What did you do in the garden today?

[igorsMistress]

Good morning all. I’m going to guess my gardening is done for a while and all I can hope is that everything will live through the summer

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. Cool temps are here for a few days. The lettuce survived the heat wave and is getting bigger. The bell and poblano pepper plants are doing well. I found some pepper plants on sale yesterday so picked up a couple extra for replacements. I planted the bell pepper and two jalapeno plants this morning. The last couple of days have been crazy busy. The Got Junk guys will be here within the hour to remove more "keepsake/ clutter" from the garage. Friends are coming over on Sunday for a cook-out so the yard work needs to be tackled and house cleaning and all that. And of course the septic tank is gurgling so I'll be calling for a clean out later today. Good golly. Regarding the kale, you really need to let it grow a bit before it is consumable. I let mine get to about 3 inches before I started thinning, then would toss the little plants in with other greens. The second thinning they were about 6 - 8 inches tall and those were really good. I think I have one more thinning before the plants fully mature, so I'm looking forward to the next thinning. I've got a lot of weeding and cultivating to do. The corn is growing nicely and after I get the weeding done I'll be planting the pole beans finally. I'm really pleased with how well the butternut squash plants are doing. I'll take pictures once I get them weeded and mulched. I think it was @NewBoots that asked about my current little chicks. They are supposed to be Columbian Wyandottes. DD has already named them and has been helping out immensely with them. I've decided rather than build another grow out pen, I'll be building a rooster pen designed for an old rooster. Randy is now occupying the grow out pen I built last year and it was designed to be just that a grow out pen for little chickens and a meat bird pen if needed. Then, I'm done with building. Anything else will be for a contractor.

 

[BReeder!]

Nothing just yet in the garden today. We are getting rain tomorrow, so I'm hoping I don't need to water today. I'll only water if things look like they need it. I did water a little bit yesterday. I know I need to hill up the last row of potatoes and the potato bags. I cannot even get to the bags now. I had a 2ft wide path between a raised row of potatoes and a raised bed of herbs. That's where I plopped the three feed bags with the extra potatoes in them. I was able to walk right through at the time. Now the potato plants in the raised row and in the bags have gotten huge and have grown over the path I had, leaving no where for me to walk. I now will be reaching over the 2ft wide raised bed of herbs to add compost to the potato bags.

There's a lot of talk about kale. I have kale successfully growing for the first time. I agree though with others that the kale that was pictured and noted as "spindly" was just too young yet. I haven't harvested any of ours yet, and the largest leaves are just now getting to about 10 inches. I will be harvesting some this weekend I think. Just a few leaves here and there so the plants keep growing and producing more (and bigger) leaves.

Anybody have a favorite way of cooking kale? I treat it like collards and stew it. I also like it added to soups. Not a huge fan of raw kale. I could make kale chips, but never have.

 

[gtaus]

Anybody have a favorite way of cooking kale?

Yes, Dear Wife cooks the kale in her homemade Filipino Sinigang soup. When there is a lot of good garden produce, she loads the soup up with fresh vegetables. I love it.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Morning Gardeners it is raining slow drizzle still get wet just a bit slower no gardening

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

I love fresh young kale raw in salads. The older stuff gets sautéed in bacon drippings or cooked with shrimp and pasta.

 

[Acre4Me]

Hot today, but hotter tomorrow. Will water later today.


Q on cooking: Beef Liver. Never ate it, never cooked it. My dad would eat it on occasion, but I never tried it. Now, I have some from the 1/4 cow we purchased. What to do with it? Yes, I would like to try to cook it for human consumption (besides, our single barn cat can’t eat THAT much and we do not have dogs). So, any suggestions welcomed.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Cook it lightly better med rare can cook in in butter or what ever just do not overcook

 

[Elyrian1]

Hot today, but hotter tomorrow. Will water later today.


Q on cooking: Beef Liver. Never ate it, never cooked it. My dad would eat it on occasion, but I never tried it. Now, I have some from the 1/4 cow we purchased. What to do with it? Yes, I would like to try to cook it for human consumption (besides, our single barn cat can’t eat THAT much and we do not have dogs). So, any suggestions welcomed.

I've heard some people rinse the liver out first, until the water runs clear, but I've never tried it personally.

 

[Sooner Magnolia]

Watered today. And discovered mating squash bugs on a butternut squash plant and aphids on a couple of tomato and cantaloupe plants! Guess the insect war is on. I mixed up the neem oil spray and attacked. Plus squished squash bugs and looked for eggs. I think I'm going to plant the ginger and turmeric together in a large grow bag. From doing a little reading I found that they have a long season, so I can take it to the greenhouse at school when it starts getting cold.

Got behind on tying up tomatoes in the straw, so I did that and a little duct tape stem repair on a black cherry tomato plant that split. It is hot and humid, so moving inside for a while.