done. I do need to make a quick trip to the store to buy among other things, some ice cube trays. While hanging with my peeps yesterday afternoon I saw a hummingbird. This was the best picture I could get with my cellphone. Salsa recipes @karenerwin, try the ball canning website. I've only made the cherry tomato and corn salsa but it was really good so I have made 2 batches of it. But they have other salsa recipes as well. Good luck. Have a great day everyone.
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I've made the corn and cherry tomato salsa this month already and I agree, It's good! But I will check to see what other ideas they have that are not in either of the Ball canning books I have. Thanks and Happy birthday! Yesterday was my daughter's birthday too!

 

[karenerwin]

Here is the zucchini that my daughter gave me yesterday. One of her co workers brought it in. It weighs 5 pounds 11 ounces! Probably full of seeds, but that's okay. The chickens will love them and hopefully I can make some zucchini bread as well.

 

[pennyJo1960]

@Wee Farmer Sarah happy birthday did not know hope for a great year ahead

 

[Acre4Me]

@Wee Farmer Sarah

Happy Birthday!!! Hope you got to enjoy yourself!

 

[karenerwin]

Used the last of the Concord grapes I bought to make low sugar grape jelly recipe! I got 7 (and a half ) half pints. I picked another pound of pole green beans and about 20 partially ripe cherry tomatoes, plus a small green pepper that some critter had picked for me. Temperatures here today were very mild, not a lot of sun, but it did not rain any more! 75 degrees F here at the moment.

I also used some of the bing cherries that I had in the refrigerator to make 2 half pints of Sweet cherry Jam ( low sugar recipe).