What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

Our taxes on our house are ridiculous. We are one of the highest taxed areas i believe. We are retired and it really makes it hard. Both our kids are married and settled here and I take care of my mom who lives a couple miles from us, so moving isn't an option..

Exactly!
(BTW, did you plant potatoes? If so, how are they doing? and when did you plant?)

 

[WthrLady]

What a great find! I pressure can quite a bit! I got mine for Christmas years ago and love using it I would rub some vegetable oil on the rubber gasket and give it a good once over. I know most extension offices will look it over and make sure the pressure gauge works if it has one etc. At least they used to.

They still do, if you can find anyone working IN one. I've been to two local extensions and they're dumb as a box of rocks in there, and not just about canning. I'm wondering what the qualifications of those positions are.

 

[WthrLady]

FYI diesel fuel sprayed on the mold before pouring will help release from the mold.

I use baking release (it's what I had on hand), but ya.

 

[Doodlemom63]

Well I’m late starting my garden due to health, weather, chickens & dogs! So my morning was spent installing a fence around my garden spot!

 

[Smokerbill]

What a great find! I pressure can quite a bit! I got mine for Christmas years ago and love using it I would rub some vegetable oil on the rubber gasket and give it a good once over. I know most extension offices will look it over and make sure the pressure gauge works if it has one etc. At least they used to.

You should get new seals, and check the calibration on your pressure gauge. AG extension office ftw for all the things. But no, really, don't skip on it.

Follow instructions. This winter I blew my pressure gasket and cooked one of my fingers to the bone in less than 15 seconds with a bad seal. My fault. But it sucked really bad.

I bought a new seal ring along with the automatic air vent right after I bought the canner. And I polished the surface on the canner that the seal tightens against so it would seal securely.

I tested the steam pressure gauge myself, replacing the vent pipe with a Schraeder tire valve and pressurizing the canner with my air compressor. My low pressure tire gauge shows that the dial gauge is off a little... 10# on the canner gauge reads 8.5# on the tire gauge. 15# on the canner reads 14# on the tire gauge. The canner holds pressure.

But the accuracy of the canner gauge isn't important because I'm replacing the original pressure control weight and petcock with a new vent stem and 5-10-15 pound weighted regulator kit that will control the pressure.

The original weight with the knob releases pressure as a safety if the pressure reaches 20#. The knob on the weight is opened to vent the air, then closed after 10 minutes or so to pressurize the canner with steam.

 

[Backroadlogic]

Wild nightshade she "needs". I will admit it's very attractive

This tomato plant is 5ft tall already and no fruits yet

Sunflower getting closer and closer. Almost 6ft tall

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Photos of the yard, garden and orchard for perspective today.

Beautiful garden.
What I miss is those perfect blue skies like yours that we used to always have.
Now we have chemical induced haze. Haze every single day. It get really old.

 

[Smokerbill]

This is why I have to process more kale soon. The first picture was taken after I picked it on May 30th. The second picture, taken this morning, shows how much it grew in 17 days. The stuff grows like weeds for me, and bugs hate it!

 

[Smokerbill]

I had a long talk with the beans and onions this morning. I hope they can all just get along. LOL

Seriously, the reason I planted the beans there was because there were ropes already in place for them to climb, and I don't really care if they produce anything or not. If I get a few for seeds for next year I'll be happy. Maybe I'll get an onion-tolerant strain of Blue Lake beans.

I guess I could start pulling up the onions and shallots next to the beans if there's a problem later on.

 

[Smokerbill]

I gave the beets a good shot of the stinky weed tea fertilizer yesterday and the tops are looking pretty good. The roots still seem kind of small, but that's ok. I like eating a few beets, but I like the beet greens better.

The variety is one that's kind of a dual purpose beet, developed for making good quality leaves for greens and OK roots. I don't remember the name. I'll need to thin them out soon so I'll have a few of the greens to try.



I refilled the weed tea bucket with water again and stirred it up so there will be more to use later.