You Reap What You Sow (Garden Harvests)

[Wayne SW/MO]

My squash and zucchini are driving me nuts. I have had one fruit off of each and they are producing tons of blossoms, but apparently not a mixed gender? It seems late to me, but I haven't planted any in about 3 years.

[BilletHead]

Busy this morning reaping benefits. Picked peppers to can,

Sliced them and added onions, cauliflower, and carrots into sterilized jars,

Added the vinegar salt water mix,

Lid and screw cap attached as we waited for the tell tale ping of the final seal.

Mrs. BilletHead did the freezer salsa thing too. Seems to stay more solid and not turn to mush freezing,

Did all this and made a batch of BBQ sauce. We feel accomplished,

BilletHead

[Feathers and Fins]

Right there with ya Marty, bunch of the years first canning sitting waiting for me to hear the ping. I do love this time of year, because I am thinking of winter when everyone is wishing they had home grown veggies and salsa and all I have to do is pop the top.

[Wayne SW/MO]

We used to can alot of items and kind of got away from it when we were in Oregon, hard to get a good raw supply, but we're going to do some more this year.

[ness]

I'll one up you. I do mine for 4 minutes, but that's not the tip. Cut the butt end off, stalk end, far enough up that you're in to the corn. Squeeze the ear out of the shuck and the silk will come with it.

I tried this last night and it worked pretty darn good. It's kind of like steaming it in the husk loosens and softens up the silk and makes it stick to the husk a little. But, I couldn't get it to squeeze out like you're talking about. It was hot and hurt my hand, and I couldn't figure out what to do about that

[Feathers and Fins]

Well someone just got some fresh raw honey, maple and molasses 3 of the key ingredients in my BBQ sauce. Marty we shall play swap the sauce this year.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Ness I had that problem to start and realized I wasn't cutting the corn off far enough up the cob. You have to be sure you're cutting all the husks. I make sure I'm up to the point it starts to level some. As far as HOT, I just use a hot pad and don't really have any problems.

!5-20 years ago we had a canned salsa recipe that was outstanding that came out of a Kerr booklet, but lost it unfortunately.

[jdmidwest]

Well someone just got some fresh raw honey, maple and molasses 3 of the key ingredients in my BBQ sauce. Marty we shall play swap the sauce this year.

I might have a dab of honey this year, but I have to shell out $400 bucks for an extractor to get it out of the comb.

[ness]

Wayne -- I was up far enough I think. Cooling it more would have helped with the handling -- I was hurrying to get everything ready. This trick's a keeper.

Re: the garden. Every year is different, and this year has been no exception. I've never had this much tomato disease this early on. I'll probably lose all the heirlooms over the next few weeks. We are getting pretty good production from the two hybrid Celebrity tomatoes. Cherokee Purple have thrown off a few good ones, but they're on life support. The other 3-4 varieties may be a total bust. Got a pretty decent crop of shallots, onions and garlic. Beets were good -- I wish I'd planted twice as much. Pickled all those and they were outstanding (still sipping on the remaining pickling juice). I pulled cabbage and collards weeks ago -- bugs absolutely destroyed them. Bush beans got pulled last week -- decent harvest on one variety, nothing on the other, rampant disease. Pole beans probably ought to have the plug pulled -- I'll gather the family, weigh our options, and make a decision soon. Peppers are finally picking up -- but I won't see much from them for a while. I've got about a half dozen banana peppers in the bag and a few more on the way. Anaheims are taking their sweet time -- none are pickable yet. So -- crummy 2014 spring garden.

Turning the focus to the fall garden now.

[Quillback]

About the only thing I have been impressed with in my garden are the cantaloupe and honey dews, got a bunch that are just about ready. A little slow on ripening this year.