Heaven! :)
Posted on 08/18/2009 5:57:47 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
You and I think exactly alike. Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches are comfort food.
Failing that, there's always the possibility of 24 quarts of green tomato relish. Waste not, want not.
Yesterday, I used some of our peppers--green, Anaheim, and Hungarian Wax, along with store-bought dried hots, to make a 'somewhat' mild form of Thai red curry paste. "Mild" is a relative term. *<];-)
I was fixing red curried cod filets for dinner, and had planned on using the red curry paste that I had used up and forgotten to replace. Thank the Lord for Google! I found a great recipe for the paste; Mrs AR was extremely pleased with both the paste and the dinner.
As for fried green tomatoes, I was horrified when I finally learned (when the movie came out) that Southerners adulterate them with eggs & cornmeal.
All my life, I had eaten fried green tomatoes, either for breakfast or as a quick dinner: quartered, then sliced and fried in bacon grease like cottage fries/home fries; bacon on the side, and fried eggs on top. Or, skipping the bacon & eggs, as a side dish instead of potatoes.
Then put them through a food mill to remove seeds and chunks, and return the pulp to the kettle
I'm not sure what a food mill is. Is it like the strainer featured in the link at post #4?
I force myself to read his column as it is so off the wall and away from cooking that I have to think he is writing a novel one chapter at a time...
bttt
Mine all died as well. We bought a bushel of tomatoes and canned them last night. I hope they are the low acid type. i did then in the water bath canner. I hope they were in long enough. We did about 40 minutes.
Too much nitrogen. What are you fertilizing with? You need something with a high ‘middle number’ to promote blooming and fruiting. 20-20-20 Miracle Grow won’t cut it.
Also...are they in FULL sun? 6 hours or more of DIRECT sun each day? If not, that might be the problem, too.
Don’t mulch with grass clippings unless they are dry and brown...green ones have too much nitrogen in them, resulting in lots of leaves, but no fruit.
I’m going to make that tonight! Tomatoes are really starting to come on now, and the basil is PERFECT this season, so tomato salad for supper would be perfect. :)
“Say...any idea why our corn doesn’t have very many kernels?”
That’s poor pollination, either caused by the weather (too hot, too cool, too wet), or a lack-o-wind when it was needed.
Not much you can do about that at this point once the ears are developed. It has to happen at the right time; you can’t add extra pollen later.
You can give the corn stalk a good shake when the tassle (boy parts) and the silks (girl parts) are both ready to rock next time you grow corn, though. :)
(I know; it’s always about sex, sex, sex with us gardeners, LOL!)
I had never heard of Mock Strawberry Jam before! Thanks! :)
“8. If one tomato is not enough then repeat steps 3 to 7.”
LOL! :)
Printed and filed for fall baking! :)
“I’ve let some beans go to ripen for seed. How do I tell when they’re done ripening and when I should pick them? And do they need to cure before taking out the seed?”
Just leave them on the vine/plant until it dies back and the pods are brown and dry. Then harvest the seed and let it dry for a week or so in a paper bag (the paper sucks out moisture) then put it into a glass jar for use next year. Add a few grains of rice to suck out extra moisture.
However...unless they are open-pollinated heirloom-types they won’t reproduce true. If they are a hybridized bean, you’ll get the mother or the father bean, but not the EXACT same bean you had this season.
Confused? Well, you should be, LOL! ;)
I love the Foxfire books. You’ll never find a better source for hog butcherin’ instruction, IMHO!
Man, I LOVE Cherokee Purple tomatoes. I didn’t grow any this year...but there’s always NEXT year. :)
You can press them through a mesh sieve, or find yourself a Foley Food Mill; relatively cheap at thrift stores or discount stores. Don’t pay $40 for it!
http://www.thekitchenstore.com/072075500242.html
Heaven! :)
Actually, not confused. They were open pollinated. That’s why I want to save them.
I did plant another variety of bean nearby, which I shouldn’t have, but I think that the plants that I’m saving from flowered well before the others.
The pods are dry and brown now and the plants are starting to die back.
I just looked out into the garden and am pleased to see so much red. It’ll be a smallish tomato crop, but something. There’s always next year to hope for.
That’s got to be about the best lunch in the world.
There’s nothing like tomato soup and grilled cheese.
The ultimate comfort food.
Makes sense — thanks!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.