Garden produce nothing better

[4legsgood]

I started covering my seedlings at night with plastic bottles cut in half. My garden is small, so it's not too much effort. Once the plants get bigger and toughen up a little, the slugs don't go after them as much.

There seems to be fewer slugs this year. Maybe the population has shrunk in the heat, or they're looking for food under the shrubs because they don't like crawling out to the garden over the scorched and prickly grass.

I've had luck this year doing a barren dirt barrier which probably resembled the Sahara with the recent high heat. A couple years back I put fallen maple leaves to decompose in my raised beds, and I think introduced slugs that still plague me! Seemed like a good idea at the time.

If you too have bravely bare hand picked off slugs and then been amazed by the sticky yet slippery sliminess of slug slime and thought, there must be a use for this! Hard to wash off but no odor or irritation. it is inspiring some fine minds, circa 2017.

"A defensive mucus secreted by slugs has inspired a new kind of adhesive that could transform medicine, say scientists.

The "bio-glue" is incredibly strong, moves with the body and crucially, sticks to wet surfaces.

The team at Harvard University have even used it to seal a hole in a pig's heart."


https://www.bbc.com/news/health-40730875

 

[street]

BLT for lunch and a beet leaf's, sweet banana peppers, cucumber and tomato salad. Al fresh stuff from garden that was picked right before lunch. The taste just doesn't get any better.

 

[RAE]

BLT for lunch and a beet leaf's, sweet banana peppers, cucumber and tomato salad. Al fresh stuff from garden that was picked right before lunch. The taste just doesn't get any better.

Sounds great, Street. I just had a little charcuterie-style lunch featuring a lot of fresh garden produce also (that I picked this morning). I had: a handful of ripe cherry tomatoes; a handful of ripe blackberries; some raw snap peas and broccoli (with a dip I made); some Kimchi that DW and I made a couple weeks ago, using Napa cabbage from the garden; a slice of Swiss cheese; and some smoked whitefish (from Lake Superior - a friend gave this to me last week).


I've been having these types of light lunches a lot lately. The ingredients vary somewhat based on what is available from the garden that day/week, but they're always tasty!

 

[street]

RAE, that is great! So fun to pick it and prepare it fresh like that!

 

[Winemaker]

Plant some garlic in your garden to keep the slugs away, just a few bulbs where you see them. You can also make a spray of garlic powder, dawn dish soap, and routinely spray your plants, especially after a rain.

 

[ncbill]

Pests or disease always seemed to get our full-size tomatoes so we switched to cherry/grape tomatoes...the latter grow anywhere in our yard & are very prolific.

 

[Souschef]

DW found a small kumquat tree at Costco, along with a nice pot to put it in. I looked out the other day, at it was covered with white blossoms, with bees busy pollinating it, Our little valley is the citrus capital of the West Coast, and it should have lots of fruit.

 

[FIREd]

Our vegetable garden is not doing very well this year. May was cold and wet, which delayed planting by several weeks. And we've had a rainy summer so far. Lettuces did great. We are starting to harvest Zucchinis, green beans, and potatoes only now. Cabbages and pumpkins are moribund. Tomatoes are doing great but none are ripe yet. Onions seem to be doing OK but shallots not so much. We did harvest a good amount of garlic planted last fall.

 

[citrine]

Our soil here in NM is mostly dust and clay! It's hard enough growing native plants and trees much less a garden. Between the soil, gophers, rabbits, intense sun, drought.....I have basically given up on traditional gardening, but I do have 2 tomatoes and 1 pepper in....they are doing nothing. I did buy a hydroponic tower last week and so far, things are looking really good! We should be able to harvest salad greens, basil, chives, oregano, tatsoi i another 2 weeks!

 

[Winemaker]

Our soil here in NM is mostly dust and clay! It's hard enough growing native plants and trees much less a garden. Between the soil, gophers, rabbits, intense sun, drought.....I have basically given up on traditional gardening, but I do have 2 tomatoes and 1 pepper in....they are doing nothing. I did buy a hydroponic tower last week and so far, things are looking really good! We should be able to harvest salad greens, basil, chives, oregano, tatsoi i another 2 weeks!

Invest in your soil and your harvest will be your dividends and interest. Plow grass clippings, leaves, manure back into soil. Take kitchen waste ( coffee grounds, vegetable trimmings, peels, cores, sans meat, oil products) and compost them. Until you make a bin of it, use a bulb shovel full at each plant when planting. It works wonders!

