What did you do in the garden today?

[NewBoots]

@NewBoots have you tried the chips yet, how are they? Wondering if I should try some! & your weather sounds fab, I told DH about it & he said he doesn't want to go to the west coast. I'd go in a heartbeat, my aunt, uncle & cousin are out there & they love it.

We love it here, and did I mention we rarely if ever get snow? Mild frosts...the ocean is a 10 minute drive away and beautiful dunes even closer. Keep us in mind. The chips are tasty, they took about 10 hours at 135 to get crispy and about 2 lbs dried are enough to fill 1 quart jar. Worth doing but for us, only if we have so much extra zucchini we can't get them all eaten up. The fritters and boats are still our favorites.

 

[karenerwin]

I was taking pics of my coleus. They're HUGE!

View attachment 2293002

They are beautiful!

. For some of these vegetables I need some pictures so I know what it should look like growing and when it's ready to harvest.
The year before my dad's peach tree gave up the ghost, it produced an insane amount of fruit, nearly more than I could deal with but not quite. That year we had all the fresh peaches and peach pies we wanted. So good!
I so envy your success with your peppers. I am terrible at growing peppers but I'm going to keep at it. I want some home made pickled peppers if nothing else.
Love them! We should start seeing them in the yard soon, they appeared last year around the end of August.
We got our dehydrator the other day so now I'm set for drying the cherry tomatoes and I can't wait!
We had our hot day yesterday in the high 80's but it cooled off nicely in the evening. I know that's nothing for a lot of you folks, but we're mostly in the high 60's to low 70's so it counted as hot for us.
Yesterday was zucchini day, we had fritters for lunch and boats for dinner with plenty leftovers and no need to cook today. The zucchini chips are still in the dehydrator, tasty, but it takes a long time to get them to the crispy stage so fritters and boats will be our go to ways to use them up.

I too have wished for pictures this year! And help knowing when I should harvest some items!!
I have peach trees but they have never done any good. I am sure part of the reason is because I have not sprayed them on a regular basis. (I wish I had a Missouri peach growing mentor that could call me and say, "Okay, go spray the peach trees today!"
I don't believe that I have ever had a dried tomato.

Our August temperatures have been most unusual this year. Yesterday the high was 87. In the morning it was 77 with 97% humidity. Today the high was only 84 and the humidity was only in the 70's. Our August's are usually in the upper 90's with high humidity.

My hubby decided that zucchini fritters are the BEST way to eat zucchini. He is even asking me to fix them again and we just had them a few nights ago!
Today's haul from the garden: more cherry tomatoes, a couple of cucumbers, a zucchini, a bunch of tomatillos and I pulled all of my corn. I shucked and cut the kernels off ( in preparation for the salsa). I got 1 1/2 cups of corn kernels. Then I opened the frig and saw that I had 5 more small ears in there that I brought in the other day. I'll have to shuck and cut the kernels off those tomorrow.
I made tomatillo salsa a few days ago. I tasted it last night. Very good flavor, but no heat. I will definitely make it again!

Tomorrow will be a busy day. I need to add a super to one bee hive and maybe a brood box to the other, cut grass, make zucchini bread, make corn & cherry tomato salsa, go see my Mom and find time to butcher a meat chicken. I still have 10 of them left to do. They have gotten huge!

 

[Compost King]

I so envy your success with your peppers. I am terrible at growing peppers but I'm going to keep at it. I want some home made pickled peppers if nothing else.

I wish I had success with everything else. I have always grown peppers because the peppers I like do not grow in the store. I did ok with Tomatoes but due to lack of experience I probably got 1/8th the amount an experience grower would have gotten. Next year I will do better. My bean crop got wiped out by a flood but I did get some volunteer beans. My squash was looking but at first but ended up taking up too much space and blocking my path to a chicken coop so they came up. My Cucumbers did better than I expected but the pickle worm got most of them, I used some product called BT and that seems have them doing less damage, I lost all my cantaloupe to pickle worm although one melon survived long enough to be harvested... probably filled with Catepillars though so let the chickens have it when I pick it.
Now I have more hot peppers than foods to accompany them lol. I just ate some chicken I processed and cooked a breast in the slow cooker with Tomatoes (that I grew) Cilantro (store) Cumin (store) and Garlic Powder (store)... put them in Taco tortillas and added a simple hot sauce I made from Cayenne Peppers (I grew)... Its not really a sauce but normally I use Taco Bell or Ortega Sauces (unhealthy) this time I soaked chopped up Cayenne peppers (home grown) in vinegar for about 20 hours with crushed Garlic (store) and applied it to the chicken tacos I made and loved it even more than Ortega or Taco Bell. Sure it wasn't a sauce but it gave me the same sensation with more heat and more of a vinegary flavor too. come friday my first round of Ferments will be ready and I have Salsas and peppers to sample in the same way. I have gotten rid of another unhealthy food in my diet thanks to gardening. I am running out of preprocessed foods to eliminate from my diet. Too bad I won't be having pepper plants producing past October but ferments can last over the winter if I have enough of them.

