Weekly Garden Thread October 22-28, 2022 (The Wonderful World of Gourds Edition)

October 22, 2022 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Beau and a friend are out ‘coon hunting tonight, so I told him to LOOK UP when they hit a clear patch in the woods and look for meteors to the LEFT of constellation Orion.

I’ll report back. ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

‘The Spruce’ is an excellent website. I use them for EVERYTHING! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I am ALL over that salad! Tonight I made a mix of everyday greens from the grocery store, some home-grown lettuces and Kale, and since Calendula is SO frost tolerant and I still have in it abundance, I put a bunch of petals in there, too. It was lovely. Sorry I didn't get a pix before we gobbled it up with a home grow steak on the barby!

I'm going to start a thread on 'Eating From The Garden' (or hunted, or foraged or home-raised meat animals, etc.) EVERY day of the year. My friend Anne has it down to an Art; she eats at least one thing, fresh or preserved, from her garden 365 days of the year.

I mean, with all the canning I do, and the fresh produce and the fishing and hunting and the beef we raise, it's really very do-able.

What say you? We have a TON of Foodies here on FR.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I’m more of a ‘Days of Our Lives’ kind of gal, LOL!

“As Time flows through the Hourglass, THESE are the Days of our Lives.”

Actually, ‘Ryan’s Hope’ and ‘Dark Shadows’ were my all-time faves! I would RUN home from High School on lunch hour to catch ‘Ryan’s Hope.’ Every day! No wonder I was so good in Track, for a short girl, LOL!

I have two friends that are STILL into ‘General Hospital’ and whatever soap that had ‘Luke and Laura’ back in the day.

[Qiviut]

They have a bunch of pickling recipes .... I was really excited about the green tomato one that I found earlier this year .... and wouldn’t you know it, I have ZERO green tomatoes Usually, I’m loaded with them at the end of the season. :-( I also wanted to do the Classic Southern Dilled Green Beans & my bush beans were a total flop (first time I tried to grow them).

https://www.thespruceeats.com/pickling-4162193

[Qiviut]

... and the beef we raise ...

+++++++++++++++++

How about some details on the new guy, Chuck? Or is it King Chuck? :-) Angus? Hereford? Something else? Mix? My niece is looking into doing Holsteins on their regenerative farm ... really nice meat, but take longer to finish out. The dairy farmers in her area breed some of their Holsteins to Angus bulls ... those are $75 each & the Holsteins they don’t keep are something like $40. When you get them, they’re babies (couple of days old) & require some care the first 2 weeks or so & then they’re good to go. Do you think you’ll be able to tie Chuck out to help keep the grass mowed?

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I’ll post details in the morning on Chuck. :)

[goodnesswins]

Where do you garden? We won’t have a frost for @2-3 more weeks...

[goodnesswins]

Yes...I love Spruce, also, but did not realize they did recipes!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Mrs. Pete watched Friends; Rachel on Friends watched GH; My wife watched GH and got sucked in. Luke and Laura were on GH. Luke is presumed dead in a cable car accident in Switerzland, Laura is the Mayor of Pt Charles but is vacationing right now.

How do I know? Mid Day and I am on the computer and she goes "Oh No!" or "No Don't!" and I incautiously ask what happened and she says she will tell me at the break, and does.

As far as I can tell this is mostly about gangsters and rich men and women and some doctors and nurses who go to parties or fancy bars and who all get hurt from time to time and have to go to General Hospital. Everyone has money and only the extras have real jobs, so we know who the audience identifies with!

[Qiviut]

Virginia. We just had a VERY early, unseasonable spell of COLD. There were freeze warnings out - fortunately, we never got below 33 ... 34 several mornings. It's warming back up and I hope it stays that way for a while.

Brrrrr!!

I had 4 or 5 tomatoes I picked in the event it did get to freezing, but all had a bit of color & they went ahead and turned on the counter.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

There are Halloween gourds and then there are Tropical Gourd forests!

