• Finally, Plinking!

    From Drew Lawson@21:1/5 to All on Sat Aug 10 01:07:23 2019
    As I've admittted before, my garden year started later than it
    should. But it is good to finally have something in jars. I'm
    small fry for this group, but enjoy that it exists.

    Tonight's actual canning is just 14 pints of Blue Lake beans (a bit
    more mature than ideal -- had to string them).

    But I also have about 30 quarts of tomato puree heating on the
    stove. I'm guessing after it cooks down, and I add meat, it will
    make 12-15 quarts of pasta sauce. With life and work demands, that
    will probably be canned next weekend.

    Otherwise, I am sitting here, separating seeds from stems in a bowl
    full of freshly cut, dry standing, dill seed heads. While my
    cucumbers on hand are marginal, they are better than last batch,
    so I hope for dill relish this weekend. Maybe in the morning.

    --
    Drew Lawson | I'd like to find your inner child
    | and kick its little ass

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  • From songbird@21:1/5 to Drew Lawson on Sat Aug 10 07:47:14 2019
    Drew Lawson wrote:
    As I've admittted before, my garden year started later than it
    should. But it is good to finally have something in jars. I'm
    small fry for this group, but enjoy that it exists.

    Tonight's actual canning is just 14 pints of Blue Lake beans (a bit
    more mature than ideal -- had to string them).

    But I also have about 30 quarts of tomato puree heating on the
    stove. I'm guessing after it cooks down, and I add meat, it will
    make 12-15 quarts of pasta sauce. With life and work demands, that
    will probably be canned next weekend.

    Otherwise, I am sitting here, separating seeds from stems in a bowl
    full of freshly cut, dry standing, dill seed heads. While my
    cucumbers on hand are marginal, they are better than last batch,
    so I hope for dill relish this weekend. Maybe in the morning.

    it's so nice when things start coming in. we've been doing
    pickles for a long time and are almost done with them for us
    but other people want cucumbers as long as we can grow them so
    we'll just take them around.

    i'm assuming you are pressure canning the beans and
    sauce?

    i have a new bean variety. i started growing them last
    year and they were noted as a bush, dry bean, but said
    nothing about fresh eating. as usual, with any bean, i
    will always sample them at the fresh bean stages to see
    if they are good that ways too and these were very tender
    and sweet. i didn't eat too many of them last year since
    i wanted as many seeds as i could get. this year i grew
    a lot of them because i really was hoping to eat some
    along with getting a lot more seeds so i can give them
    away. they're one of the most beautiful bean plants
    and have a lot of good traits. the plants are upright,
    bear a ton of pods all at once, bright purple flowers,
    beans are purpled so they're easy to see to pick and
    they are up farther than a lot of my other bush beans
    so the beans aren't dragging in the dirt. nice dark
    leaves and red stems. the only negative so far is
    that they're a Japanese Beetle magnet. still i'm
    looking forwards to seeing how these will cross with
    my other beans i grow here.

    we cooked up the first batch of them yesterday, 8
    minutes in the microwave and they were just right.
    i don't plan on ever using them as a canning bean, i
    suspect they may turn to mush when canned because
    they have almost no fiber at all in the pods. they
    were good. :) if Mom can eat one raw and say that
    it was yummy then we've found a keeper. cooking it
    just enough and a bit of butter and we were both
    happy.

    tomatoes are just coming in. i think we'll be
    pretty busy with those. rather large crop by the
    looks of it.


    songbird

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  • From Drew Lawson@21:1/5 to songbird on Sat Aug 10 23:34:41 2019
    In article <2fn22g-2g2.ln1@anthive.com>
    songbird <songbird@anthive.com> writes:

    it's so nice when things start coming in. we've been doing
    pickles for a long time and are almost done with them for us
    but other people want cucumbers as long as we can grow them so
    we'll just take them around.

    As I somewhat worried, I didn't plant enough vines to have lots of
    cucumbers all at once. So I probably won't get any pickles this
    year, just mistake-based knowledge. But relish doesn't take too
    large of a harvest.

    I think I also made the same mistake with the beans. They are
    coming in, but not really enough at once for good canning.

    I guess that's what happens when you have a poor memory and skip
    grwing something for a couple years.

    i'm assuming you are pressure canning the beans and
    sauce?

    Oh, certainly.

    Some day I'll get a pH meter and test the sauce to see where it
    ends up. I'll still pressure can, but I'm curious.

    tomatoes are just coming in. i think we'll be
    pretty busy with those. rather large crop by the
    looks of it.

    Mine are coming in and trying to die all at the same time. I'm
    treating it as if it is my nemesis -- tomato leaf spot -- but it
    isn't acting quite the same. The current batch of sauce can be
    enough if it needs to be, but Iusually do two large batches --
    August and September/October -- with lots of eating tomatoes in
    between.

    There are lots of green tomatoes right now. In fact, I've had to
    pound in stakes to support a couple of the cages, since the plants
    are so heavy.

    Since I have them, I'm going to look through recipes for pickled
    green tomatoes. Only one way to find out if I like them.


    --
    Drew Lawson | "But the senator, while insisting he was not
    | intoxicated, could not explain his nudity."

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  • From songbird@21:1/5 to Drew Lawson on Sat Aug 10 20:12:41 2019
    Drew Lawson wrote:
    songbird writes:

    it's so nice when things start coming in. we've been doing
    pickles for a long time and are almost done with them for us
    but other people want cucumbers as long as we can grow them so
    we'll just take them around.

    As I somewhat worried, I didn't plant enough vines to have lots of
    cucumbers all at once. So I probably won't get any pickles this
    year, just mistake-based knowledge. But relish doesn't take too
    large of a harvest.

    I think I also made the same mistake with the beans. They are
    coming in, but not really enough at once for good canning.

    I guess that's what happens when you have a poor memory and skip
    grwing something for a couple years.

    i'm assuming you are pressure canning the beans and
    sauce?

    Oh, certainly.

    Some day I'll get a pH meter and test the sauce to see where it
    ends up. I'll still pressure can, but I'm curious.

    tomatoes are just coming in. i think we'll be
    pretty busy with those. rather large crop by the
    looks of it.

    Mine are coming in and trying to die all at the same time. I'm
    treating it as if it is my nemesis -- tomato leaf spot -- but it
    isn't acting quite the same.

    we get some kind of issue with tomatoes each year like
    this and since it doesn't affect production enough for me
    to care i don't do anything about it. by the time the
    plants have lost most of their leaves and look like they
    are about done, we've harvested and put up what we want.

    any green tomatoes that are left can be set on a table
    in the garage to gradually ripen, a few may rot, but most
    of them will eventually turn red. we've eaten and canned
    them and they are ok. not quite as good as ripened on
    the plants, but by the time we've made other things with
    them it doesn't really matter that much.


    The current batch of sauce can be
    enough if it needs to be, but Iusually do two large batches --
    August and September/October -- with lots of eating tomatoes in
    between.

    we eat them as we go along and give some away, but most
    of them are canned as chunks.


    There are lots of green tomatoes right now. In fact, I've had to
    pound in stakes to support a couple of the cages, since the plants
    are so heavy.

    yeah, that happens every year here too. as above we don't
    really do too much about it other than pick what is ready
    and cut around the spoiled parts or discard what we can't
    use.


    Since I have them, I'm going to look through recipes for pickled
    green tomatoes. Only one way to find out if I like them.

    i like a fried green tomato sandwich once in a while
    but have not really liked them pickled. since we ripen
    them anyways it isn't a big problem to worry about.


    songbird

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