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.