Bottle Gourds

Snake Gourds

Sponge Gourd Luffa

[ApplegateRanch]

Nah! Waste of time & effort. Fried green tomatoes are breakfast fare!

Slice them like cottage fries; fry them in bacon grease, like cottage fries; serve under fried eggs, like cottage fries.

Bacon & toast on the side.

[CatDancer]

I did the same thing, lost all my squash plants to the worst influx of squash bugs I ever saw - So. MO. So I replanted the middle of August & got several yellow & zucchini before 2 record breaking hard freezes last week. No bugs. It was worth it. Good idea.

[ApplegateRanch]

Squash & beans got frosted out this past week; all that’s left of the garden is the one cabbage that survived the summer heat wave.

They don’t know it, but the favas are done—they can take down to 21F; but I picked them clean. Barely enough to plant next year.

My pole beans were a total bust, both O.P. heritage, and hybrids. OTOH, the black Meaty Beans & my Kurzer’s limas did an excellent job, all considered: lots of empty pods, but still about a quart each of dried, plus next year’s seed.

My Straight Eight cukes gave me a total of 5, each only 3-5 inches long; but good flavor.

Picking the last of the Meaty Beans, I found the last kabocha squash hiding under a pile of dead squash leaves & vine. That makes 6 or 7 for this winter. We stuffed one, and it seemed drier fleshed than usual, but good flavor & texture.

Had a dearth of earthworms this year, which is unusual.

Irritation tank, pump, lines, and hoses drained. Just need to do some tilling, and get the last of the firewood cut & split.

Hopefully, next year will be a bit cooler and moister: NOTE: I said “a BIT”; don’t need mid-June snowstorms!

[moovova]

I’ll try that next time we get aholf of some green tomatoes.

I wasn’t a fan of fried green tomatoes until recently. We visited a small mom & pops style seafood restaurant in Myrtle Beach...Cackalacky Seafood. They sell fresh fish, etc...but also cook it up for you right there. I included an order of fried green tomatoes because I knew the wife likes them. I tried them. They were great. All of their food was great.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

A.R. Sorry for the problems with your “Irritation tank”! :)

[ApplegateRanch]

Thanks!

That consarned system has been irritating me for nigh onto 20 y’ars! LOL

[Ellendra]

Never heard of steel zip ties. Thanks for the tip!

[Augie]

What a crazy week of weather here in Central Missouri. Low 20°s Monday/Tuesday night followed by daytime temps in the 80°s and sleeping with the windows open at night. Weather guessers are calling for rain today and tomorrow, but it's too late to save the nearby rural hamlet of Wooldridge, MO. A wildfire started by a grain harvester on Saturday burned ~3200 acres and half of the buildings there.

I've been keeping busy trying to get things ready for winter here. Had a load of base rock delivered on Friday and did some touch-up work on the driveway. Spent several hours underneath Nanner yesterday beating and prying at the pin that secures the steering cylinder to the front drive axle. It's probably never been taken apart and that cursed pin is not wanting to come out. I'll get it out of there eventually, even if it takes using the smoke wrench on it.

I got quite a bit of work done in the victory garden over the weekend, not that you could tell by looking at all of this formerly beautiful sweet corn that's now dead as a hammer.

I picked all of the dry bean pods and stripped the vines off of the arbor. Brown Santa truck brought a large roll of 6mil clear plastic sheeting Saturday morning, but it was way too windy to attempt that task. The space heater for the greenhouse showed up yesterday. Heat mats are out and ready. I finished the 2nd planter box and put a layer of road base on the ground inside. The larger box has been sown with radishes, spinach, and salad greens. I'm thinking that I might try some turnips in the smaller planter box. I've got a pair of 32 cell flats seeded with cabbage, kale, and collards. The plan is to put that stuff in the ground under the bean arbor.

To give you an idea just how dry it's been in this part of Misery over the summer take a look at my pond dock. When the pond is full the runway on the floating section is flush with the fixed section. It's now ~3' low.