henless' garden, 2018

[henless]

What does it taste like? And what do the greens taste like? It is a neat looking plant.

DH got in a little bit ago. He said to him it tasted like turnips with the greens. I've never eaten turnip tubers, so I couldn't tell you if that is what it tastes like. To me, it does not taste like cabbage or broccoli.

I sauteed onions in kerry gold butter, then added the cut up bulb. I let it cook for a little while, then added the chopped leaves with salt/pepper. Covered and simmered it until everything was tender.

I want to try cooking turnips & the greens this same way next season.

 

[ninnymary]

I have a question on those cattle panels with beans. When you plant on one side, do they grow all the way down to the other side? I'm guessing you plant on both sides and their tops end up in the middle?

Mary

 

[flowerbug]

@flowerbug ~ I hope they taste good. My first time making b&b pickles. How long do you need to leave them before opening up a jar? I need to look that up.

a few weeks is plenty, if you are going to eat them that quickly you can store some of them in the refrigerator and not even bother processing them to seal as they'll keep, just like making refrigerator pickles or freezer jam. they'll keep for a while in the fridge. saves energy and time if you don't have to process to seal them up. if you get the contents of the jars hot enough they may seal up anyways...

 

[henless]

I have a question on those cattle panels with beans. When you plant on one side, do they grow all the way down to the other side? I'm guessing you plant on both sides and their tops end up in the middle?

Mary

If they grow good, they can go from one side to the other. I have something different (or a different variety) planted on each trellis. Some have reached the middle, but one trellis is still open at the top.

a few weeks is plenty, if you are going to eat them that quickly you can store some of them in the refrigerator and not even bother processing them to seal as they'll keep, just like making refrigerator pickles or freezer jam. they'll keep for a while in the fridge. saves energy and time if you don't have to process to seal them up. if you get the contents of the jars hot enough they may seal up anyways...

Thanks fb. The canning books tell you a lot, but I'm finding that it doesn't tell you everything. Sure is helpful to have people willing to share little tricks & tidbits on how to can.

 

[flowerbug]

...

Thanks fb. The canning books tell you a lot, but I'm finding that it doesn't tell you everything. Sure is helpful to have people willing to share little tricks & tidbits on how to can.

when it comes down to acidic things and if you weren't going to put them into storage planning on keeping them for several seasons i'm usually not too worried about them as much as the lower acid things which would need more heat/pressure/processing time. as we don't have a pressure canner we don't do low acid canning that often (i don't trust it myself - i'd rather not ever have botulism poisoning...).

a few years ago we put up about 80 quarts of pickles, including about half bread and butter pickles. i like a mix of both sweet and dill pickles (along with celery, onions and green olives) in tuna salad or in potato salad.

a bit ago we made ground pickle and bologna from store bought dill pickles and i can say that i much more prefer the ones we make ourselves for eating.

 

[henless]

DH & I opened up a jar of the bread & butter pickles I canned a few days ago. I have to say, they are the best tasting b & b pickles I have ever eaten! I'm glad I didn't use the recipe that called for ginger. The one I used is just perfect.

 

[henless]

I had a big update ready to post about a week or so ago. Right before I hit the send button, we lost our electricity. It was out for a couple of hours, I never did get back to repost it. What a bummer.

Let's see, what's happening now in the garden.

I've pulled the green beans and tomatoes out. The peppers are still in & producing somewhat. The basil needed cutting. I had 4 batches planted, 2 purple & 2 green. I cut, dried & crushed them all and filled up a quart jar of dried basil. It smelled wonderful. I like how the purple looks, but I like the green basil better. It has bigger leaves and is easier to process for me.

Okra is doing good. It's quite a bit taller than in this pic. Should be flowering soon. It was taken right before we got all our ran little over a week ago. Not a drop of rain since last weekend.



My cherokee tan pumpkins have really taken off. I planted 5 seeds, and the vines have spread to the other side of the trellis. I've let them root on the off side, then turned them back up to grow back over the trellis to where they started.

The side you see here used to have my cantaloupes on it. I pulled them down to let the ct pumpkins grow. They've gone nuts.



I have 12 pumpkins growing for sure, and several small ones I'm waiting to see if they got fertilized or not. I like how they look hanging down from the trellis. It's rumored that the Seminole Indians had a similar pumpkin called the Seminole Hanging pumpkin. In fact, these may be the same if not cousins to them. The Seminole's would plant the seeds around trees and let the vines climb up in the tress. The pumpkins would hang down as they grew. Hence the name Seminole "Hanging" pumpkins. They are supposed to have a sweet meat and store very well in the South.



My cucumbers are still producing. In fact, I put up another canner of bread & butter pickles on Friday. They are starting to yellow, so I may plant another crop for the fall.

The sunflowers are about spent. Even though I planted some Mammoth sunflowers, none got really big. I did get some pretty red crimson (red velvet?) ones. When the storms came through over a week ago, it about destroyed them all. I'll probably be pulling them sometime this week.



I'm hoping to put in a fall garden. My summer garden just didn't last that long. Our last frost was a month late, and it got so blasted hot so quick that it really wrecked havoc on some of my stuff. It was 108 degrees today with heat index of 115. Miserable.

 

[digitS']

I was about to like your post, Henless. Even the sunflowers sadly blowing down ... then, I got to that weather report of misery ..!

I'm one who doesn't like bread and butter pickles. But, I'm pleased that you are planning to have more cucumbers for the fall.

Even here, the spring-planted vines begin to play out before the fall frost. There are a few more planted in the onions right now. Room for them is just a matter of pulling the onions near the cucumbers, first. They won't have much of a season but should produce a few cukes. Fresh! About the time when they can be appreciated .

Steve
now able to eat a cucumber everyday

 

[baymule]

We're in hunker down mode, hugging up on us some Air Conditioning! LOL I was late getting my garden going, have green tomatoes, purple hull peas are starting to bloom and corn that is tasseling now. My cucumbers are blooming! I get up early and am out watering the garden at daybreak. It's HOT!

 

[flowerbug]

I had a big update ready to post about a week or so ago. Right before I hit the send button, we lost our electricity. It was out for a couple of hours, I never did get back to repost it. What a bummer.

sometimes there will a draft saved or you can even save one once in a while if it is a longer post (the little disk icon).

if you have a lot of power issues a small UPS is well worth the $. it gives you enough time to save things and shut down when the power goes out. i've had mine here for years and it's saved me troubles for sure, especially when the power does a lot of flickering on and off during storms. in a pinch, now with the new more efficient LED lights i can also use it to run some lights if the power is off and we need to do something at night.

gardens look great!

sunflowers are so beautiful.