Gardening 2020...

[spencer rifle]

We regularly reuse jar lids - and not just the Tattlers that are meant for reuse - especially if they have been carefully opened and not bent.. They seal as well as the Tattlers - about a 5% failure rate. Had to order small lids from Amazon. Bleah. We have plenty of large lids.

Still collecting enough tomatoes for sauce and salsa. Too many cucumbers. The long oriental beans are doing well, and the corn is maturing nicely. We've had orange pumpkins since the middle of July. Potatoes are resting in the basement. Carrots are especially good this year. Beets are way behind, brassicas are completely eaten by caterpillars.

Removed two more chipmunks this week.

 

[DangerousDave]

Picked a big watermelon out of the patch yesterday. It was a Yellow Gem Sweet. The flesh inside is yellow instead of red. It was real sweet and juicy. The wife and I have it about all ate up. I bought one of these melons last year at Croy Creek Traders Fair and saved the seeds from it. I didn't know what kind of melons I would come up with. If you save seeds from a hybrid you may end up with something from the parent plant. Evidently they are not hybrids because it was just like the watermelon I purchased last year. My squash vines are drying up and I picked a butternut squash yesterday and ate it for supper It was good and ripe. Seems a little early for them.

 

[bwframe]

My butternut squash is looking pretty peakid also. Lotta yellow leaves.

The squash was an afterthought here, going in late, I'm concerned the butternut's will not ripen before plants are done?

Up until this year, I was not a huge fan of squash. A diet change and "this is not a drill" SHTF gardening this year pushed me into working for bigger than normal harvest yields and here we are. I'm finding ways to like squash.

Eating the crap out of summer squash and hoping the winter varieties make it. I beat the bugs, now working on the blights.

Fall zucchini starts are just out of the ground.

 

[Phase2]

Butternut squash will keep for at least 6 months on a shelf. Very good for making a winter soup.

 

[Trigger Time]

Fall green beans just flowered today.
Fall cucumbers and zucchini are up and growing fast.
Planted the peas a day ago. Hope they do well.

 

[DangerousDave]

My butternut squash is looking pretty peakid also. Lotta yellow leaves.

The squash was an afterthought here, going in late, I'm concerned the butternut's will not ripen before plants are done?

Up until this year, I was not a huge fan of squash. A diet change and "this is not a drill" SHTF gardening this year pushed me into working for bigger than normal harvest yields and here we are. I'm finding ways to like squash.

Eating the crap out of summer squash and hoping the winter varieties make it. I beat the bugs, now working on the blights.

Fall zucchini starts are just out of the ground.

I like to cook squash and use it instead of pumpkin. I make squash pies and most people think they are eating pumpkin. I've also made pumpkin rolls and used squash instead of pumpkin. If you look on the back of a can of pumpkin, under the ingredients, lots of time it will list squash. A couple of years ago I planted Tahitian butternut squash. They are a lot bigger than the Waltham butternuts and have an extra long neck. Taste is the same as a Waltham, they are just a lot bigger. I kept them in the basement and used on them all winter.

 

[bwframe]

 

[bwframe]

I like to cook squash and use it instead of pumpkin. I make squash pies and most people think they are eating pumpkin. I've also made pumpkin rolls and used squash instead of pumpkin. If you look on the back of a can of pumpkin, under the ingredients, lots of time it will list squash. A couple of years ago I planted Tahitian butternut squash. They are a lot bigger than the Waltham butternuts and have an extra long neck. Taste is the same as a Waltham, they are just a lot bigger. I kept them in the basement and used on them all winter.

This is very helpful, thank you!

I had pie pumpkins last year that were volunteers. I messed with eating pumpkin a lot. This year, wasn't able to get or work them in. Hopefully we'll have some usable butternuts.

 

[Gluemanz28]

We have put up 40 pints of salsa, 12 quarts of pickled jalapeños, four quarts of Pickled Hot Banana peppers. My beefsteak tomatoes are as big as softballs. The Early Girl are better in my opinion and about baseball size.

We made a batch of extra hot salsa and put a large bowl of grape tomatoes in with the other tomatoes. It turned out great. You get a little sweet from the grape tomatoes then heat from the Jalapeños.

I used 1/3 of a pint on my omelette this morning.

 

[Jaybird1980]

I like to cook squash and use it instead of pumpkin. I make squash pies and most people think they are eating pumpkin. I've also made pumpkin rolls and used squash instead of pumpkin. If you look on the back of a can of pumpkin, under the ingredients, lots of time it will list squash. A couple of years ago I planted Tahitian butternut squash. They are a lot bigger than the Waltham butternuts and have an extra long neck. Taste is the same as a Waltham, they are just a lot bigger. I kept them in the basement and used on them all winter.

My wife cooks butternut squash like fried potatoes, it's delicious

 

[DangerousDave]

I like to peel my butternuts, then cut them up in about 3/4" cubes. I put them in the skillet along with about a half stick of butter and cover them with a lid. I let them steam on low until the squash gets soft and then mash it up with a fork. I then add some cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves. Tastes just like pumpkin. I bought my Tahitian Butternut seeds from, E&R Seeds out of Monroe, In. They put out a seed catalog every year. They are real good people to deal with and are reasonable. They also sell a wide variety of Heirloom seed so you can then save your own seed out of your garden.

