Gardening, canning, pickling and everything related
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Joe Hell I have no idea what you ate…lol. The key to growing them is you have to have at least plants. I have had one good year, one bad, and this year seems to be going ok.
My cucumbers are coming on strong as well, I’ve made a cucumber salsa as well as creamed cucumbers. I’ve also been grilling a lot of zucchini and yellow squash.
Tex_77 I am frickin’ jealous. I have harvested one, three inch pickling cuke. I have a couple of families of speed beef, aka whitetails that have developed a fondness for my dill, cilantro and hot peppers. Never had an issue before, my tomatoes and garlic are about the size of a quarter. Unfortunately our season really doesn’t kick in until 6/1, long days, but short season. Just a tad bit too far north for a decent growing season, just 50-100 south is a whole different story. We do have great ice fishing though.
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Tex_77 I am frickin’ jealous. I have harvested one, three inch pickling cuke. I have a couple of families of speed beef, aka whitetails that have developed a fondness for my dill, cilantro and hot peppers. Never had an issue before, my tomatoes and garlic are about the size of a quarter. Unfortunately our season really doesn’t kick in until 6/1, long days, but short season. Just a tad bit too far north for a decent growing season, just 50-100 south is a whole different story. We do have great ice fishing though.
YooperDog well the inches of rain last week has really started the crab grass growing. Whats everyone use for mulch/weed block?
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YooperDog well the inches of rain last week has really started the crab grass growing. Whats everyone use for mulch/weed block?
Tex_77 Weed block LOL All I can do is pray… I used a weed and feed designed for southern lawns of Bermuda on my Bermuda grass in the back yard, It killed the Bermuda and fed the crab grass. I’m ready to kill everything and just sod the lawn.
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I just use a good weed and feed.and let the wife cut the lawn. She has been hinting at a rider but I am holding out for that Walton’s meat mixer first. I have been trying to get a good night’s sleep on the couch all summer.

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Chef YooperDog I was referring more to the garden than my lawn. My lawn is looking good, still trying to kill out some bermuda, without killing the fescue. The only crab grass I have in the yard is around the edges for the most part, so it gets a shot of RoundUp. Working in Ag I have access to a plethora of chemicals and fertilizer.
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@Fat-Bob I am laughing, Orange Hat, where are you, come on over here orange hat, orange hat, is that you, is that you orange hat?
calldoctoday Don’t scare him off now. I need something to put in my juicer. lol
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YooperDog well the inches of rain last week has really started the crab grass growing. Whats everyone use for mulch/weed block?
Tex_77 I use cotton burrs. It comes in bags like most mulch does it’s a good blocker that lasts the whole growing season. Then when it’s time to till the next spring it has turned to compost. I’ve used it the last 4years and it has really loosened the soil and has been all the fertilizer that I have needed
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Tex_77 I use cotton burrs. It comes in bags like most mulch does it’s a good blocker that lasts the whole growing season. Then when it’s time to till the next spring it has turned to compost. I’ve used it the last 4years and it has really loosened the soil and has been all the fertilizer that I have needed
cdavis Good to know, I have access to alot of that as well I might give it a shot.
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We have used a whole lot of things over the years. The cotton burrs used to work great a long time ago, when we could get them for free as waste by the truckloads, same went for Rice Hulls, & Peanut Hulls. Then folks got smart & found someone to apparently pay good money for all of that. I suppose we are down to newspaper covered by leaves, but now newspaper is getting harder to come by, amazing. We also use the straw from the chicken house (Alfalfa & wheat, with some wood chips) when we clean it out. That has always worked real well directly on the beds or rows rather than between the rows or beds. I am seriously thinking of converting everything to raised beds to see how that works out, but it will also require a pretty good expense in converting. Rabbit manure works real well too as it makes an excellent side dressing that has more nitrogen than chicken, but without the ammonia, so no burn.
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Joe Hell I have no idea what you ate…lol. The key to growing them is you have to have at least plants. I have had one good year, one bad, and this year seems to be going ok.
My cucumbers are coming on strong as well, I’ve made a cucumber salsa as well as creamed cucumbers. I’ve also been grilling a lot of zucchini and yellow squash.
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Well i put the Weston Tomato Strainer to work today and it worked great for making salsa! It beats the heck out of cooking the tomatoes and peeling the skins off.

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Well i put the Weston Tomato Strainer to work today and it worked great for making salsa! It beats the heck out of cooking the tomatoes and peeling the skins off.

Tex_77 It works good for baked apples to make apple butter as well! Always great to have multiple uses for a tool.
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Tex_77 It works good for baked apples to make apple butter as well! Always great to have multiple uses for a tool.
Chef I’ve never made Apple Butter care to share a recipe?
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Well i put the Weston Tomato Strainer to work today and it worked great for making salsa! It beats the heck out of cooking the tomatoes and peeling the skins off.

Tex_77 I didn’t know such a thing existed. Is it pretty much an electrically powered food mill?
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Well i put the Weston Tomato Strainer to work today and it worked great for making salsa! It beats the heck out of cooking the tomatoes and peeling the skins off.

Tex_77 I’ll place it our recipe category
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Tex_77 I didn’t know such a thing existed. Is it pretty much an electrically powered food mill?
TexLaw I would say yes. Walton’s sells them Weston Electric Tomato Strainer
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I bought the SS version, long before I found Walton’s and love it. I usually can 20 or so quarts of spaghetti sauce and its great.
Hint: run the seeds and skins a 2nd time, you’ll get a lot more goodness.
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@Fat-Bob what do you use as a bowl to catch the good stuff? It seemed like every bowl i had was either too tall or wide too use with it.
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The wife has a 9 quart casserole dish (9x11 or so) that’s only about 2" high. Keep the stock right beside it to dump in.
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Tex_77 It works good for baked apples to make apple butter as well! Always great to have multiple uses for a tool.
Chef We have not made apple butter since the 70’s, maybe the 80’s. It is very good & I like it a lot, more than my wife. I would like to get ahold of some really nice apples in quantity. They used to have apple picking & cherry picking in Southern California, but not sure if they still do any more. That was a good place to be back then to get a really fresh case of apples for canning, etc.
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