What did you do in the garden today?

[Shizuka]

I picked my biggest harvest of tomatoes EVER! 29 Sunrise Sauce paste tomatoes. Now I'm just trying to find a good sauce recipe to use them in!

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Didn't get to do a thing today except luv on grandbaby!
How's yalls flocks doin?!
Someone here locally has lost 20 chickens due to heat stroke!

 

[Fishychix]

I had some paste tomatoes do that one year, not all of them, but a few. I think it was internal blossom end rot. Check out this vid - about 1:13 in addresses internal BER.

What kind of tomato is that? San Marz are very susceptible to BER.

Thanks! I kinda had a feeling cuz several had ber, but i didnt know it could be internal. One weird thing about the video, it says dont bother adding calcium. Ive always heard to do just that. Even @WthrLady does it, and she lives in NE (just in case it was location specific advice).
These are the ones that look half dead too, while all other tomatoes look perfectly fine. I got them from Bonnie, but all others were my own from seed. I know i will not be buying them again. I only did cuz I thought id missed my window. I hadnt seen all my volunteers then

 

[riss]

My cucumbers are starting to take over in the garden. Going to have to get a garden fence

 

[WIchickMama]

Hot here, in the 90s, which is hot for us. Oldest DDs 16th birthday today-she got her license, so she was all excited.

Green beans, tomatoes and onions coming along nice. Cucumbers growing and flowering by no fruit-boo. TONS of buttercup squash on the vines, last count was 18! I have about 70-100 green tomatoes, and I KNOW they will all turn at once. Second round of everbearing strawberries coming and a cup or so of raspberries set but still green.

Chickens are doing ok, I have been giving the one setting on eggs water out of a plastic jar lid about 5-6 times a day just so she stays hydrated. Egg are supposed to hatch next Sat or Sun-going to candle on Monday and then let nature take control. One question, if none of them hatch (doubtful but you never know), will I need to break her or will she break on her own--OR do I find her a couple chicks from somewhere. Stressful

 

[TJAnonymous]

My chickens have generally been taking the heat in stride but Ive got lots of giant oaks that provide a lot of shade. I let them out early to free range. They are eating grass up by the house and around the water spigot at the barn because that's the only place that has live, green grass. Everything else is dead. Even the weeds are dead now. My giant oak trees even look very wilted at this point. I've resorted to feeding the horses their winter hay already because there is nothing else for them to eat. Still letting the goats forage as they will eat the wild blackberries and such... I just hope I can actually find more hay to replace what I'm using now.

Oh, here's a little something to make you say hmmmmm. The chickens have been laying in a hidey hole in the back corner of the barn. I was collecting eggs this evening in order to dissuade any critters from finding them. There were about a dozen eggs back there and it was stinky & full of ants so I thought maybe one of the eggs was broken. Pulling out eggs and found the source. It was an egg that had a double layer of shell on it and some nasty putrid goo. I imagine I've got a hen with an infection or something in her vent. But the weird part was the shell coloring. The intact inner shell was green, leaving me to think it came from one of the Ameracaunas or Starlight Greens. The outer 2nd shell was only half there but it was a cream color instead of green. That would suggest the hen who produced the egg actually laid down two different colors of shell on the same egg.

 

[Elyrian1]

We've been up around 105, low humidity, for days. The chickens pant, but they dig down into the dirt in the run where it's a little cooler and they do all right.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Are yall watering down your runs for those that do not forage outside of the run?
Mine do not as a rule cuz of hawks. I let Joey do morning chores with me outside the run but that's it.
I'm wondering if a fan that's 4' high on pedestal and hosing down the run is helping or hurting em.
To me it feels like temp drops inside the run similar to how a car wash drops temp on vehicle...for a while at least.

 

[Acre4Me]

Are yall watering down your runs for those that do not forage outside of the run?
Mine do not as a rule cuz of hawks. I let Joey do morning chores with me outside the run but that's it.
I'm wondering if a fan that's 4' high on pedestal and hosing down the run is helping or hurting em.
To me it feels like temp drops inside the run similar to how a car wash drops temp on vehicle...for a while at least.

I dump the old water out and then walk to the hose with a waterer. So, that area of the run is wet and the chickens go to scratch around. But, they mostly hang out under the coop, dig hollows to sit in during the heat. The coop is elevated about 2.5’ and it is close to the barn wall, so protected and shady under there.

 

[chickengr]

We've been running temps around 109 for a week here...forecast says three more days and then possibly rain with temps in the high 90's.

I want rain so bad...lol.

Today I made sauerkraut...that's as close to gardening as I got today!View attachment 3195400

do you use salt only or vinegar as well? recipe please.

my mother makes sauerkraut in a barrel with salt and water only but she does it around november when the temperature drops.