 

[Gumby]

This evening, we had pasta with agretti, dried tomatoes and garlic, all produce from our garden. It was really good. This is the first year we have grown agretti, and based on tonight's dinner, won't be the last. The tomatoes were Principe Borghese tomatoes that I put in the dehydrator and then pack in oil. I grow them from seed from last year. We also save some of our garlic from each year to plant the next, and I can no longer remember the original variety (maybe Northern Premium), but it is quite good. Yesterday, we had fresh green beans and beets from the garden with a grilled tenderloin. The day before we had BLT's with a Mortgage Lifter tomato and lettuce from our garden.

Earlier today, I made and canned 4-1/2 pints of tomato sauce from the first flush of our sauce tomatoes - San Marzano, Roma and Amish Paste. There are a lot more yet to ripen on the plants, so I and my pressure canner will be working overtime over the next two weeks. Our corn is also now developing ears and I expect we'll have corn on the cob soon.

 

[Badger]

Pests or disease always seemed to get our full-size tomatoes so we switched to cherry/grape tomatoes...the latter grow anywhere in our yard & are very prolific.

I did the same thing a few years ago. I loved the large tomatoes and looked forward to tomato with basil and mayo sandwiches but got tired of fighting pests and diseases. The cherry/grape tomatoes are much easier to grow but not so good for making my summer sandwiches. However, they save time when making a salad and a nice treat to snack on while in the garden.


Cheers!

 

[Gumby]

If you are going with cherry tomatoes, I recommend Sungold's. It's like eating candy.

 

[kbst]

Gumby,
Tomatoes are the reason to garden. All the rest are pluses. I have problems with disease also but just plant more.
It is kinda depressing to have beautiful tomato plants and the diseases start to happen.
Stephen

 

[gwix98]

If you are going with cherry tomatoes, I recommend Sungold's. It's like eating candy.

That’s all I grow in tomatoes. Good yield this year despite
fungus. Trickier in containers but well suited to the PNW.

 

[Souschef]

If you are going with cherry tomatoes, I recommend Sungold's. It's like eating candy.

They are excellent. I discovered them when some dummy at the nursery switched the tags on the plants. I thought I had Early Girls and ended up with the Sungolds

 

[street]

This morning I picked 35 tomato's. We stew them and use them for different recipes all year long.

 

[audreyh1]

We got a tomato press and made huge amounts of tomato sauce.

Also good for gazpacho.

But that was years ago. I still miss those garden tomatoes.

 

[DaveInMi]

We have about 3000 sq.ft. of garden this year. So far we have canned tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, salsa, and sauerkraut, bread and butter pickles. We have frozen green beans, bell peppers, beets, corn, broccoli. Have eaten broccoli, kale, lettuce, spinach, and lots of tomatos. Have rototilled up lettuce and spinach and going to plant more lettuce, spinach, kale and beets in a week or two. We are canning spaghetti sauce tomorrow; we should have enough after that. I gave 10 gallons of cucumbers and 5 gallons of tomatos to a local church food pantry today.

 

[RAE]

We got a tomato press and made huge amounts of tomato sauce.

We just slow cook a big batch of garden tomatoes in the oven, along with some chopped carrots, herbs, onions, garlic, parsley. Then that all gets blenderized using an immersion blender (tomato skins get chopped up nicely doing this).

We also just slice and freeze some tomatoes, and those get used later for chili, various crock pot meals, and a whole bunch of other things.

 

[bizlady]

We have about 3000 sq.ft. of garden this year. So far we have canned tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, salsa, and sauerkraut, bread and butter pickles. We have frozen green beans, bell peppers, beets, corn, broccoli. Have eaten broccoli, kale, lettuce, spinach, and lots of tomatos. Have rototilled up lettuce and spinach and going to plant more lettuce, spinach, kale and beets in a week or two. We are canning spaghetti sauce tomorrow; we should have enough after that. I gave 10 gallons of cucumbers and 5 gallons of tomatos to a local church food pantry today.

Can't imagine caring for a garden that large, but am envious!

 

[PointBreeze]

If you are going with cherry tomatoes, I recommend Sungold's. It's like eating candy.

+1. This is my first year growing them and they are outstanding.

 

[JDARNELL]

We canned 14 more pints of salsa Friday. Will probably have another 6 quarts to tomatoes canned Wednesday.

 

[audreyh1]

We just slow cook a big batch of garden tomatoes in the oven, along with some chopped carrots, herbs, onions, garlic, parsley. Then that all gets blenderized using an immersion blender (tomato skins get chopped up nicely doing this).

We also just slice and freeze some tomatoes, and those get used later for chili, various crock pot meals, and a whole bunch of other things.

The nice thing about the press was that it easily removed the tomato skins and seeds.

 

[Gumby]

When making sauce, we always use a food mill to make sure we don't get seeds and skin.