Gardening, canning, pickling and everything related
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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.
Isaiah 5:22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks
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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.
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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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Have you ever tried pickled turnips?
calldoctoday pickled turnips - you got my attention. Do you just eat them or use them as an ingredient? My favorite is pickled asparagus.
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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.
calldoctoday Love pear preserve and pear butter as well. Just have to have a good fresh biscuit out of the oven waiting…
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calldoctoday pickled turnips - you got my attention. Do you just eat them or use them as an ingredient? My favorite is pickled asparagus.
Chef Yes, they were interesting & I remember them as being good. We ate them as snacks, like pickles when we did it. Pear sounds very good for a butter too. You are getting my mouth watering & thinking of my Cathead Biscuit & Miracle Biscuit recipes with a good serving of homemade apple butter. Asparagus is especially good, I agree. we have maybe one jar left right now. You are tempting me to go gobble it up. We regularly every year used to do all sorts of peppers that I particularly like for both snacking & recipes along with carrots, celery, onions, okra, etc. I have slowed down a bit as we have had a tremendous stock. However, I am going to have to start thinking about it again with this Corona Business & having given a lot away as gifts (preserves & pickles). But, what about those jars? Oh, I got to thinking the other day when enjoying a few of my Black Mission Figs. I wonder if Fig Leaves would work good to keep the pickles crisp like the Grape Leaf strategy. Does anyone have any idea?
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Chef Yes, they were interesting & I remember them as being good. We ate them as snacks, like pickles when we did it. Pear sounds very good for a butter too. You are getting my mouth watering & thinking of my Cathead Biscuit & Miracle Biscuit recipes with a good serving of homemade apple butter. Asparagus is especially good, I agree. we have maybe one jar left right now. You are tempting me to go gobble it up. We regularly every year used to do all sorts of peppers that I particularly like for both snacking & recipes along with carrots, celery, onions, okra, etc. I have slowed down a bit as we have had a tremendous stock. However, I am going to have to start thinking about it again with this Corona Business & having given a lot away as gifts (preserves & pickles). But, what about those jars? Oh, I got to thinking the other day when enjoying a few of my Black Mission Figs. I wonder if Fig Leaves would work good to keep the pickles crisp like the Grape Leaf strategy. Does anyone have any idea?
calldoctoday Wow, I am getting about 2 dozen figs a day and about to make some fig preserve as well as a fig glaze for grilled chicken. I was wondering yesterday if a fig leaf would act as a grape for keeping pickles crisp. Guess great minds think alike. Does anyone have experience with this?
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calldoctoday Wow, I am getting about 2 dozen figs a day and about to make some fig preserve as well as a fig glaze for grilled chicken. I was wondering yesterday if a fig leaf would act as a grape for keeping pickles crisp. Guess great minds think alike. Does anyone have experience with this?
Chef What kind of fig trees do you have? We also have pomegranates, but it can be hit or miss on the quality with the humidity we have here. Chef, I would envy the opportunity to learn a lot from you, if we were not so far apart & by the way, I tried your idea with the fig preserves on the chicken, except I used some fig apricot preserves that I had made & everyone loved it. Thank you.
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Chef What kind of fig trees do you have? We also have pomegranates, but it can be hit or miss on the quality with the humidity we have here. Chef, I would envy the opportunity to learn a lot from you, if we were not so far apart & by the way, I tried your idea with the fig preserves on the chicken, except I used some fig apricot preserves that I had made & everyone loved it. Thank you.
calldoctoday I don’t know what kind of fig tree it is, the guy that gave me the sprout doesn’t know, although he can’t believe how big or how fast it is growing. In 2 1/2 years it is 10 feet tall and giving us about 16 to 20 figs a day. they are very big and very sweet.
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