What did you do in the garden today?

[BReeder!]

I picked a bunch more peppers. This is all the bell and banana peppers as well as all the jalapeños. There's still habaneros ripening so I will have to pick the last off those in a few days. Then I'll be ready to clear that bed.

I also have some crazy hot peppers in a pot that are ready to pick there's chiltepin are just starting to ripen out of view, but look at these and Trinidad scorpions!

 

[chickengr]

DH was a man on a mission yesterday evening. He got home after a long day at work and started busting pallets. Got a good pile of wood out there now, sorted by thickness, and he's getting antsy about ordering chicks. I'd like to see progress on a coop before I hit a buy button though, especially with as many dogs as we have on just this street. I can't free range at all.

I also have a vague memory of a guy in the UK bringing home a bunch of bananas with a Brazilian Wandering Spider in them. That's why I check at all, to be honest. I don't need deadly, exotic spiders coming home from the grocery store when I have tons of black widows already!

about coop: consider rats as well.

 

[WthrLady]

I have 8 dozen pullet eggs in the kitchen that need used up.
Making some sausage an egg and jalepeno cheese breakfast burritos for the guys to grab in the morning.

The rest will go towards a chiffon cake, and I don't know maybe poundcake for the freezer.

I lost my last egg customer to her moving to the countryside and getting chickens herself. But I sent 10 dozen eggs to work with DH to give away as a welcome back to campus gift to coworkers. I picked up two more customers. (Hard to compete with Whole foods 99cent loss lead eggs)

Canning apples today as well as it rains. I can make anything out of them later. Once you are apple butter, you're apple butter. This year's decision.

Pulled up and stripped the pepper plants last night and potted them up for the seeding shed.

The luffa is going gangbusters and has no idea the end of the year is coming.

Have a great day everyone.

 

[Sueby]

Morning.

I decided to clean up the squash bed, but leave the plants as they all have squash growing. I saw 1 mature squash bug, no eggs or nymphs tho. Hopefully I'll get a few more squash this year.

I picked another gallon of peppers, blanched & froze another gallon of green beans & trimmed up the tomato plants - hoping a couple more brandywines will get a little bigger. I don't need them to ripen, they just need to grow! They ripen well inside.

No baby chicks yet. I was hoping this am, I'll start to worry about them soon.

I have to go to HD & pick up 3 bags of cement, I need to pour a pad under the run door before the ground frosts & heaves. Got a few pavers to prop little chick things up on too.

I decided on Pomona's 'Winter Delight Jam' for Christmas presents this year & a jar of cowboy candy. I'll have to grab a half a bushel of jalapenos this weekend & start that.

The jam in case anyone wants to see it:
https://pomonapectin.com/winters-de...f8c1bc7d42b11efd3a843a5b06e9879#comment-10948

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. Not planning on any garden work today unless the grass dries out enough to mow. Today I finish up on the peaches that are still good. I need to make bread and decide which herb to dry next. I do need more parsley, thyme and oregano. So I guess I'll just flip a coin. Yesterday I canned 7 half pint jars of tomato and jalapeno salsa. I did add one serrano pepper to the batch to give it a little extra kick. I likely will use the remaining tomatoes for a fresh sauce. My wood pellets will be delivered some time next week so after that is confirmed I'll be heading to the local orchard to get my apples for the year. I'm thinking about drying some this year. The apple pie filling I made last year is really a bit too sweet for my liking so dried apples seem like they may be better option. I ran out of applesauce this year so I'll be canning more of that this time. This orchard also grows Mutso apples which are excellent tasting and keep well for a long time. Those I buy for fresh apples. They sell them all the way into January since they have the proper cold storage setup for apples. Last year I still had "fresh" apples up into March. Have a great day everyone.

 

[WIchickMama]

^^that sounds amazing!! Nothing in the garden today here either, it will be WAY too wet. I haves some strawberries coming and chili peppers turning from orange to red, so those will be ready for drying/freezing next week. We will be headed to an orchard this weekend too, definitely need extra applesauce as we too ran out this winter.

 

[BReeder!]

Going to rain today. It's been a while since we've had rain, but I haven't dug my potatoes up yet and not sure I'll get out there before the rain. They are mounded well so the rain should run away from the potatoes and I'll still get them out this weekend once the weather is clear.

I am taking advantage of the wet weather to run my smoker today though. I need to keep it at a low temp to smoke red jalapenos into chipotles. The rain helps keep the temp down actually (I hate trying to smoke meat in the rain because it doesn't stay hot enough but cold smoking in the rain is ideal).

 

[Sally PB]

Pulled up and stripped the pepper plants last night and potted them up for the seeding shed.

I want to try this with a couple hot peppers. I was thinking of putting them in the mud room. A southern exposure window, and probably the coolest room in the house once the days and nights are cold.

The jam in case anyone wants to see it:

This sounds fabulous!

 

[Sueby]

So question: you can water bath can anything that tests under 4.6? Right?

I'm experimenting with cowboy candy for DH & I but we don't use sugar so I'm testing out some natural sweeteners. I know in a lot of recipes sugar helps with preserving, but as long as it's under 4.6 I can water bath can it without sugar, correct? It tests at high 2s because of the vinegar.

 

[littledog]

Morning . Going to cold process some tomatoes into juice today . I run them through the blender skins and all . Then through the Foley food mill to remove seeds and skin . A food processor and then Victorio strainer would work also . When I have enough to fill enough jars to fill the water bath canner I will can them .

You're so much better organized than me. My tomatoes were starting to get ahead of my time to process them, so last time at the store I bought a hand mill, but haven't had time to try it out yet. I've been so looking forward to my San Marzanos getting ripe to run through my new mill and make sauce, but all of a sudden we're in a rainy spell for the first time all summer, so I better pick them all, ripe or not.

s I was approaching a target that a fly had just landed on, a bald faced hornet (what they call white faced hornets here) slammed into the fly like a falcon hitting a pigeon. The hornet beat the fly up a little then flew off with it.

Not sure why I love this so much, but I do - maybe because the prey/predator drama is easier to admire when it's about insects instead of fuzzy mammals.

I stopped mowing my lawn around the end of May and still have not needed to mow the lawn here in mid September.

Same here - nothing is thriving when it comes to "lawn" except for various weeds. We've tried so hard to keep our baby fruit trees alive, but some are not going to survive. The PNW is supposed to be wet, WTH? This weekend we're supposed to get major rain, just in time to split my tomatoes, boo.

Besides it being a long drive, Boston traffic is very stressful

I used to live in Western Massachusetts and stressed out wherever I had to drive into Boston. The Mass Pike and other highways just dump into Boston - a city that was set up in the 1600's for horse-drawn carriages.

It got down to 46 here last night so I'm watching the tomato plants that nearly all have a ton of mostly green fruit with a good deal of apprehension.

Yes, same here! My first season planting San Marzanos, got tons of big, healthy-looking green fruits, but will they ripen before the rain and cold decides to kill them?

Penny's coming along amazingly.

What a lovely pupper.

Tonight I canned 3 more quarts of tomato sauce, 2 of sweet relish, had to get creative to fill up the canner so 2 quarts of sweet-pickled green beans?! Who knows how I'll use those - maybe I'll find a Cheese or Thai recipe?