What did you do in the garden today?

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

BTW: blanching green beans for 3 minutes pretty much cooks them completely. The result after freezing is overcooked green beans. Kind of like canned beans. So I don’t blanch them that long. Sorry.

 

[Sueby]

I blanch my green beans for 2 mins.

@WthrLady has a good tomato soup recipe on her blog.

I just wanted to mention the 4% vinegar issue as canning season is here. Just a heads up to anyone doing any pickles - make sure your vinegar is 5%! I guess they've been selling 4% as 5% & that doesn't work for water bath canning.

 

[gtaus]

No. Just rinse, dry and toss into a freezer bag.

Thanks. That will take care of lots of our supply.

 

[gtaus]

BTW: blanching green beans for 3 minutes pretty much cooks them completely. The result after freezing is overcooked green beans. Kind of like canned beans. So I don’t blanch them that long. Sorry.

How long would you blanche the beans? One minute, two?

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

I blanche mine for about a minute and a half. I remember when the “rule” was 30 seconds and the beans were perfect. Good to know @Sueby. I’ll remember to look for that when shopping for white vinegar. Since I still have a couple of pounds of fingerling potatoes drying under the ceiling fan on my prep table I thought I would try this to let the shallots dry.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Dug my way into the tomatoes and found some hidden deep within. And by some I mean basically an entire bowl full. some were picked yesterday but still. Most were today. And in doing so I allowed more air to get in.

 

[ShrekDawg]

What’s some big huge tomatoes? Preferably for like a sandwich. Everything I’m reading is saying beefsteak is the biggest but I thought I bought beefsteak seeds and the ones that are starting to ripen so far seem like so runty LOL idk if it’s just poor quality stock orrrr? These MIGHT be the Dollar Tree seeds, I don’t remember. But either way, I’m just kind of disappointed. I thought we would be getting these MASSIVE tomatoes. Hopefully they will at least taste good so it won’t be a total loss. and we have TONS of them so we can always use two on a sandwich if it was necessary but still. I want big huge tomatoes that also taste good.

 

[Farmer13]

What’s some big huge tomatoes? Preferably for like a sandwich. Everything I’m reading is saying beefsteak is the biggest but I thought I bought beefsteak seeds and the ones that are starting to ripen so far seem like so runty LOL idk if it’s just poor quality stock orrrr? These MIGHT be the Dollar Tree seeds, I don’t remember. But either way, I’m just kind of disappointed. I thought we would be getting these MASSIVE tomatoes. Hopefully they will at least taste good so it won’t be a total loss. and we have TONS of them so we can always use two on a sandwich if it was necessary but still. I want big huge tomatoes that also taste good.

Over the seasons we have grown many types of tomatoes, Red, green, pink, purple.
Most were Open pollenated some Hybrids. We always have room for the Old Heirloom Brandywine. It is dark pink & sooo delicious for everything. This is what you are dreaming about in the winter when the store has red bags of tasteless water.

 

[SheaLoner]

Just from one storm about 1pm.

3 days worth. . .

Anyone want to trade? Seriously about had it with the rain right now.

 

[TJAnonymous]

What’s some big huge tomatoes? Preferably for like a sandwich. Everything I’m reading is saying beefsteak is the biggest but I thought I bought beefsteak seeds and the ones that are starting to ripen so far seem like so runty LOL idk if it’s just poor quality stock orrrr? These MIGHT be the Dollar Tree seeds, I don’t remember. But either way, I’m just kind of disappointed. I thought we would be getting these MASSIVE tomatoes. Hopefully they will at least taste good so it won’t be a total loss. and we have TONS of them so we can always use two on a sandwich if it was necessary but still. I want big huge tomatoes that also taste good.

This is my Beast-steak Slicer that I harvested a few weeks ago. At 1.5 lbs, that's a mighty big tomato. Honestly all the tomatoes off this plant are enormous. The variety is called Skyway. To be fair, I made a few changes this year which might have contributed -

1. I planted some crawfish skeletons (leftover from a boil) in the ground next to the seedlings.

2. I dumped about 4 inches of compost across the entire area about a month before I put the seedlings out.

3. I added an irrigation system so they were getting consistent water all through the spring.