2020 How does your garden grow

[Tom A Hawk]

Just put up several jars of pickled jalepenos. Delicious. Have been reading about wintering over pepper plants. Anybody tried this?

 

[TNGhost]

The Weather Channel said a low of 38 Fahrenheit ( 3.889°C) last night. I think they were off Because. . .

The whole garden looks like this!

View attachment 46298

Everything you see was Green and growing this time yesterday

Been almost a month since we had a freeze here. Most of the tomatoes were still green, but we went through them as we pulled up the plants for the compost pile and got several buckets of unblemished ones, We set up three, six foot folding tables in the family room and covered all of them with green tomatoes. I'd say 90-95% of them ripened. We are down to one table 3 1/2 weeks or so later, canning and freezing as they got ripe, and about 3/4 of what's left on that table is ripened.

Still have some cabbage, cauliflower, carrots and lettuce coming from the garden, but most of the rest is cleaned up and turned under for next year.

 

[TNGhost]

Just put up several jars of pickled jalepenos. Delicious. Have been reading about wintering over pepper plants. Anybody tried this?

I have tried that before, with little success, but I haven't really tried to provide them with any light other than what comes in through the windows.

We just finished crushing, primary fermentation and pressing, of our grape harvest and have about 8 gallons aging/clearing before bottling. The last big task of the growing year thankfully.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

I have tried that before, with little success, but I haven't really tried to provide them with any light other than what comes in through the windows.

We just finished crushing, primary fermentation and pressing, of our grape harvest and have about 8 gallons aging/clearing before bottling. The last big task of the growing year thankfully.

How many pounds of grapes does it take to get 8 gallons of juice?

 

[Cobra6]

So...what do you think of these babies? Got the seed from a Menonite family down the road. They do things in a big way. Especially canning. These Butternut squash will store for 8 mo. to 1 year if the top and bottom is coated with some cooking oil.

Cobra 6

 

[appalichian hunter]

We like those split and with a bit of butter, brown sugar ,cinnamon and nutmeg baked in the oven very tasty. Also the smaller pumpkins done this way is good they can also be done in the ashes of a camp fire but you have to keep a eye on them and move them around a bit till done.

 

[Ames]

Waltham Butternut? Looks like.
We cube them and cook them until soft. Then they go into a hot sausage and butternut lasagna with a béchamel sauce. OUTSTANDING!

 

[TNGhost]

How many pounds of grapes does it take to get 8 gallons of juice?

About 100-120 lbs, the scales said 117# in this case. The harvest from twelve, nine year old vines of the Marquette variety, a cold hardy hybrid developed by the University of Minnesota

 

[Cobra6]

Then they go into a hot sausage and butternut lasagna with a béchamel sauce. OUTSTANDING!

Ames....your are 100% correct, Waltham Butternut squash. If you have time...please give me the recipe for the above.



Cobra 6

 

[Ames]

Cool. Lots of text in the formula. Not a computer guy, though. Let me see if I can take a picture of the recipe or get help scanning it.

 

[FiremanBrad]

We built a 30’x78’ hoop house over our garden this summer, so our tomatoes are going strong still!!!

 

[Ames]

Cobra6, you've got mail.

 

[sgtsquid]

I went down the smaller road. Took a year off, then waddled back into the idea. Did well except for the aphids that are out of control right now. I've hit them with soap, pesticides and water jetting. They just climb back onto the plants.

Do you have ants along with the aphids? Some ant species farm aphids for their "nectar". I had ants bringing aphis onto my corn stalks for the past 2 seasons and once I got the ants under control the aphids went away.

 

[Ames]

Good observation, but no.
My problem was , I believe, brought on by severe drought this year. Its the only factor that changed. The drought suppressed the bugs that eat my aphids, or killed them outright. I was left with a mess no matter how much I watered. It wasn't my crop that needed the water I was concentrating on supplying as much as it was the whole eco system around me for miles. I never had a breakout of aphids before and hope to never see that again.
Wish it had been ants. I could have fixed that. But thank you.

 

[Eterry]

Just put up several jars of pickled jalepenos. Delicious. Have been reading about wintering over pepper plants. Anybody tried this?

My best friend lives in Kaufman county Tx, he has a couple pepper plants he was bringing into his shed before a freeze. He's had them about 4years now.
He said last year he left them outside, and they came back.
Ive never tried it.

 

[Gun Tramp]

I'm leaving these outside; Jalapeno pepper, var. Jalafuego (F1). The catalog describes big, smooth, dark green fruits, large plants, high yield potential, but nothing about being resistant to 8" snowfalls. I'm going to see if they'll dry down like chiles in Mexico:

Here's what happens when one reads too many posts from The Muzzleloading Forum:

Powder flask gourds if it works:

 

[Carbon 6]

We built a 30’x78’ hoop house over our garden this summer, so our tomatoes are going strong still!!!

If I were smart that's what I'd do.

 

[Ames]

If the pepper flesh in the photos froze.........sorry. Wont dry down. They will turn to mush.
Been there. Done that.

 

[Gun Tramp]

If the pepper flesh in the photos froze.........sorry. Wont dry down. They will turn to mush.
Been there. Done that.

Sometimes it works, other times not. I experiment with my surplus peppers every year and get a thrill from picking the nearly dry peppers in January when it's near zero degrees Fahrenheit; they are then finished in the dehydrator or oven. The variety is important and our low humidity likely helps, but Jalapenos are a poor candidate due to their thick flesh. They are also more difficult to grind than the thin-fleshed drying types but that flavor...

 

[Carbon 6]

I have not had luck drying jalapenos.