Cindy my ripe ones are in the hoop house, where several others are as well. It was so cold and wet here in the spring nothing grew well outside until July.

Len - Check out my first Snowbound.

Lovely dahlia Margi...and they will keep blooming until frost!

Lea I love the Black Krim and Jaune Flamme tomatoes too (I have plants from both that are about 18 inches tall now).

This is the Pro Mix I used this time around

One of my Tree Collards

New batch of tomato plants

Out of control cucumbers-there used to be a gas meter in there

Richard nice growth on the collards. Hopefully you are not blowing away. This looks like a serious storm and I have some folks in Lafayette, LA which is only 36 feet above sea level :(

Len, it didn’t even rain here, but it looks like Lake Charles and Lafayette got hit real hard. At least the storm surge was less than predicted, but it was the strongest hurricane to ever hit Lake Charles and Lafayette.

RIchard, your new tomatoes look very happy! Do you have 2 seasons of tomatoes, or are these the ones that will carry you all the way through winter and spring before they give up in your summer heat next year?

Richard, KC Southern RR got smacked pretty hard. We serve Lake Charles and Port Arthur and our mainlines run north through Louisiana and then east from Shreveport through Mississippi so it's still getting clobbered. There's a chemical plant in Lake Charles that's on fire right now leaking toxic gas. Guess we won't be getting any business from that plant for awhile.

There is one band of rain that spun off the hurricane and is moving north one county south of me right now. I hope it makes it this far before it runs out of gas. My green beans could use the water. Should be here in an hour or 2.

Jack - Did the rain make it up to you? Hope so.

We are expecting some of the remains of Laura this evening. Supposedly we will have some gusts of winds up to 30 mph or so (the last time I looked) the forecast may have changed.

this weekend, I plan to start some fall and winter brassicas and clean out the summer beds that have succumbed to the heat. I think we had an ok summer season- tomatoes were our best crop and we will be getting more. Fish peppers were by far our best pepper crop and I dehydrated enough to last me through next year haha.

Jamie - I was wondering if the remains of Laura would be coming your way. It's supposed to be here Saturday.

Cindy- I think it’s going to follow the Mississippi up to Arkansas then head East. From the looks of it, we will miss most of it, as I think the worst will be north of us.

we are getting some gusts of wind from the south now, I had to go out and move some pots that were getting blown over. And our internet service is out haha I don’t know if that’s due to the wind or something else. Comcast just says “there‘s an outage in your area” haha!

The old catch all. There's an 'outage in your area.'

Yes hahaha it came back on about an hour ago and seems to be working ok.

the wind has really picked up also!

Len, are your people in Lafayette okay? Were you able to contact them? Hopefully they didn’t suffer too much damage.

Margi, that is my new crop of tomatoes 🍅. I will grow them through the winter (they usually die in December if it doesn’t freeze too much-some live through the winter if I move them inside). There is usually less fungus and tomato death (knock wood) during the fall season. That is the main reason I planted so early this season, but it didn’t work out the way I planned. Had a decent year, but not great. Probably 15-20 plants that didn’t produce tomatoes.

Jack, sorry to hear about the damage to the Railroad-hopefully the damage can be repaired in short order and you get some rain.

Jamie, glad your power is back on and I hope the worst of the winds miss you and you sustain no damage to your house and garden.

Tonight I discovered that Baker Creek has recipes on their site, never knew that before. And of course they are ones that use fresh garden produce. I saw a couple there that will help me use the deluge of zucchini and yellow squash! I want to try the calabacitas and also the zucchini & garbanzos. I have most of the ingredients or reasonable substitutes in the house which makes it even better.

Recipes: https://www.rareseeds.com/recipes

Naturegirl, I have purchased hundreds of packs of seeds from Baker Creek and never noticed the recipes before either. It is incredibly extensive too!! Thanks

Jamie - I powered up my computer to come here to find out if you're all right. Now that I know I can relax.

I didn't get a drop of rain from Laura yesterday. It disappeared about 20 miles to the south.

Thanks, John- all is well here it’s just been a busy few weeks.

jack - we had rain and wind all night and it’s still gently raining this morning.

richard- how are your sisters in Houston?

theres a Baker creek vegan cookbook also - I got a copy a couple of years ago https://www.amazon.com/Baker-Creek-Vegan-Cookbook-Traditional/dp/1401310613/ref=nodl_ I’m not a vegan, but i do cook some vegan recipes from time to time. It probably has the same recipes that they post online

Richard, news is good from Lafayette...loss of power still I think but no significant damage to home, life or limb.