Today in the Garden I thinned out my Box Choy in the fall garden and caught of whiff of skunk. Its the Hemp I am growing, never grew it before. 2 females and one male plant, perfect for seed production. I want to feed the seeds to my chickens. I noticed my first Thai Hot Pepper turn red, and more of my Ghost peppers turned red. No much else going on, other than observations on the eggplant and Okra. I am going to be getting a decent amount of eggplants but I have no idea how to cook it. Maybe make some eggplant Parmesan which is a favorite of mine.

 

[karenerwin]

[QUOTE No much else going on, other than observations on the eggplant and Okra. I am going to be getting a decent amount of eggplants but I have no idea how to cook it. Maybe make some eggplant Parmesan which is a favorite of mine.
[/QUOTE]
My favorite thing to do with eggplant is to slice it 1/2 thick, sear it on both sides in a hot skillet, then place it on parchment on a cookie sheet. Then place a slice of provolone cheese on top of each piece of eggplant and top that with a slice of fresh tomato. Then sprinkle the whole thing with some fresh cut up basil ( some people put a spray or drizzle of oil on to but I don't). Then I put the whole thing in the oven on 375 for about 30 minutes. Take out sprinkle top with shredded mozzarella cheese and then put under the broiler till golden and melted
(3 to 5 minutes). YUMMY!!

 

[Swiss]

I keep hearing about zucchini fritters, and I have zucchini's I need to use! What are your favorite recipes?

 

[AllenK RGV]

I just got the worst scare I was dozing off in a freshly made bed. Somehow a 1 inch long palmetto roach got in there and crawled over me. I was sure it was a scorpion. I should stop using Voldemorts name in vain. Clean sheets were nice for a brief moment.

Our latest pet: The web and legs says an unfamiliar species of orb weaver.

 

[NewBoots]

I keep hearing about zucchini fritters, and I have zucchini's I need to use! What are your favorite recipes?

I use this one but I've taken to adding a couple T finely chopped shallots and/or green onions, and they keep well so I generally make a double batch so there'll be leftovers. A single batch makes 4.

Easy Zucchini Fritters
These fritters are unbelievably easy to make, low in calories, and the perfect way to sneak in some veggies!
By AMY GONZALEZ

Ingredients
1 ½ pounds zucchini, grated
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 large egg, beaten
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pinch kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions
Toss zucchini and salt together in a large colander and place in sink to drain for 10 minutes.
Put zucchini in the middle of a piece of cheesecloth; wrap cheesecloth or dish towel around zucchini and squeeze to drain as much moisture from zucchini as possible.
Mix flour, Parmesan cheese, egg, garlic, kosher salt, and pepper together in a large bowl. Stir in zucchini.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
Scoop batter by the tablespoon into the hot skillet and fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Mine does not have the egg other than that it is to T but will try it with the egg
Thanks

 

[Sueby]

I think it was @Wee Farmer Sarah that says she cooks, maybe just undercooked, & freezes the zucchini fritters.

Scorpions would kind of scare me, I think. I've never seen one. I got a startle yesterday from a little garter snake I almost stepped on. We have a very high population of timber rattlers here & there have been a ton of sightings lately so I panicked, lol. The timbers are very shy, you never really hear of anyone getting bit, but with my luck I'd step on it & get bit.

@NewBoots I would very much miss the snow - I LOVE snow. But I think I could consider giving it up for nicer weather year round. I love the idea of the pacific northwest - there is a beauty out there I'd love to experience.

@WthrLady - I'm to the point where I get a little grossed out if I think about the squash bugs when I'm eating something from the garden. All I see is those nasty buggers sucking the juices out of what I'm eating. Thank goodness they don't like green beans.

Morning all. Going to spray the entire garden AGAIN. Maybe I'll wait till tmrw because we may get more rain tonight. We got a 1/2 inch yesterday! It's beautifully cool out, I have the AC off, finally.

Off to meet with my accountant, have a great day all.

 

[Acre4Me]

Such is life with chickens: gate wasn’t shut properly yesterday. Like all chickens will, my flock walked out to sample the garden.... I DID have nice cucumber sprouts coming along to try to get a batch of pickling cucumbers before frost. The sprouts are now gone. So this morning the bed is getting cleaned out, and covered with clear plastic to kill of seeds and bug larvae in the bed using the greenhouse effect for the next month. Sun should be hot enough to accomplish this goal n combo with the plastic.

Might try to plant more cucumber seeds in a different bed. Maybe can get enough young cucumbers for a batch of pickles before frost. Frost is about 8 weeks away, so it’s a pretty tight timeline, not sure if it’s a waste of time. The seed packet says 56 days, and cucumbers are pretty tender/can not tolerate frost. What do you think?