Gardening 2022

[hooky]

Is that a simple as just loading jars with clean cherry tomato's and filling with brine solution? Or do you have to break the skin?



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Yep, I just give them a rinse before they go into the jar and add 2% brine. I do crush the garlic clove since they go so fast. Basil leaves go in first so there isn't a chance they'll float.

 

[hooky]

Icing on the cake with the pump is that, if you already have a ball jar lid vacuum adaptor, you can hand pump a vacuum into any jar. I often use it as a quick vacuum for dehydrated foods stored in jars.

Why didn't I ever think of this? What a great idea.

 

[bwframe]

Yep, I just give them a rinse before they go into the jar and add 2% brine. I do crush the garlic clove since they go so fast. Basil leaves go in first so there isn't a chance they'll float.

I'm totally gonna give this a try this year. Something real quick and easy is always a challenge in the race to keep up in the height of cherry tomato picking season. Too many times, I fall victim to getting overwhelmed and watching tomatoes rot vs putting them up.


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[snapping turtle]

. Too many times, I fall victim to getting overwhelmed and watching tomatoes rot vs putting them up.


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Pruning the vines to remove the second head coming from the stem will give you a tall plant and instead of having 15 stems all flowering and producing at once (straining the plant and using excess nutrients) you will get a more spaced out harvest from July 15- frost. Can only be done with indeterminate tomatoes.

If you want say canning tomatoes then grow determinate styles ones and do not prune them.

 

[tim87tr]

I like the convenience of the lids and I really like the dual duty pump. The pump really helps to suck all of the bubbles from initial jar loading. Also later, (if I remember to do it,) it pulls up the gas bubbles from fermentation to better avoid overflow of your brine.

Icing on the cake with the pump is that, if you already have a ball jar lid vacuum adaptor, you can hand pump a vacuum into any jar. I often use it as a quick vacuum for dehydrated foods stored in jars.


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Thanks, I ordered the vacuum lids and pump today and the dehyradated foods with the vacuum lid is a great idea. Can apply that to all the dried foods like oatmeal, beans, granola, mixed nuts, dry pasta and sugars we store in the half gallon jars. Also ordered a few silicone vent tops and a couple Ball caps with springs to try. Sounds like the vaccuum lids will be the most universal application. Going to enjoy an alternative way to store garden food besides freezing.

On a side note if you haven't tried Japanese cucumbers that can be found at local farmers markets (plan to grow them next year), they make great refrigerator pickles.

Today I was reading a couple canning books. Probably going to buy a Presto pressure cooker and also try out our Ninja Foodie that'll hold 7 pint jars. Newer book on is quite good and the 1969 Ball Blue book (35 cents) passed down from a grandmother is a classic! Many food prep adventures ahead. Appreciate this thread and learning opportunities.

 

[bwframe]

Pruning the vines to remove the second head coming from the stem will give you a tall plant and instead of having 15 stems all flowering and producing at once (straining the plant and using excess nutrients) you will get a more spaced out harvest from July 15- frost. Can only be done with indeterminate tomatoes.

If you want say canning tomatoes then grow determinate styles ones and do not prune them.

Thanks! Most of the time I get in my own way with too many irons in the fire and procrastination.


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[bwframe]

Thanks, I ordered the vacuum lids and pump today and the dehyradated foods with the vacuum lid is a great idea. Can apply that to all the dried foods like oatmeal, beans, granola, mixed nuts, dry pasta and sugars we store in the half gallon jars. Also ordered a few silicone vent tops and a couple Ball caps with springs to try. Sounds like the vaccuum lids will be the most universal application. Going to enjoy an alternative way to store garden food besides freezing.

On a side note if you haven't tried Japanese cucumbers that can be found at local farmers markets (plan to grow them next year), they make great refrigerator pickles.

Today I was reading a couple canning books. Probably going to buy a Presto pressure cooker and also try out our Ninja Foodie that'll hold 7 pint jars. Newer book on is quite good and the 1969 Ball Blue book (35 cents) passed down from a grandmother is a classic! Many food prep adventures ahead. Appreciate this thread and learning opportunities.

View attachment 211949
View attachment 211948

Not sure if the kit you ordered comes with the glass weights or not, but I often find that doubling them in the jars makes for the least amount of messing with stuff and concern with veggies staying under the brine surface.

I always use a catch dish for overflow and it keeps the jar from chewing into whatever it's resting on when I spin the jar back and fourth to look for fermentation bubbles still rising. Not sure if that's a routine thing or a me thing?