Here at 47th parallel the days are getting shorter fast...it was still almost dark at 6 AM today. September only 4 days away!

I picked a few pounds of beans yesterday which got away without a photo. The Mr Tung beans I planted late are starting to produce now and we should get enough for a meal soon. Tomatoes are coming on and DW made first batch of sauce yesterday..

We've been getting lotsa rain for the last 24 hrs or so. Some storms in the area, but somehow we skated thru them. But nothing like what happened in the gulf. I picked two big collanders of beans yesterday. One of bush Haricot Verts, and one of pole Kentucky Wonders. And two small collanders of the smaller pods after I ate some raw and found out exactly how tender the younguns are. Got a couple more zucchini and also picked a big Pink Ponderosa from which I saved seeds and ate the whole thing myself!

I had two crops of the bush Haricot Verts planted at least a month apart; and did the first pick on both on the same day!

My pole Siena Lima beans are starting to be pickable. And the Christmas Lima beans are fat enough to pick as big white lima beans but I'm going to let them dry on the plants so that they develop their colorful side.

Jamie, my sisters got some rain, but no real damage. Thanks for asking

Richard - Glad that your sisters are fine.

We had 1.2" of rain overnight with more on the way. The remnants of Laura will be here mid-day, early afternoon.

But tomorrow looks like another "Mary Poppins" day!

Thanks Cindy

Here is a warning for you Cindy...something cropped off most of the top of one of my new tree collards night before last. Looks like bambi likes them. It will come back of course but so will she.

We decided to give up some south lawn area and build a raised bed, primarily for strawberries. I will set it up for hoops to keep netting over to protect from birds and the damn deer.

Jack - Looks like you're getting rain now!?

Len - They never give up either. Thanks for the head's up. I'll be sure to plant them in my fenced and netted garden. Had hoped to plant them closer to the house for protection from cold temp.

Cindy - I think we got about an inch and a half Friday though Saturday morning. It was steamy yesterday and we got another storm early This morning.

Jamie - We were supposed to get the remnants of Laura around noon yesterday but most of it went south of us, which was fine with me. Yesterday we only had an additional .2" of rain. It's beautiful out there right now!!

Cindy - yes we got very heavy rain yesterday morning and then it drizzled off an on in the afternoon. What we call an Arkansas car wash around here :-p. My best friend's daughter had plans to move into the new house they had been building for the last year so of course it rained for the first time in 2+ weeks! We got the job done but it was a PITA to have to dry off all of the furniture in the garage before moving it into the house. My buddy and I stayed away from the heavy lifting and let the younger guys do that. He and I stayed busy drying stuff off, putting beds together, carrying boxes, and putting up shelves.

John - I put your garlic in the mail on Friday so hopefully you should get it before it's time to plant in October! I think I sent a dozen bulbs total of 3 varieties. That should at least get you a start. I wish I could have sent more but my buddies daughter wants to plant some this fall in her new garden so I need to save some for her as well as my own seed stock. I sent the immature bulbils too but I'm afraid they won't be viable for you either. Non of the 24 I tried to sprout ever came up.

Aug 30, 2020

Jack - I'm hoping the bulbils germinate better after a frost. I'd really like to know if you can grow bigger bulbs on that variety from bulbils than from cloves. The German Red garlic out in the field next door is still standing up on the scapes and isn't bowing over as is said, not yet?

Here's two pictures, the first nearest the house, the 2nd out on the field on the edge of the huge patch of some unknown variety. I'm guessing from the size of the bulbils it might be German Red.

Those in the field are bent near the top, but that's maybe 30 inches up the plant. I tugged lightly on a bulbil in the blueberry garden and the scape broke near the ground, so I'm guessing they naturally break there, but as I said I'm guessing. It's also likely they'll break where they're bent over.

edit:

My intent in this post was to point out that the bulbils are still on the plant over a month since I harvested my bulbs and a few bulbils, so they may well have done a lot of development in that time. I notice they have lost the red color.

What I sent you don't look anything like that. They are pretty tiny. Well if they don't grow you will just be delayed by a year and you can let the bulbils mature on the plants next year.

How did you harvest the bulbs without killing the plants?

Jack - First thanks for sending the care package! German Red has huge bulbils, so I wouldn't expect yours to be so big.

