let's see your veggie garden {pics} 2021-24

[Huffen'Snuff]

I sprout all my cucumbers, melons and squash in germination trays and plant them into 4"pots or oversized 6 packs as soon as they sprout. None of those like having their root disturbed at all. When they go to the field we are very careful not to disturb the roots. You should never try to flare out the roots like with many other plants. It will set them back by two weeks trying to recover.

I seed tomatoes, peppers and tobacco directly into 6 packs. I will put two seeds in a few tomatoes to divide later and make up for any blanks. I usually get 95%+ germ rate on those so I don't need many doubles. Tomatoes are super easy to bare root out and divide later with no losses. Peppers have a much lower germ rate by nature. The federal minimum for selling pepper seed is only 55%. I put two seeds in about 1/2 the pots and divide them later. You can't bare root and manhandle them like tomatoes and tobaccos, but I rarely lose any when dividing them. I have about 25 different peppers for this year.

For tobaccos I put 3-4 seeds in each pot. Some times I get a few more in there due to their tiny size and a shaky hand. I thin them down to 2-3 plants with tiny scissors and then thin or divide them further as needed at about 4 weeks. Tobaccos are like tomatoes and are super easy to bare root out and re-pot with 0 losses.

I have 5868 tomatoes, peppers, poppies and tomatillos started so far. I don't start my tobaccos until the first week of April for planting out around May 25th. Watermelon I start 5 weeks before planting day. Other melons and cucumbers at 4 weeks and squash at 3 weeks. Cucumbers do well planted in blocks of 2-4 plants spaced 2-3 feet apart. Melons go in at 2 plants every 3 feet and squash go in at 2 plants 5' apart.

I am always looking for help with planting at the end of May if anyone is looking for a side job.

I would be interested in a temp/seasonal job, my job at a potato/cabbage farm was one of my first and favorite jobs I ever had. Back in 94' I got 4/hr on Charlies potatoe farm and loved it. I was fourteen living the simple life, riding my (1989 Suzuki RM80) to work, (if I smelled caster Bean Oil in the morning, that's likely where it would take me), lol! Back to the farm

I may be interested in making a pilgrimage, in the springtime. If I could figure out the logistics, I sure love the work, and definitely want to learn Nicotiana tabacum/rustica

 

[ProZachJ]

Care to share your catsup recipe or is it a family secret?

For catsup I keep it very simple

22 lbs tomato
3 cups white vinegar
1-2 cups corn syrup
1 cup sugar
1 large yellow onion
1 large garlic

Wash tomatoes and remove stem, cores. Quarter and place in a very large pot. Bring to a boil occasionally mashing tomatoes as they soften.

While this is happening, saute the garlic and onions in a separate pan until they begin caramelization.

After boil is reached lower temp to low simmer and use immersion bender to puree the tomatoes adding the garlic and onions along the way.

After the mix is as smooth as the blender can get it raise the temperature back up. As the boil resumes the puree will separate and the solids will begin to rise to the top of the pot. Quickly scoop them off with a slotted spoon and put in another pot. Continue to scoop out as many solids as you can.

Allow the liquid portion to vigorously reduce for one or two hours, until it is thick. While that happens...

Press the solid portion through a fine metal collinder or cheese cloth (yes this will be an annoying process) collecting the paste that results and discarding the skin and seeds.

Reduce the thickened liquid to a very low simmer. Add corn syrup, vinegar, and sugar, mix well. Now add the paste you collected, mix well and allow to verly lowly simmer for 20 minutes. Adjust corn syrup, vinegar, and sugar to taste...

You've just spent your whole afternoon making catsup.

 

[GreenDragon]

Thanks! I’ll have to give it a try.

 

[deluxestogie]

This is my single cucumber vine (Boston Pickling), climbing a tomato cage.

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

In my experience one is all you need. Two and you can't eat them all. Three and you have to leave baskets of cucumbers on your neighbors' porch in the middle of the night...

 

[deluxestogie]

Same germination date. Same soil. Same fertilizer. Same sun exposure. Same pot! One of these is getting ready to blossom and produce fruit. The other seems to be the placebo.

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

Today, after months of patiently waiting, the peaches on our tree were finally ripe! The wife and I picked a bucket full and prepared to make peach preserves. After setting up the canning assembly line with boiling water, jars, sugar etc we started blanching and peeling. Then we found that every single peach had maggots in them. Very disappointing. What is odd is that the nectarine tree 8 feet away did not have a single one. We got 8 quarts of jam out of it!

