What did you do in the garden today?

[akroberts1085]

Picked tomatoes and beans this morning. I'm going to have a lot of tomatoes in the freezer for this winter!

View attachment 3632620View attachment 3632622View attachment 3632623

Looks great. You can make an awesome tomato soup with potatoes green beans and hamburger

 

[gtaus]

what do you say about wasting thousands of tones of fruits and veggies because they are small or big to meet standard?

It does not bother me if people pick the best food for presentation at a contest. The less than perfect food can still be eaten by humans as normal. Or, if the food is even of lesser quality, that can be feed to the animals or ultimately composted. Just because only the best food is set aside for a contest doesn't mean that good food needs to be wasted.

But maybe I'm just thinking like someone who has a backyard flock of chickens. The family gets first choice, scraps and leftovers to the chickens, anything really rotten goes into the pallet wood compost bin (very little gets sent to the compost bin).

Having chickens has opened up lots of ways for my family to use those kitchen scraps and leftovers that used to be tossed into the trash bags. I sometimes think the world would be much better off if more people had small backyard flocks to process our human food waste stream.

A couple of weeks ago we went into town to eat at a restaurant. It was my birthday and Dear Wife felt I needed a night out. Anyways, it was hard for me to see all the good restaurant food that was not eaten on the plates after people left and knowing that food was destined for the trash and landfill. Maybe all restaurants should have backyard flocks as well?

 

[gtaus]

EXACTLY! PLUS Presentation for state fair level. Trust me, the other 20 jars of pickles that didn't make my cut for the fair are in the basement ready to be eaten by us. I do what I do for my friends and family for food and then the best of the best example of that goes to show.

I think that is what most people do. I don't believe much food is wasted because the best is saved for a contest. At least, the people that I know who enter fair competitions don't waste their non fair exhibit food. They put it on their shelves with all the other food.

 

[Sally PB]

I am cleaning up the the tomato patch, slowly. It was invaded by crabgrass, and I'm slowly digging that out.

I need DH to show/tell me how much/many habaneros, jalapenos, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and vinegar to put into the tomato puree for his salsa. I want to make and can salsa tomorrow when it's raining. It sounds like a good rainy day project.

I am also going to make some green tomato salsa for myself. I'm pulling up the tomato plants and picking any green fruit still on.

 

[fuzzi]

Last night it rained. Poured. Buckets and buckets. No watering needed!

Picked a ripening German Johnson tomato, gorgeous. It had a big hole on the other side...

The carrots are up!

There are plenty of carrot seedlings, I just didn't get a good photo of them. Yet.

 

[TJAnonymous]

So I decided on a whim to start digging up iris bulbs/rhizomes. The previous homeowner had planted them everywhere years ago. I haven't collected all of them yet but I've already filled the bucket plus some. I'll combine these with the ones from my mom's house. No friggin idea where I'm going to replant them yet!

I may have asked this before but does anyone recognize this plant. It gets these really long leaves that are layered. I have seen it flower (last year) but don't remember what it looked like. I don't think it was very impressive though. I THINK it's some kind of iris or bulb plant, at least. There are about a dozen of them around the house. I will probably dig them up too but haven't decided what to do with them yet.



Oh, and does anyone remember that my DH "accidentally" cut down my blue tree hibiscus? One of you swore that it would grow back from the root ball... Well, it did!

 

[PopoMyers]

Deadheading dahlias, harvesting sunflower heads before the birds, removing seeds from previously dried heads, saving seeds from pole and bush beans, poppies, bok choy, kale, dill, pulled the last of the onions and dug the last potatoes before the varmints eat them underground. Picking up windfall apples. They are ready for cider. Picked the last bosc pears, and some Asian pears on our tiny tree.

 

[karenerwin]

, , .

He might try tart cherries. The equivalent of ten per day. The easiest way is dried. Then juice, jam, or keeping a bag in the freezer to take them from.
Gtaus, you might be interested too.

Unfortunately he is allergic to cherries but he said he doesn’t think he is allergic to the tart ones so I’ll give it a try! Thanks.

 

[karenerwin]

I am sure they told you in the hospital that hubby has to steer clear of innards like liver, heart, kidneys ?! Also no canned meats , sausage or certain fatty fish like salmon, trout or chicken skin …to stop smoking, reduce weight and get exercising should be a no brainer , and alcohol isn’t doing him any favors either it sucks, but if he leads a healthy regiment, he is allowed some meals with forbidden stuff, as long as it isn’t too often

Surprisingly enough he already doesn’t eat most of that stuff! He doesn’t like “organ meat”, rarely ever eats fish ( other than fish sticks ), doesn’t drink alcohol or smoke ( anything ), and the only canned meats he eats is whatever comes in canned chili. Oh, and I don’t like chicken skin and I’m the one that does the butchering, so no chicken skin for him either.
He definitely needs to exercise more and lose weight and he loves sausages.
But thank you for all the suggestions

 

[karenerwin]

Hope your DH gets to come home soon Karen!

He got to come home yesterday (Saturday )!