 

[bwframe]

Dumb questions here...

How do you tell when the butternut or spaghetti winter squashes are ripe?

I've been taking the crook necked summer squash as I choose, normally when it turns a darker yellow or before it gets too big. I've taken it seemingly earlier than that though and it eats just fine.

The winter squashes seem to have a harder peel that I assume is inedible?

 

[DangerousDave]

BW, you are correct, the hard outer shell is inedible. I start picking winter squash when the vines start drying up. With the vines being dry there are no more nutrients going to feed the squash, so it is done for the year. Have you ever heard the Indian legend of "The three sisters"? Corn, beans and squash are three inseparable sisters who only grow and thrive together. This tradition of interplanting corn, beans, and squash in the same hills or rows was widespread among Native Americans. The beans climbed up on the cornstalks and the squash spread out at the bottom and helped to choke the weeds out. It was a sustainable system that provided long-term soil fertility and a healthy diet for generations. Just wanted to share that as I am part Native American.

 

[spencer rifle]

BW, you are correct, the hard outer shell is inedible. I start picking winter squash when the vines start drying up. With the vines being dry there are no more nutrients going to feed the squash, so it is done for the year. Have you ever heard the Indian legend of "The three sisters"? Corn, beans and squash are three inseparable sisters who only grow and thrive together. This tradition of interplanting corn, beans, and squash in the same hills or rows was widespread among Native Americans. The beans climbed up on the cornstalks and the squash spread out at the bottom and helped to choke the weeds out. It was a sustainable system that provided long-term soil fertility and a healthy diet for generations. Just wanted to share that as I am part Native American.

We used that this year. All three are doing well so far. We even have a bonus of some corn ears with smut, which is considered a delicacy in Mexico. It is more expensive than the corn, and has higher protein and amino acid content.

 

[bwframe]

eBay sent me an email with items of interest that I had recently searched. One of them was regular sized canning lids...

...

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?Typ...de=TE76001_T_AGM&placement-type-name=headline

$.75 to over a dollar a lid.

I'm down to a few dozen wide mouth lids on new jars. Wide mouth are mostly what I use.

Looks like it's time to flip the 8 dozen regular mouth new lids I have on hand?

 

[MRockwell]

I'm down to a few dozen wide mouth lids on new jars. Wide mouth are mostly what I use.

Looks like it's time to flip the 8 dozen regular mouth new lids I have on hand?

8 dozen? Them's rookie numbers!LOL I looked earlier today, and we have 51 dozen regular lids. Like you, wide mouth are what gets used most.

Question on your squash chips: do you add any seasoning before dehydrating(assuming those are dehydrated)?

I made some zucchini chips in the oven this evening, to go with supper, and they didn't dry down to "chip" form. They tasted great, but I think I might try dehydrating some.

 

[NKBJ]

Experimented this year with deer psyching.
We're off today to gather more barrier materials for next year's enlarged garden plot.
Gonna have it basically ready and waiting come spring when the corn tundra thaws; the trellises, planters, hugelkultur beds, tater beds, rebuilt composters and all.

 

[bwframe]

Question on your squash chips: do you add any seasoning before dehydrating(assuming those are dehydrated)?

I made some zucchini chips in the oven this evening, to go with supper, and they didn't dry down to "chip" form. They tasted great, but I think I might try dehydrating some.

Jury is still out on the seasoning. First batch got salt, pepper and green garlic powder. Second got smoked salt and the last got McCormick Everything Bagel.

I'm leaning toward the salt pepper and green garlic. Minimal cost, less falls off and the garlic powder is home grown. I might try to grind the salt a little finer, so it dissolves a bit better into the freshly cut damp surface of the squash?

I'm hoping to fiddle a bit more with this. With some luck, the fall zucchini crop will produce?

 

[bwframe]

Experimented this year with deer psyching...

The yearlings around here eat everything. Stuff deer wouldn't normally eat get tried and or ate all the way by the young ones closer to the ground. I don't know whether they are learning or if it's the drought conditions we are experiencing? The deer normally leave the rhubarb alone. Not this year.

I've been pruning a lot of blighted (powdery mildew?) stalks/leaves out of the zucchini. The plants seem to be taking it in stride, just starting to get some blossoms.

I killed a couple more squash bugs recently, but they were not in the immediate area of the zucchini. I was hoping that I'd ended their cycle for this year? I'm trying to watch closely for eggs on the leaves...

Guarded optimism this year for the fall garden. I have a lot of stuff planted with mixed results on late season germination.

More standing green than ever before at this time of year. Looking like my water bill might triple, trying to keep it all alive.

 

[spencer rifle]

Dug up a prodigious amount of carrots. They are more and bigger than ever in our garden's history. Still getting rhubarb. Okra dong very well, unfortunately. Got some pumpkins, destined for cooking. Hazelnuts doing well now that we trapped all the chipmunks that were eating them. Lots of spaghetti squash.