Ducks 4 in '24

[flowerbug]

Oh, I didn't realize that it was a cold beverage! For some reason I assumed it was a different way to brew and drink hot tea. We'd call that 'iced tea' here, even if it has no ice, although I have no idea how people make it.

it's probably a lot better to just brew it with hot water in reduced volume and then after you have the tea made then you can dillute it with cold water and put it right in the fridge and not wonder about what leaving it in the sun and lukewarm or warm temperatures could do to it... i have drank some iced-teas and they are ok but i am a much larger fan of hot hot teas and not dealing with the rest.

 

[ducks4you]

My iced tea maker still works. I filter my drinking water, fill ice trays with filtered water, fridge has an ice maker, too, but I brew the tea, then pour it over 2 trays of ice with 7 sweet n low, then fill with more filtered water.
In the summer it can go bad even if I get the pitcher in the fridge right away, not so much in the cold weather.
I have become a tea nazi, don't like any restaurant tea made from powder--yes, I can taste that!-just like DD's have become vodka nazis. They prefer crystalhead vodka, and will Tolerate Grey Goose. I like Absolut, and I love Deep Eddy Grapefruit Vodka.
So, puppy uppers in the morning, doggie downers in the evening.

 

[ducks4you]

A friend bought me a bag of jalepanoes! This weekend DH and I will dehydrate them, along with the sweet peppers we didn't use in the party chili AND DD's suggestion to dehydrate some tomatoes.
Also, tomato canning this weekend, too.

 

[ducks4you]

Working on the last harvest today. I started out with my kitchen table that looked like photo#1. Then I boiled to split tomatoes and Filled my 6 quart crock pot. I had to show how HUGE these tomatoes got this year!!
They are happily cooking away. This evening DH and I are going to try to start my Rutgers, the smallish, bigger than cherry tomatoes dehydrating.
Next photos are what was still left in the red soft gardening bucket, tomatoes and cucumbers, and lastly what the table looks like Right Now.
Since I have about 65 quarts of tomatoes from previous years in the pantry, Every damaged fruit is getting tossed out on the grass for lawn fertilizer. Don't need to mess with any fruit flies!
Going out the door DH saw the huge tomatoes just boiled with their skins splitting and gasped!
I reminded him that the bowl with the partially ripe AND huge tomatoes should be red by Sunday. The two lone wolves are for eating today.

 

[baymule]

Beautiful tomatoes!

 

[ducks4you]

THX!! I bought most of the plants, but 3 were volunteers from last year. It must have been location, south part of my big garden, lots of full sun and lots of amendments over the years there. I have NEVER grown tomatoes that were this Big before!!
I have saved seeds from one volunteer, an orange tomato, not large, dunno what kind, but all were tasty.
I saved seeds from the hybrid better boys--we'll see what we get!
I am just starting seeds from the Rutgers (bought plant, 2024). Every fruit was perfect, about the same size and blemish free and very tasty right off of the vine. Those are the ones in the grey cake pan furthest right on my table. I saved the ends of 3 Rutgers to collect their seeds, saved myself some time and stored them overnight in a 1/2 pint jar in the fridge.
I cut those up and DH dehydrated them. SUPER tasty, he LOVES them dehydrated, me, not so much, but 3 trays fit into a large mouth pint jar. Never dehydrated tomatoes before, so we'll have to see if DH and DD's gobble them up. DH thought they tasted great on his turkey sandwich today, tomato taste, without the mess.
If so, then more ripened tomatoes on my kitchen table will be dehydrated, too.
DH thought that slicing them into 1/4 inch pieces was too shallow.
I took time to research dehydrating tomatoes and so I sliced the fruit, prepped them in a colander on top of a bowl, and let them drain first. There was about 1/2 cup of liquid that drained out. I Think that helped. Not sure. Thoughts?!?
I harvested a huge fruit from a volunteer Cherokee Purple (from 2023), but I put it on the ground bc there was some rotting. I am going back to collect seeds to ferment from That one, too, this weekend.
I am the only one that loves Cherokee Purples. Family thinks they look rotten when ripe!
Just to note: I dug all tomatoes 12-16 inch planting holes each, all 30 of the beefsteak, and 1 cherry tomato, threw in a handful of dried horse manure in every hole, watered for 2 weeks straight, then NONE.
Yes, none.
The 4 cherries north of the garage just got a spade's width hole, but they did ok there.
It's very interesting to lay the plants on their sides, but, how much water do you want to put into those plants/season?!?
Every tomato buried grows extra roots on the stem hairs. When I pull them up end of season they are sometimes just as hard to pull out of the ground as weeds.
Speaking of cherry tomatoes...they just sprawled this year. I am thinking the best way to deal with them next year is to only plant a few--I have lots of cherry and grape tomato Seeds in my cabinet--and give them extra fencing space, and treat them like growing fruit trees against a wall, like the espalier method, with many leaders.

How to Espalier: Fruit Trees in Small Spaces

Espalier trees, trained flat against a building wall or fence, are attractive and efficient ways to grow plants, especially fruit trees in a small space.

www.almanac.com

 

[ducks4you]

 

[ducks4you]

I should add that ALL were transplanted in July, and DH never thought we'd get any at all this year.

 

[ducks4you]

THIS is what happened to the last cucumbers from my cucumber "throw away" bed. Well.worth.planting!

 

[baymule]

I liked to dehydrate tomatoes too. I crumbled them over salads in the winter. I refused to buy tomatoes from the store and salad greens grow best before and after tomatoes. It’s not fair!