What did you do in the garden today?

[gtaus]

Yes just slide the panel in the bed and push it against the front of the bed then just push the tailgate end in to form a u shape. Then shut the tailgate! I always run a ratchet strap through the middle of the arch for safety but I doubt it would really need to. Works great! Easier than this you tube guys way!

I have never loaded cattle panels in a pickup or small trailer. But lots of people do it successfully. Sounds like you have a better way. Thanks for sharing. I hope it helps @Sally PB who posted her concerns.

 

[Rick589]

If you haven't bought onion starts from Dixon Dale, I would suggest looking at their website and see if your long day or short day and order this winter. I always have great success with the starts they send. Even this year with bolting onions I have quite a few that didn't and are good sized. Or you could start them from seed, but have to start them very early. I feed my onions before they start to bulb ALOT of nitrogen and they are planted in composted chicken manure. But I can't grow a sweet potato that's decent sized whatsoever. Haha

Now see I get sweet potatoes in the range of 160-200 lbs every year with absolutely no trouble with some individual potatoes hitting 3 lbs. or better, and I sprout my own slips. BUT onions, although I do get them usually have some form of rot, you the kind that affects individual layers. I’ve tried several times to start them from seed and they’ve never gotten passed anything more than thick blades of grass which then has me buying starts. Very frustrating.

 

[Rick589]

Plus, I get "free" eggs because I have chickens.

It’s just like putting your thumb in the eye of the grocery stores.

 

[Rick589]

Here's my experience with bulbing onions (what my husband calls "regular onions"):

I always miss a couple when I dig them up. I find them sprouting the next year. If I dig them, they are invariably small, about the size of an onion set, which means they didn't grow much the season before. They are always mushy and rotten feeling. Sometimes they send up a flower stalk (bolting). I have saved seeds from onions and had poor luck growing the seeds.

Onions like nitrogen. The bulb is specialized leaves, not a root.

I've had great luck some years, and crappy luck some years with the harvest. It's been a couple of crappy years since the last great year. Crossing my fingers that they're bigger and better this year. Last year was a more crappy than usual year.

The lack of nitrogen is probably my issue, I’m certain I’m not giving them enough. My understanding is that onions and garlic both need to pushed with a lot of nitrogen but the onions need to have the nitrogen stopped when they start to shoulder out of the dirt…..I don’t knowAnd what about this rot I always get? I pull them and dry them on an open rack for weeks…..still rotten layers. If I leave them in the ground until the leaves are all dry, pull, and rack dry….still rotten layers. I’ve actually given up.

 

[CatInTheHenHouse]

Picked of some more dried pea pods today. It was supposed to rain today but decided not to, so I guess I need to water tomorrow.

 

[Rick589]

Pulled all of the remaining carrots, peeled cut and processed. Currently in the pressure canner waiting for the pressure to drop. Still have some beets in the ground but I don’t have much hope for much more coming from them. Future fall pea planting area composted and scratched in by the chickens. Only waiting on the tomatoes and mayne some of the sweet potatoes for canning. Cucumbers are becoming pickles and our cucumber lime drink, and the melons and loupes are beginning to tempt us.

 

[C Siena]

They don't care. It's the same letter from 2019. They ask to make you feel like you're being heard. You won't be. I switched to Superb and haven't looked back.
All the Ball/Kerr/Harvest are all the same company now, all only good for dry storage. Some won't even seal with a vacuum seal. They're too thin and a simple change in air pressure will pop the seal.

I have used Forjars with success as well as Superb. 85% of the ball/kerr etc have worked in pressure canning. We plan on eating the one that doesn't.

I use store jars with lug lids to can. Work great.

 

[cj2024]

I had a tofu salad at my local golf course restaurant today for lunch. It had green and red lettuce and cherry tomatoes with soft tofu squares piled on top and it was served with a sweet and tangy Japanese miso sauce that had a hint of shoyu in it. This was my first time eating lettuce this way, I liked it and will make it at home. Thumbs up to the chef.........

 

[Justagalwithchicks]

Now see I get sweet potatoes in the range of 160-200 lbs every year with absolutely no trouble with some individual potatoes hitting 3 lbs. or better, and I sprout my own slips. BUT onions, although I do get them usually have some form of rot, you the kind that affects individual layers. I’ve tried several times to start them from seed and they’ve never gotten passed anything more than thick blades of grass which then has me buying starts. Very frustrating.

Sounds like you should find someone by you who grows big onions and swap some of those huge sweet potatoes!

 

[chickengr]

I had rabbit in the military mess hall. It was good. I think more people had a problem with the idea of eating rabbits than the taste itself. In Europe, you can often buy fresh rabbit meat on the open market. I think they have a different attitude towards rabbit meat, with a long history of eating rabbits as part of their diet.

When I was a kid, I hunted and cleaned some squirrels. We cooked them and ate them. It was not very good, but I mean we did not know anything about how to cook meat. No luck in getting mother to cook the squirrels, either. In my case, I decided it was too much effort for the amount of meat we got even if we could have learned how to cook them better.



I agree. My brother gave us some deer meat, venison, because he did like the "gamey" taste of the meat. I know my grandmother used to cook venison when I was growing up, and it always had the extra wild kick flavor to it. I was never a big fan of venison, but I ate everything grandma made.

Dear Wife, however, took the venison and made a salad of some kind out of it. No more gamey flavor and everyone loved it, even my brother who gave us the meat. So yes, I agree how you prepare and cook the meat does indeed dictate if it's going to taste gamey, or not.

when I was in Tunisia I saw a shop with white rabbits. I thought it was a pet shop and entered. almost fainted when I saw blood everywhere

I ate venison in England. tasted like young calf's meat. never ate squirrels.