Duck's New Ragtag garden, Version 2020

[baymule]

Salt in canning helps to act as a preservative. I don't usually cook with much salt, preferring to add to the food before I eat it. If the salt is cooked into the food, I can't taste it.

 

[ducks4you]

I need help bc we are having our annual "Test Turkey" today. DD would like to cook down the bones for broth and Pressure canning. Trying to use the smallest amount of salt, BUT, I don't want them to spoil.
Any advice? THX!

 

[Ridgerunner]

When I make chicken broth and pressure can it I do not use salt. As far as I'm concerned salt is for flavor, nothing else. When I look at broth or stock recipes for canning, salt is optional.

I think that is your question.

 

[ducks4you]

Almost. Made a turkey yesterday. The leftover juice is 3 pints worth, and I would like to pressure can it today.
Good recipe?

 

[baymule]

I strain the chicken broth through cheesecloth. But I bet your turkey broth has goodies in it you don’t want strained off. Can as broth and follow the instructions that came with your canner.

 

[ducks4you]

I was on this thread, and I thought I would repeat the You Tubes on pruning tomatoes AND pruning peppers.

What Did You Do In The Garden?

In accordance to my moon calendar - its a good time here now to prune to decrease activity, so.. The Avocado tree down the front of the garage got all the low hanging branches cut back. I then moved up the drive to the Pittosporums-nz native shrub and topped some of mine and my neighbours cos we...

www.theeasygarden.com

Tomato pruning:

Pepper pruning:

Something else, don't use scissors and you will cut yourself with a knife.
AlTHOUGH everybody here who says to buy the best tools is CORRECT, but I pick up cheap extras. I have a very old garden pruner that used to have a lock aparatus with a hook that is now broken, so the pruners sit "open" all of the time. This has become my tomato/pepper pruner. I can store it on my cabinet in the garage at the ready during the season, then put away in my garden shed when the season is over...
SO I CAN FIND THEM NEXT YEAR!!!!
DD's always say that they can tell when I have been gardening, sewing, etc., bc my work areas are more cleaned up and organized. Working this week in the barn, I found 2 more pruners. NICE ones, too.
Don't remember buying both of them, but people that dabble will often Give you tools when they get tired of it...like 2020 new gardeners thinking that they should grow food bc it will become scarce.
This is a BTW:

 

[ducks4you]

Speaking of composting...

 

[Zeedman]

The "Epic" presentations are very well thought out & comprehensive. I like that many options are presented and explained, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. I seldom prune my tomatoes, but may experiment with some of my more rampant varieties. A cross showed up in my grape tomatoes this year, that could have really benefited from early pruning to keep it controllable... it became a monster. In retrospect, I wish I had taken a cutting from that plant, because DW liked it and the production was incredible. Admittedly, because I am so focused on seed saving, I sometimes overlook the possibility of over-wintering something vegetatively.

As for pepper pruning, I get the same results by just burying taller plants more deeply. Once the buried stem roots, the plants branch heavily. I'm not against pruning, but because it can extend the DTM, I would start peppers a little earlier if I intended to prune them. Pepper yield can be increased - sometimes substantially - by pinching off the first flowers. This enables the plant to increase its leaf area, before entering its reproductive phase. In my experience if the first flowers are allowed to set, those early fruits can divert energy away from increased leaf growth, and result in a low yield. Pinching flowers also delays the DTM, so it is not a technique I would use for varieties which barely ripen within the local growing season.

 

[Ridgerunner]

As for pepper pruning, I get the same results by just burying taller plants more deeply.

Is it too late this year when cleaning up to dig those pepper plants up and see how the roots grew along the buried stem? I did that several years back with sweet peppers and noticed the stems did not really root like a tomato will. Maybe a very few roots at a leaf node but mainly just the clump of roots at the bottom of the stem. I'd just like to know if other people get the same results. I still bury them deep, more for stability than roots though. If I plant them shallow they can blow over. They can be pretty brittle too, easy to break branches off.

 

[Zeedman]

Is it too late this year when cleaning up to dig those pepper plants up and see how the roots grew along the buried stem?

At first I had thought it too late this year, with the ground already tilled... but I still have one plant from Beaver Dam left in a pot. It just finished raining here, and there is a pond between me & that pot. Once it dries out a little, I'll pull it & post a photo.