What's Growing in the Garden

Mr. Peet said:
Sounds odd to hear any went to compost, or did you mean after pressing you had a bushel worth to compost. Other wise, why would you pick bad apples to start with? Guess you cored them before pressing, that adds to the compost.
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My friend had picked the apples before giving them to us. He is an extremely busy person this time of year, so his method of picking was to put tarps down under the trees, given them a good shake, and put whatever falls into big boxes, leaving the sorting to us. So he told us and we knew there was going to be a good amount of bad apples - rotten inside and/or filled with worms.
 
Sprung said:
My friend had picked the apples before giving them to us. He is an extremely busy person this time of year, so his method of picking was to put tarps down under the trees, given them a good shake, and put whatever falls into big boxes, leaving the sorting to us. So he told us and we knew there was going to be a good amount of bad apples - rotten inside and/or filled with worms.
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Follow you. Commercial uses those rot and wormed apples, the heat process makes all good....
 
Turned the Calabrian peppers I picked last night into a test batch of pepper paste. The paste will be used to make some soppressata, a type of course ground, flattened, dry cured salami.

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Peaches....
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These are all from volunteer shoots from a rootstock that survived after the scion died several years ago. Probably twice as many are still on the tree.

Interesting thing, the peaches from the rootstock are cling while the scion was freestone.
 
Several things now fermenting. A couple started on Sunday. A couple more started today.

Left to right:
Wild Plum Melomel (Mead)
Plum Wine
Blueberry and Wild Plum Wine
Wild Crabapple Cider

I have one more vessel w/ airlock left with nothing in it. Would like to get a Cyser going soon - I have one bottle left from my last Cyser, which means I should've really started a batch last year. After all is said and done, I've found that it pays to let it sit in the bottle for at least 6 months before drinking for better flavor. A year or more is even better.

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It's been on the cool side for about a week, so really haven't had anything to harvest from the garden. Peppers and tomatoes could use a little more heat to get them to ripen faster. Friday was the last time we harvested anything from the garden, but it looks like we'll have at least a few peppers and tomatoes to pick in the morning. Also need to pick elderberries - our 3 year old bush is pretty well loaded. The 1 year old one even has a few on it. Should be two 3 year old bushes, but one didn't make it after transplanting - that was my fault as I located it in a spot with too much shade.
 
Sprung said:
It's been on the cool side for about a week, so really haven't had anything to harvest from the garden. Peppers and tomatoes could use a little more heat to get them to ripen faster. Friday was the last time we harvested anything from the garden, but it looks like we'll have at least a few peppers and tomatoes to pick in the morning. Also need to pick elderberries - our 3 year old bush is pretty well loaded. The 1 year old one even has a few on it. Should be two 3 year old bushes, but one didn't make it after transplanting - that was my fault as I located it in a spot with too much shade.
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Elderberry Jelly = good stuff! Did elderberry wine one time - never could get the stain out of everything!
 
Mike Hill said:
Elderberry Jelly = good stuff! Did elderberry wine one time - never could get the stain out of everything!
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We'll see what it gets made into. My wife wants syrup for the immune system boost, especially with two kids in school, her now working in a daycare, and me always around people. Jelly or wine do sound good, if there's enough for that.
 
Today was peppers day. Diced up bell peppers to freeze. Roasted some red bell peppers, diced them up, and froze them. Did the same with some NuMex peppers. We have a couple of old muffin tins that I use for freezing smaller portions of things - like roasted, diced peppers or pesto, or small servings of veggies, like shredded carrots or zucchini to use in recipes. It works really well; once frozen we pop out of the spaces and put in bags in the freezer. Cut up and froze various hot peppers that will eventually be made into hot sauce when they're all done for the season - still waiting on a majority of my hot peppers to ripen. Got some shishitos made into bacon wrapped poppers that will be frozen so we can pull them out and put them on the smoker when we want some.
 
Harvest time for the squash.
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Out of the two hills I planted, I ended up with 30 squash of various sizes. I transferred them to cardboard flats, single layer, and stored in the basement. I wonder how long they will "Winter" there. I found one weeping so I may have picked some too early, but most of the vines had dried up. Plus, the gray beetles had started to attack them the last three? weeks. Usually, the beetles come early and kill my plants before I get any squash. I say I'm going to spray, but I never get around to it. Or I don't spray the right time/amount. This year they held off until recently and all my squash produced.

A conselation to this is I can clean up the garden. Going to pull the baskets off of all but two Romas and mow over rake the squash and tomatoes. Pull up the Crowder peas and do the same. Dry weather the next few days.
 
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All we've got in the garden right now is dirt, ...hot, dry dirt. I planted some beans the last day of the new moon, half germinated and have been in suspended animation since. 18 tomato plants... 4 shriveled and died... the rest are just sitting there...

If the temps will drop below 90 I may put some greens in the ground...

Alan
 
We do it at the cannery. Cut the bottom off, stem off, quarter and cook down. When cooked down, run through big food mill. Takes all the seeds and peels out. Return to cooking. When it gets close to the texture we want, add the sugar and cinnamon oil. Add both until we get the taste we want. Cook the rest of the way to the texture and then can. We sell most of it. I need to get in there and can some more chili. I'm out now. I didn't can hardly anything this year. Still have enough other stuff. Did some beets. Didn't do peach butter or pumpkin butter this year either.
 
Eric Rorabaugh said:
We do it at the cannery. Cut the bottom off, stem off, quarter and cook down. When cooked down, run through big food mill. Takes all the seeds and peels out. Return to cooking. When it gets close to the texture we want, add the sugar and cinnamon oil. Add both until we get the taste we want. Cook the rest of the way to the texture and then can. We sell most of it. I need to get in there and can some more chili. I'm out now. I didn't can hardly anything this year. Still have enough other stuff. Did some beets. Didn't do peach butter or pumpkin butter this year either.
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I'd never thought of peach butter before, but that's now the plan for all those extra peaches I froze.
 
Almost the same process as apple butter but dont run through a mill. Peel and pit then cook down. I have run it through a mill but you lose a bit. I usually don't make it really sweet because I like a little tartness of the peach. Pumpkin butter is good but it's not something I can eat a lot of at one time like the apple. If you make the peach, let me know how it goes and how you like it.
 
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