What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

Ok, I'll say what I was going to say. Yes, @WthrLady answered my question, very well!

SO back to gardening.
I'm going out to pick all the orange tomatoes tonight ahead of possible severe weather tomorrow.
I moved the mums into the hoophouse and gave each one their own drip irrigation line. The 54 days we've had over 90 degrees and the drought has been hard on them. I hope the regular water on them and the shade will help them recover for fall sale.

OH, the mention of squash reminded me that I wanted to grab some for the dehydrator. Easy for soup later. thanks for that reminder.

Winter squash is coming along slowly. It's about the size of a half dollar, each of them. The hoophouse will prolong the growing season a tad, so that's good.

 

[Swiss]

Check out this tomato my neighbor gave me. I should have put something in the pic for size reference, it's huge. I thought it was a gourde at first.
View attachment 3235481

That is gorgeous!!!!! Like a pumpkin tomato!

My yellow and crook neck squash keep on giving. Can I freeze yellow squash? View attachment 3236129View attachment 3236128

With my summer squash and zucchini, I wash them, dry them, cut into half or quarter moon slices, put on a cookie sheet, freeze, then put into bags for the freezer. I've been doing this for years, and it works really well.

Me! I do not peel them first, I grow suyo longs & they never taste bitter so I'm not sure about that. Maybe try cutting & rubbing the ends before shredding? I shred, drain & squeeze & then freeze them in 1 cup silicon molds, then I put them in a ziplock. I use them for soups (I drop say 1 cup in a batch of broccoli soup or something) or in place of zucchini in zucchini bread. I hate to waste anything, lol.

I had NO idea you could eat loofa!!!

That's how I do the ones I keep now too. So much easier to do & we like them on salads. I do a couple jars to give away to a friend every year & those I do regular, not cut, & they're such a pain, lol. I make mine spicy too, jalapenos for them, habanero for us!

Morning all. I have a bunny in the garden that's got to go too. I can't wait to put up the chicken wire next year, that'll take care of the critter issue.

DH is tiling the kitchen today! Then I just need a new table & the kitchen is done.

Today I'm pulling the last of the cucumbers, the wilt has done them in & I'm pulling the blue lake beans, the heat has done them in. I'm going away for a couple weeks so I've got to start cleaning up the garden. I don't see DH picking green beans for me while I'm gone anyway. Hot peppers yes & I can probably convince him to pick squash, but beans would be pushing it.

I read "tilling", too! I had to read that sentence at least 3 times.

OH MY WORD ! Have you seen the video of the NY woman and the rabid fox?!?

https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-york...-her-front-yard-thought-she-would-eaten-alive

Wow. That is scary. I know shock/being in that situation makes a person's brain not function normally, but yeah, my first thought was to slam it on the ground and stomp it before it recovered. I need to find a more comfortable way to carry my gun daily. On my belt, it tends to bruise my opposite hip.

 

[Swiss]

I finally found the culprits who have been leaving poops and eating tomato leaves... ETA: they didn't do as much damage as I would have expected them to do with how big they are.

My UV flashlight must not be good enough to be terribly helpful because I have been looking for them for a while. I put them in my bird feeder (still don't have chickens... hopefully next year...)and watched them get destroyed by a couple of titmice! I was cheering them on and texting my sister a play-by-play.

 

[Ascholten]

it recovered. I need to find a more comfortable way to carry my gun daily. On my belt, it tends to bruise my opposite hip.

Since it is your private property. have you considered just a straight up holster/or pouch or something? or a shoulder holster, or chest holster, there literally are all kinds of things to hold guns places where they are comfortable, and since 'milliseconds' are not going to be critical in this case like as if you had to pull and shoot a human who could shoot back, concealment is not really a worry, comfort is.

Aaron

 

[Ascholten]

I finally found the culprits who have been leaving poops and eating tomato leaves... ETA: they didn't do as much damage as I would have expected them to do with how big they are.
View attachment 3237139
My UV flashlight must not be good enough to be terribly helpful because I have been looking for them for a while. I put them in my bird feeder (still don't have chickens... hopefully next year...)and watched them get destroyed by a couple of titmice! I was cheering them on and texting my sister a play-by-play.

Those #$%%$ things tried to destroy my Papaya last year. Ladies took care of them real fast once I held them up to the top of the tree. Can't remember what moth they were, but I am pretty sure it was one of the noctural ones I am starting to see now.

Aaron

 

[WthrLady]

I finally found the culprits who have been leaving poops and eating tomato leaves... ETA: they didn't do as much damage as I would have expected them to do with how big they are.
View attachment 3237139
My UV flashlight must not be good enough to be terribly helpful because I have been looking for them for a while. I put them in my bird feeder (still don't have chickens... hopefully next year...)and watched them get destroyed by a couple of titmice! I was cheering them on and texting my sister a play-by-play.

When it gets dark, shine your light on the captured ones so you train your eyes on what to look for. They're like a weird glow stick green and the leaves are a deep brown/purple.

 

[WthrLady]

Out worm hunting, darn loppers, and I FOUND CLIFFORD! He's as big as my pointer finger now.

picked another 18 pounds of blushing tomatoes, about a pound chucked over the fence due to lopper worms.

Orange tomatoes not quite ready to process this morning are ready tonight after spending the day outside at 88 degrees. Amazing.

I think I'm at about 120 pounds so far.
Another 2.5 quarts this morning. I'll can more on Sunday, I think. I'm getting sick of it TBH, but come winter, it's worth it.

 

[Acre4Me]

People give me odd looks but one thing I absolutely LOVE, is mashed squash. Mashing can be a bit of a pits so I rice mine, it's actually a good way to separate the skins off too for when you get one of the types that don't peel very easy.

Used to be able to buy frozen, mashed? or strained or whatever they called it, squash in the stores, Birds Eye made it, it was frozen blocks of orange squash, youd cook these with a little butter and it was heaven ! anyways..

When I get a bunch of squashes, sometimes they may have a small bad spot on them or something and need some grooming before you can eat it, Ill cook them first them rice them, add butter, some home made cane syrup and heck, you can make a meal out of just that alone.... or I can ..

Riced squash is also very easy to dehydrate for long storage too, and essentially add hot water to rehydrate and it's literally ready to eat in about a minute.

aaron

Are you talking winter squash like butternut?

 

[WthrLady]

@Sueby
glad I'm not the only one who wondered why the hell he was tilling the kitchen table

 

[Ascholten]

Are you talking winter squash like butternut?

I don't know what kind it was they sold. It came in frozen squares, was bright orange and tasted great. it was mashed though, like puree'd baby food consistency almost.

Aaron
Edit: but as for My squash, I am growing mainly butternut, sphagetti, the acorn didnt' do well but the tahitian does good.