Gardening Gardening

That is awesome.

 

Did a little juice tonight.

 

My mater's are just starting to get ripe. I picked a half dozen grape tomatoes today. The bigger ones will start going ballistic in the next few days. I wanted Roma tomatoes for canning for the wife's red sauce, but couldn't find any Roma seedlings this spring. So it's all the other types. Better boy, early girl, beefy boy, beef master. Whatever. I'll just need to get the seeds and "slime " out before canning any.
Zucchini fruit are getting bigger and peppers are really getting a ton of fruit on each plant.

Green beans were bush beans and are getting crowded out. That's fine. I thought they were climbers and got the trellises out for them in anticipation of them climbing for light.

The bad part about the beans is that my wife really started to enjoy eating these beans. She's very particular about veggies, so when I find something that she'll eat and likes, that's a keeper. She likes our beans better than any she's had before. I think it's the home grown aspect.

 

Chaz found a neat little gadget a food mill that you hand crank. What i did is cut the tomatoes in chunks or in half and then threw them into a pressure cooker to cook down. Once it was cooked down then ran it through the food mill. That took care of all the seeds and skin that I didn't want to deal with. Should check it out.

 

I have a juicer to remove the seeds but have not used it in probably 8 years or more. I just core, drop them in hot water for a few minutes then in cold water, peel the skin off and then into the blender. Puree then into the pot, bring to a boil.

 

I've got deer and a woodchuck in my fenced in garden.
I saw the woodchuck about an hour ago. The deer have left presents.
I had about thirty cauliflowers. I think the deer ate the leaves and the woodchuck ate the cauliflowers. Dammit. I was nursing these things through the heat. And we've had some heat for quite a while. That's a lot of every day watering for no return. Grrrr.
Going after the woodchuck tomorrow with the backhoe as I saw where he/she has its hole/abode.

 

Picking our first maters as well. Peppers are doing awesome, just need to see some color before I pick.


FarmerSteves sweet corn is fantastic!!!

I gave a few ears to my parents and they loved it too.

 

I bought a food mill for my wife last Christmas, or was it two Christmas's ago. Thanks for the reminder, I'll definitely use it. We didn't have a garden the last 2 or 3 years. So I need to get back into the swing of things. We really miss not having homemade canned tomatoes. My wife's red sauce is always better with homegrown mater's.

 

Better have a pellet gun at least too. I'd be PO'd if that happened here.

 

Should have given you some zuchinni when you were here.

 

I want some. Want to make bread and maybe try some fried zucchini.

 

Another batch tonight

 

I had a woodchuck slip under my fence and devastate my lettuce and red cabbage about a month ago or longer. The cabbage bounced back nicely, lettuce was done for. I pop wood chucks with my pellet gun now when I see them, but also live trap them. Gotten 3 so far this year although I think there's one more to be gotten. Living in the 'burbs I'm super hesitant to try and shoot my .22 in my back yard.

 

Try subsonic rounds. They are very mellow and more accurate than your pellets.
I just dispatched 2 rabbits that started wrecking havoc. Ate 1/2 a cabbage and some ripe tomato’s. .22 break barrel air rifle at about 20-25 yards and they only moved about 6-8’ before stopping, one dead the other needed a second plink.

 

I've had my eye on some subsonic rounds though any site that will ship to NY is out of them. Also had my eye on a Ruger .22 air rifle but wasn't sure if that was really something that would be effective for woodchucks since I know they can be pretty tough. I've never had an issue coexisting with woodchucks until we put the garden in. Now it's war.

 

Maters finally getting ripe.

 

A buddy of mine has been keeping us in tomatoes. Lots of Sweet 100s, and now some larger ones..

 

Round 3 & probably the last one. Busy weekend, 15 bags of corn & 11 meals of stuffed peppers for the freezer, then the tomatoes.

 

Ground hog is back and has to go. I've got a crossman American classic 177 cal pellet pistol, and it shoots decently, but probably not at the distance I need. It does this with gold tip hunting pellets at 10 yrds, probably not far enough away as I'm sure it will see me within that distance.

It buries the pellet into pressure treated 4x4. But is that enough? That's 10 pumps on the pistol.

Something is telling me I need to buy quiet 22 ammo for my new 10/22 that I've never shot. I've got a scope for it too, just need rings and a base. Either that, or a trap. It can't be loud in my neighborhood.