Thank you @Sasha for asking! Great question and great answer.
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Continuing apace. I lost my first lettuce and basil crop to a windstorm, so here’s lettuce 2.0.
The bloody butchers are doing what they do best, making more bloody butchers.
Chard! Leeks! I realize I’m doing a pretty fair amount of work for what will likely be one or two servings of chard.
And an infant cuke, still veiled. Gonna free the plant in a few days, since I think the danger of cucumber beetles has passed (or the plants are already infected from last year, and then, oh, well).
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I’m thinking of getting a balcony fig. Other than fruit thieves (which shouldn’t be an issue), any obstacles?
Color me impressed. If I quit my job and all my commitments, and devoted myself full time to gardening, I don’t think I would be half as productive or successful. I commend you. What you’ve done with the growing and the preserving is nothing short of astonishing.
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I hear lots of people grow them in containers, so I don’t think that’s an obstacle, but I’ve never tried it. I think there’s a thread on the NJ sub-forum.
Here it is
Thanks!
Thank you! Gardening is mostly an early morning activity, a little each day. By 10-11, it’s too hot and humid. It’s surprising what one can do if TV isn’t … in the picture. You’d be surprised how much you can do little by little. I bet if Shrinkrap had 5 acres, she would fill it up in no time!
Being “retired” helps. The more one does something, the quicker it gets done. When working the first year at Monticello’s Center for Historic Plants, I was in charge of (sales) plant production (amongst other things). The question “How many plants do you want me to grow?” was asked. No one knew what the sales would be like; lots of tourists daily, all year. I suggested “250,000 plants?” That guess was accepted and with help, we produced that number, in 250 varieties, at different times of the year. It was WAY too much! The second year, we all had numbers to work with.
Birds, squirrels, raccoons and opossums are all fig thieves out here. That netting on the blueberries was originally used to keep birds off figs. Since its purchase, the figs keep freezing back to the ground and don’t produce. They’re “landscape” plants most of the time. Unlike the thin, black nylon netting AviGard bird netting lasts longer and doesn’t trap snakes. I stopped using the thin stuff after having to remove a couple snakes which were so stuck, the netting had to be cut.
Lovely Apricots Shrinkrap! While most Apricots have toxic seeds/pits, there are some bred for edible, almond-like seeds. Have you ever tried one of those? (Better mark the trees carefully!)
After multiple attempts, it became obvious they do not like our humid climate. Odd, since peaches do so well.
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I just received a box of a dozen, new, empty hot sauce bottles and have no idea where they came from! A very pleasant surprise, but there’s no clue whom to thank.
Fresh, young fava beans can be eaten without removing the skin, which gets tough as they age. I wish they’d keep the lovely cool, green color after cooking.
The first picking of blueberries was about a quart and a half, which indicated a lot are on the way! Last year, the flowers froze off and the plants got a rest from producing. Now, many branches are bent to the ground with berries.
Still no real rain, but the humidity is staggering 91-100%. Everything is wet from the foggy air. At least things can’t dry out quickly. It’s lowland jungle climate. When temperatures were in the 90s F (32+C), one gets tired just being outdoors. Fortunately, it has cooled down a little, to a “mid altitude jungle”.
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You go @NotJrvedivici!
@bogman Have you tried freezing them (favas) fresh? When I am overwhelmed with the volume, and discouraged about what will end up on the plate, I go there. I don’t know where I read this, but you can peel them like the parboiled.
I had two pepper plants with dozens of flowers snap off at the soil line in some fierce wind yesterday. I think it’s related to the soil line in the polymer medium.
I also ate some almost ready apricots today, and have some tomatoes and peppers fruiting.
Shrinkrap, this is the first year a good quantity of favas is coming in. In prior years, they were consumed as harvested. Last night, I blanched a gallon bag of shelled beans. These are young and tender enough to leave the skins on. I’ll pack them in quart bags today, destined for the freezer.
They won’t be coming in for long, since they stopped setting pods after it got hot. Blueberries, on the other hand, will be coming in for weeks. A gallon got picked yesterday. Time to get the jam jars out and ready! I may blanch (to pop the skins) and freeze dry a bunch; I haven’t done that yet.
Bummer about the peppers! I guess staking would be the only preventative measure, but it’s too late for the broken ones.
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Could you elaborate on the balancing and freeze drying?
I tried blueberries in my dehydrator but without a lot of pricking of each berry with a needle it wasn’t very productive!
The right 2021 thread now,
Spiders are an absolutely fascinating species. Every once in a while I can’t sleep at night . I go out on the front porch.and they are just spinning away. The whole web is done. In the morning it’s gone…
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Deleted.
Elsieb, the pretreatment for dehydrating or freeze drying blueberries is the same: remove any stems, wash and drain. Using a large sieve, spider, etc. dip the berries in boiling water for 1-2 minutes until the skins are cracked. Depending on the berry size and ambient humidity, dehydrating at 100 degrees F (38 C) takes about 10-24 hours.
For most dehydrators, you’ll want something under the berries to catch any juice runoff. Aluminum foil comes in handy as a bottom “tray” in my cube-shaped dehydrator. A small weight may be needed, depending on fan speed and direction.
This information originally came from The Dehydrator Cookbook, by Joanna White, and was slightly modified, based on experience.
I haven’t tried it, but have wondered if freezing the berries first might crack the skins; it might be even messier! It might not be as consistent, either.
The Harvestright freeze drier has computer-controlled cycles, which go through: a deep freeze>vacuum while frozen> slight warming of the food trays to cause water to sublime out of the food. The water/ice in the food does not melt into water under a high vacuum. Instead the water/ice in the food goes directly into a vapor/gas state and forms a solid ice on the walls of the freeze dry chamber, which are colder than the food trays.
Unlike dehydrating, freeze dried foods generally keep their shape and rehydrate faster. In some cases, like mushrooms, one is better off using a dehydrator, as the food tastes better and the texture is better. In fact, most folks in China prefer dried shiitake (Xiang gu) because they develop more umami flavor as they dry. Personally, I like both fresh and dried, but there are recipes where dried work better, like mushroom soups.
Freeze dried tomatoes are also not appealing at all; better dehydrated, which also boosts their umami. Freeze dried tomatoes turn to a fresh-tasting mush, so it’s best to powder them, sift out seeds and skins and use them for flavoring or cooking.
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Thank you for all that info. You are such a generous source, much appreciated.
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You’re most welcome. Knowledge unshared dies, and while it is present, loses most of its value.
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Buried in berries!
The big colander of blueberries, the yellow raspberries and the bowl of red/black currants were picked yesterday. Lots of processing going on!
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With your user name, I expect cranberries.
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