Baymule’s 2020 Garden

[baymule]

Our daughter and son in law are coming in tonight, spending the night and going home tomorrow. I’ll be busy canning tomorrow. Maybe today I can put some of the eggplant in the freezer or maybe not. LOL

 

[Carol Dee]

@baymule Will or will not, there is always tomorrow! Hw much help are the grandkids? Are the kids dropping them off ot picking them up? I lose track of the days....

 

[baymule]

We’ve had the girls for a week. We’ve watched Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry cartoons until our brains are oatmeal mush. LOL The 3 year old is my shadow and just wants to hang out with the sheep and dogs. The 5 year old is all about her Papaw and loves to draw pictures with him. The 13 year old has mostly been gone spending nights with friends but had one friend spend the night here, I took them to the Mall the next day. The kids may spend another night, dunno. They brought their two dogs which makes my 5 go crazy. Not one time did the two little girls whine about their mommy or daddy. We have had a blast with them.

 

[baymule]

Our kids left this morning. We had a great visit, but we still are not even remotely interested in moving to Odessa. LOL LOL

I snapped green beans today, canned 6 pints. I quartered, cored, peeled and deseeded a gallon bag of tomatoes, put it in the freezer. For the past 4 days, I’ve picked a wash pan of tomatoes each day. I have a lot of eggplant to put in the freezer too.

My Painted Mountain corn is so pretty! I think it’s dry enough to rub it off the cob now. I have it separated in Texas or Idaho bunches. The ones I’m keeping to take seed from had a row of Idaho with Texas on each side. Next year I’ll plant a row of Texas with Idaho on each side, to get the pollination all mixed up. I had 5 more rows that were alternating, but chose the 3 rows to save seed.......but there IS some darn pretty ears in the bunches from those other 5 rows!

Texas

Idaho

 

[baymule]

@Jesusfreak101 have you harvested your Painted Mountain corn yet?

 

[baymule]

I tried the Painted Mountain corn last night, it wasn’t dry enough.

I picked several Amish Melons today. I sliced one up and put in the dehydrator. I put 3 on the counter to finish ripening.

I sliced and deseeded a dozen or so tomatoes and put 2 trays in the dehydrator. I gotta a LOT of tomatoes!

 

[baymule]

I hit post instead of attach files. Oh well.

We LOVE Cherokee Purple tomatoes. I plant them every year. This year they are being out done by 2 other varieties. I have a double 32’ row of Cherokee Purple tomatoes. I have a 16’ double row of Mortgage Lifter and German Johnson, front half is ML, back half is GJ. That 16’ row is by far out producing the 32’ row. Mortgage Lifter is leading the pack! I’ve grown ML before, but they didn’t do this good.

I put up eggplant today. @Zeedman I thought you might be interested in the process. Those Diamond eggplant are putting on gobs of vegetables! I tried blanching in water, but didn’t like the soggy results.

I peeled the Diamond eggplant and sliced it on my mandolin. I arranged the slices in an 8x8 Pyrex baking dish and microwaved them for 30 seconds.

Then I vacuum sealed them, 2 eggplant, sliced, to a package.

I cut some in half, length wise. I microwave blanched them for one minute, let them cool and vacuum sealed.

I also have Ping Tung eggplant, long and skinny. I peeled and chunked them, microwave blanched for 30 seconds and vacuum sealed them.

When vacuum sealing the eggplant, once it’s pretty much vacuumed, I hit the seal button. That keeps the eggplant from getting smushed by the strong action of the vacuum sealer.

 

[seedcorn]

I tried the Painted Mountain corn last night, it wasn’t dry enough.

I picked several Amish Melons today. I sliced one up and put in the dehydrator. I put 3 on the counter to finish ripening.

View attachment 36156

View attachment 36157

I sliced and deseeded a dozen or so tomatoes and put 2 trays in the dehydrator. I gotta a LOT of tomatoes!

View attachment 36158

Brag up your bounty of fresh tomatoes..... we Nawtherners will join u eventually. To the newbies, see how cruel the pea Pickers are?

 

[flowerbug]

Our kids left this morning. We had a great visit, but we still are not even remotely interested in moving to Odessa. LOL LOL

I snapped green beans today, canned 6 pints. I quartered, cored, peeled and deseeded a gallon bag of tomatoes, put it in the freezer. For the past 4 days, I’ve picked a wash pan of tomatoes each day. I have a lot of eggplant to put in the freezer too.

My Painted Mountain corn is so pretty! I think it’s dry enough to rub it off the cob now. I have it separated in Texas or Idaho bunches. The ones I’m keeping to take seed from had a row of Idaho with Texas on each side. Next year I’ll plant a row of Texas with Idaho on each side, to get the pollination all mixed up. I had 5 more rows that were alternating, but chose the 3 rows to save seed.......but there IS some darn pretty ears in the bunches from those other 5 rows!

Texas

View attachment 36130

Idaho

View attachment 36131

that is so purdy @baymule !

 

[baymule]

My Purple Hull peas are blooming! Yay! It won’t be long for this pea picker! LOL I need to weed them again before the vines get so tangled up. I’m ready for peas!

Today I cut tomatoes and cooked 2 big pots of tomatoes and strained them through my old strainer with a wood mallet. I love this old thing. When I was 20 I moved into a house. The old lady that lived there had gone in a nursing home and the family cleaned out her house. I found this old strainer in the garage and the family told me to keep it.

I got 5 quarts and 4 pints of tomato sauce. I dehydrated tomatoes yesterday and got 3 jars.

I have 2 Amish melons sliced and in the dehydrator. They sure make good snacks! Cantaloupe jerky! Haha 2 melons be filled it up. It needs to hurry up, I got more.