 

[deluxestogie]

These pears will be ready to harvest in about 2 or 3 weeks.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

This has been a strange growing season. I have maintained two grape varieties—Buffalo Red Wine Grape and Ontario White Wine Grape—for over 15 years. The grapes are typically ready to harvest in early September. But the 2024 season began with a prolonged drought and high heat, followed by seemingly endless rain, topped off with the most severe plague of Japanese beetles I've ever seen. The Japanese beetles destroyed about 2/3 of the foliage of: both my grape vines; both my apple trees; both of my hazelnuts. [The traps that I've used in the past seemed to only attract more of them.] The apple trees of my neighbors in either direction have been similarly hit. So my apples are all tiny, my hazels are nearly barren, and the Buffalo grape has produced very little fruit. But my Ontario grapes have prospered, and ripened a month early. There are even some raisins on some of the bunches.

I don't make wine. But these white grapes have actual flavor, compared to the bland, seedless grapes at the grocery. My grapes also have seeds and very tough skins. So I eat them where I can easily spit the seeds and the emptied skins into the yard. Their flavor resembles a smooth sauterne.

Bob

EDIT: Some years, I have collected grape leaves. Pickled in citric acid, they make wonderful wrappers for yaprak (dolmades).

 

[deluxestogie]

Status Report: Only grow quantities of veggies that I can entirely consume fresh!

• Two crookneck squash plants in a 2½ gallon pot: Both have produced no female blossoms, though abundant male blossoms. That's a mystery to me. Zero squash to eat.
• Six green bean plants below the corner of the porch: enough beans to be content. No excess.
• One plant of tiny yellow pear tomatoes: The plant itself is enormous, but the deer seem to be eating all the tomatoes that are almost ripe, along with munching some of the tomato stalk. I've harvested one nearly ripe, tiny tomato.
• One Boston Pickling Cucumber plant: It simply won't stop overproducing lovely cucumbers. The local wildlife don't even nibble on those spine-covered cukes. I've eaten an awful lot of sliced and diced cucumber with my dinners over the past few weeks. Today, I surrendered, and made up a ½-gallon batch of vinegar cucumber pickles, and still have 5 or 6 small, fresh cukes in the fridge.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

The kind and friendly Snitznoodle.

In my unending struggle to keep up with this season's single cucumber vine, I tried a cucumber sandwich for lunch today. This was whole wheat toast, mayo and cucumber. No salt or pepper, etc. The plump cuke was about the length of one slice of bread. I cut the cuke lengthwise into ¼-inch thick slabs, applied mayo to both slices of toast, then laid on the cuke slabs.

To my surprise, this is actually quite tasty, with a nice crunch. It vaguely resembles a tomato sandwich. Unfortunately, like the air sandwich eaten by the kind and friendly Snitznoodle (from the Raggedy Ann, Raggedy Andy books), there is nothing there. The cuke is 95% water, 3.5% carbohydrate, and enough calories to permit a flea to do 6 push-ups. Vitamins, minerals, fiber? Forget about it.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

These are all the pears I could reach by standing on the ground, and reaching up with a modified leaf rake. (My days of climbing a stepladder for fruit are over.) My two pear varieties are both resistant to fire blight. The splotchy dark areas on the outside of the pears are signs of fire blight, but it does not penetrate the fruit. Occasionally a small branch will turn black, and die. The trees are now over 20 years old. [My one Bartlett pear, which was not resistant to fire blight, lasted about 4 years before completely dying.]

There are probably 3 or 4 dozen more, beautiful pears still in the trees, beyond my reach, but I will not pick them.

Pears are not picked when ripe, but rather are picked when they freely snap off the branch, when raised to horizontal. (Waiting to pick until they are ripe invariably results in a pear with a center that is already turning brown and mushy.) So I allow the picked pears to rest until thumb pressure on a pear's "shoulder" causes a slight indention. Then that pear goes into the fridge for a day or two to complete ripening. I always peel my pears, so the ugly exterior doesn't matter.

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

Beans, sweet potatoes, and peppers. Also an okra flower and morning glories in the hops.

 

[GreenDragon]

Todays harvest