JRmom - Garden is in!

[JRmom]

Your market sounds like it has really good prices!

Are you going to do a fall garden?

I love the market - the prices are always great. They even sell local honey and homemade baked goods. And yes, I'm planning a fall garden now. I've never done one, so I'm excited to try growing some different things.

ETA: I almost forgot! I saved seed this weekend - the first time I've attempted this. I saved Amish Paste tomato seed, cucumber seed, and green beans. I have enough Amish Paste seed to plant 10 acres.

 

[Icu4dzs]

Your market sounds like it has really good prices!

Are you going to do a fall garden?

I love the market - the prices are always great. They even sell local honey and homemade baked goods. And yes, I'm planning a fall garden now. I've never done one, so I'm excited to try growing some different things.

ETA: I almost forgot! I saved seed this weekend - the first time I've attempted this. I saved Amish Paste tomato seed, cucumber seed, and green beans. I have enough Amish Paste seed to plant 10 acres.

My Amish Paste tomatos all died in the wind storm on Memorial day. What a drag. I worked all winter to have plants for the garden and the day they got planted, they were all wiped out. Not what I was hoping for.
Well Next year I'll try something different. I am going to start a hydroponic garden and then move the plants outside. Since tomatos are really perennials I am going to try working them first.
Good to know your seed saving works. I need to do more of that. No blossoms yet.
//BT//
Trim sends

 

[valmom]

Oh, goodness. We haven't even gotten a summer garden to start yet!

 

[JRmom]

I'm going to do an experiment. I'm going to get a few more tomato plants started and set them out the first of September. September, October, and usually part of November are still very warm, but without the sun being a scorcher. I want to see if the plants will produce well. If they do, I'll revise my 2012 fall garden and plant another big crop of 'maters.

Yesterday I researched sun shade material. Wow! Expensive stuff.

 

[FarmerChick]

I tried this in NC.
late tomatoes and they didn't do well. nights were 'too cool' for them to produce. I got tons of flowers, not one tomatoe


but go it cause in FL your nights are warmer...might work well for you.

 

[JRmom]

Wow, what a lazy weekend. I didn't how realize how full blast I've been going until I did absolutely nothing. Last week it rained every single day, and the weekend was supposed to be even worse. So we decided to stay home for once. I didn't have anything in the garden that needed checking on except tomatoes, but I'm sure they are splitting from all the water. We went from burn-ban drought conditions to tropical depression... but I'm not complaining, I'd rather have the rain. Hopefully all this rain will help the lake come back up.

We only saw the sun a few times over the weekend, it basically rained, rained, and rained some more. Which calls for napping. And we did a whole lot of that. And then stayed up way later at night than normal. I also spent time on the computer working so I got caught up on a few things.

We also ate out, twice! Which is something we normally do only once or twice a year. Friday night we went to the local greasy spoon and had breakfast for dinner. Very disappointing. Hubby said I definitely make a better breakfast. Saturday night we had take-out from Carrabba's - much better! I had mussels in garlic and wine, my favorite. Yummy! I make this at home sometimes, but it was nice for someone else to do the cooking. But I did cook last night. We had oven-fried chicken and I made rice following framing fowl's tip here: http://sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=9893&p=1 ...it came out perfect! I used chicken stock instead of water and added some dried thyme. Delicious!

I had also started 6 more tomato plants last week for my fall tomato growing experiment and they sprouted on Saturday. And then the cat tried to murder one last night.

 

[JRmom]

Not much gardening stuff going on here. Sweet potatoes are doing good, and I replanted some blackeye peas and they are up. Other than that the garden is done for the summer. I have 6 Amish Paste tomato seedlings going that I'll plant soon, just to see if I can get any fruit in the fall. Kinda doubt it, but stranger things have happened gardening in Florida.

I am seriously rethinking how I garden. I think next spring I'm only going to plant tomatoes and blackeye peas. The squash take up too much room and I can buy them cheap, and my husband doesn't eat cucumbers, so I'll just do that in a container. Plus, I'm going to try getting the tomatoes in the ground late February instead of mid-March, depending on the weather.

I have my seeds for this fall and winter: turnip, buttercup squash, spinach, radish, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and carrots. Garden area is at a premium so I'm going to have to come up with a tight garden plan if I want to grow a little bit of everything. I may do the radishes and lettuce in containers since I'm the only one who will eat them. Can you tell hubby is a meat and potatoes kinda guy?

I hate to wish the summer away but I'm looking forward to working in the garden when it's not 95 or more. Looking forward to firing up the wood stoves too (but that's still a long ways off). It's another grey rainy day here, but we do need the rain, and our high temp today is only supposed to be around 90.

Ordered hubby's birthday present last night, another iPod Classic to replace the one that got stolen. Bought a refurbished one through Apple and saved about $50 (even got free shipping). Now I'm waiting on him to ask me what I want for my birthday... an Excalibur! Dehydrating has turned out to be a very good option for me for storing food. So I'd really like a better dehydrator that has an adjustable thermostat and a fan. I'll have to start hinting.... and I really don't think it's weird at all to want food storage gizmos instead of jewelry! I also dug out my electric coffee bean grinder last night (haven't used it in years) and cleaned it up and made onion powder and celery salt. Worked great. I think today I'll grind down some dried tomatoes to make my own tomato paste as needed.

Hubby and I had a conversation the other night about TV... I'm soooooo tired of paying $$$$$ for hundreds of cable channels when we only watch 6 or 7 (sometimes I can go through EVERY SINGLE channel and not find anything worth watching). I watch Hulu on the computer a lot for free, but would rather watch it on the TV and not get a stiff neck. I need to do some more research on Apple TV... and we're wondering if a splitter can be put on the HDMI cable???? We've got a (rip-off) package deal with the cable company - TV, internet and phone - but I'd love to have them turn off everything except the internet (unless I can find a cheaper alternative) and figure out an inexpensive cell phone option. I'd also like to get Netflix. We do have one must-have though... access to all the Gator football games. So this may not be doable... more research needed.

I made a great jambalaya the other day... I got the recipe from one of my Food and Wine cookbooks. This recipe called for leaving the chicken in pieces instead of pulling the meat off the bone. Very tasty! Definitely a keeper recipe. I have 3 of the Food and Wine compilation cookbooks that I've found used. They are wonderful - whole food recipes - and while some of the recipes can be a bit involved, there is nothing tricky about them. The jambalaya recipe is easy peasy as long as you have everything prepped ahead.

Well, better get to work. Thank goodness I've been busy busy busy... usually summer is my slow time but this summer has been full blast.

 

[Denim Deb]

OK, what's an Excalibur? I'm sure it's not what I'm thinking of. I think that's what the stuff is called that I got to clean Stormy's sheath.

 

[JRmom]

OK, what's an Excalibur? I'm sure it's not what I'm thinking of. I think that's what the stuff is called that I got to clean Stormy's sheath.

Man, I hated that job when I had horses! Ewwww!

It's a super duper dehydrator.

 

[Denim Deb]

OK, what's an Excalibur? I'm sure it's not what I'm thinking of. I think that's what the stuff is called that I got to clean Stormy's sheath.

Man, I hated that job when I had horses! Ewwww!

It's a super duper dehydrator.

That's why I prefer mares. Stormy will probably be the only gelding I ever own.