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[Timjoebillybob]

For fermenting in canning jars you can make your own airlock caps. Take the lid and drill the proper size hole, and fit with one of these
Amazon product ASIN B07YJRGXF8
And then one of these.
Amazon product ASIN B007HCHXKO
If you're doing more than a couple the savings add up over buying the "canning jar airlock lids".

 

[hooky]

For fermenting in canning jars you can make your own airlock caps. Take the lid and drill the proper size hole, and fit with one of these
Amazon product ASIN B07YJRGXF8
And then one of these.
Amazon product ASIN B007HCHXKO
If you're doing more than a couple the savings add up over buying the "canning jar airlock lids".

I used to buy latex surgical gloves for this. Put them on the filled jar and prick a couple of finger tips with a pin. CO2 is heavy and pushes the rest of the air up and out through the pin holes.

 

[nascarfantoo]

Question for those who may know ...

Why would I have no green beans on my climbing beans? Ironic that my neighbor doesn't either. Mine are in a raised bed. Neighbor's in the ground. Both of us have grown them for several years and always had great luck. We both thought there might be an issue with we had a lot fewer blooms than past years. Mine sprouted nearly 10 weeks ago. His probably 8-9.

Everything else producing well.

 

[Magyars]

Question for those who may know ...

Why would I have no green beans on my climbing beans? Ironic that my neighbor doesn't either. Mine are in a raised bed. Neighbor's in the ground. Both of us have grown them for several years and always had great luck. We both thought there might be an issue with we had a lot fewer blooms than past years. Mine sprouted nearly 10 weeks ago. His probably 8-9.

Everything else producing well.

I've read/heard different people in different places report no produce in certain seeds they bought and planted this year.....

 

[hooky]

Question for those who may know ...

Why would I have no green beans on my climbing beans? Ironic that my neighbor doesn't either. Mine are in a raised bed. Neighbor's in the ground. Both of us have grown them for several years and always had great luck. We both thought there might be an issue with we had a lot fewer blooms than past years. Mine sprouted nearly 10 weeks ago. His probably 8-9.

Everything else producing well.

My pole beans are just now starting to set pods as I checked them this morning. I've been gone since Monday morning and got home late last night. Sunday, they had nothing and had been blooming for around a week. The cool weather followed by the hot dry weather seemed to just foul them all up.

 

[Bill2905]

I love this time of year when the small garden and patio pots start cranking it up. Tomatoes are still a week or so a way.

 

[Bill2905]

Question for those who may know ...

Why would I have no green beans on my climbing beans? Ironic that my neighbor doesn't either. Mine are in a raised bed. Neighbor's in the ground. Both of us have grown them for several years and always had great luck. We both thought there might be an issue with we had a lot fewer blooms than past years. Mine sprouted nearly 10 weeks ago. His probably 8-9.

Everything else producing well.

It has been awfully warm this year. A few summers ago, it was hot for an extended time and the nights didn't cool down much. My pole beans were dormant for weeks until it cooled off. Then one day, it was like someone flipped a switch and there were bean blossoms everywhere.

 

[Jaybird1980]

Another batch of green beans.
This has been a good year for mine.

Thinking spicy pickled green beans with jalapenos.
Any good recipes would be appreciated.

 

[tim87tr]

Another batch of green beans.
This has been a good year for mine.

Thinking spicy pickled green beans with jalapenos.
Any good recipes would be appreciated.

View attachment 213586

That sounds good. We've been making refrigerator pickles I think are delicious that could be used with some type of heat. Recipe attached is for 2 quarts. We may have cut sugar to 1.5 cup.

Hot and humid day so cooked in crock pots in garage. Our green beans and farmers market peaches ended up there. I just started a quart of fermented green beans someone posted was good. Have a 36 hour cultured dairy in the Ninja Foodie.

 

[snapping turtle]

Some updates

Here are my tomato plants indeterminate and cherry. Cherry is about 8 foot tall and the celebrity tomatoes are about 4 feet tall.
Deer still eating them a bit and the regular tomato would be a couple feet taller if the deer did not eat them to the ground this spring.

Peppers are going to be a bumper crop.
Onions are baseball to softball size.

 

[MatthewH]

I'm thinking of doing a soil test as opposed to just winging it. You folks familiar with self testing using pH test strips?

View attachment 174006

I got luckt and got a brand new pack of tests at a garage sale. But FYI the strips aren't always 100% accurate. The test said I had bad soil it just turned black, but the lettuce I planted there produced phenomenal. Science/testing is really the best we can do.

 

[PistolBob]

We canned 32 quarts of green beans this weekend...looks like a bumper crop. Still have two more rows that should come in this week. Still waiting on tomatoes, and bell peppers. Bad year for peppers for us.

 

[Magyars]

Canning the beans and corn today