The bulbs I harvested were out of my garden. Those in these pictures are out in the empty field next door. However the cloves I planted last fall came from the cloves I harvested in that field. So I'm thinking that the huge 3+ inch bulb I grew this year owes some of that size to the fact that in it's recent heritage was growing from a bulbil. Maybe not as there were 6 or 7 cloves from the same bulb I planted that one.

I've been prepping tomatoes for chipotle ketchup all afternoon. I will only be making one batch of it this season and it's going to pack a wallop!! All of my previous batches haven't had enough heat so this one will be the one. Looks like it's going to take two days because once the tomatoes are done (5# of them) I think I'll be done for the day. Seems like it uses more tomatoes than an Annie's Salsa recipe.

Cindy - I love that Chipotle ketchup recipe!! I made 3 batches last year and still have 8 half pints left. Do you smoke your own jalapenos for it or do you buy the canned Chipotles? Mine isn't all that hot either but it has a nice smokey flavor with a little sweet. After cooking down to the right thickness there sure isn't much left in a batch. I get about 6 or 7 half pints.

John - you are very welcome. I hope all 3 varieties do well in your garden. I like the German White best just because the cloves are so big.

ETA: I'm getting more rain today! I haven't watered my fall beans since they sprouted and they are now blooming.

Jack - I use the canned chipotles because my jalapenos just do not have much heat even though they are Biker Billies and Jaloro jalapenos. They haven't been stressed at all this year. The same thing happened last year. I don't have a smoker either.

I ended up just getting the tomatoes prepped yesterday. If I'd stayed up to complete the canning who knows how long I'd have been up. So now the pot is on the stove again.

If I remember correctly it takes around 5 or 6 hours for mine to simmer down to the right thickness after I run the stick blender through it. When it retains a peak after stirring is when I can it.

Do you include the Adobo sauce or wash it off the Chipotles before chopping? I just leave the Adobo myself. I've never tried to smoke my own Chipotles either but I do have a couple smokers so it must just be my laziness. Seems like a lot of work.

I also use the Adobo sauce and I usually make mine a little thinner than your description. It's all good!

Saturday in my haste to clean up the melon beds a bit of vines that had died, I separated the vine that contained a few nearing-ripe cantaloupe from the base plant. Grrr...so my cantaloupe season is over! Before I started, I did find one 'loupe that was pretty much ripe. I have 3 in the fridge now. When they're gone, that's it! I really had intended to pull the watermelon plants out. I had picked the last big watermelon late last week. While I was messing with the cantaloupe vines, I did uncover a watermelon that's about a week or so old. So, I guess I may have one more watermelon. The zucchini plants are in the trash this morning too. SVB finally did them in. The pattypans won't be far behind. Some of the pattypan vines are still looking fairly healthy, but this morning there were a few vines that were wilted. Since it's trash day, I went ahead and pulled those.

The big excitement in my world now (other than a MUCH more important event of my son's wedding next weekend) is that we discovered an armadillo in our basement "day-light" window well. Grrrr To REALLY complicate our attempts to deal with this guy, as bad luck would have it, there's a deck build over the window well. The bottom of the deck trusses/stringers/whatever is just barely the height that a small man can crawl underneath to get to the edge of the window well. Both Saturday and Sunday we set a live-trap. The trap is not nearly big enough, but it's all we had. He's been there since at least Thursday evening. That's when we first heard it. This morning I finally connected with someone who will come and rid our property of this creature. I was sorry to hear that the guy said that he'll have to access the pit from inside the house, through the window that's there. I really was hoping that he'd be able to do it from the top of the well/pit. He said, 'you can't work an armadillo from above". Yuck. That means that this creature will have to come through my house at some point. Ewww. I just want it gone.

I made another batch of marinara sauce yesterday. I have about 20 jars on hand now. That ought to get us through the winter! It's been a disappointing tomato season for me this year. Tried several new varieties this year and they just haven't done well here. I did finally pick the first really big Wes tomato on Saturday. It was pretty gnarly looking, but weighed in at 18 ounces. There are 3 or 4 more on that plant that are coming along, but there have been none on the Wes plant that is in the cage right next to this one. I have 2 Wessel's Purple Pride plants and, although, the plants are huge, I've only gotten about 5 tomatoes off of them combined. Now is seems all the tomatoes on those plants have blossom end rot. A Neve's Azorean Red plant in the garden hasn't had any fruit on it, but I have another that I put elsewhere and it finally has quite a few about golf ball sized tomatoes.

Margi - your tomato season sounds almost as bed as mine here. The peppers have almost made up for the tomatoes. I may stop by the Amish auction down near the lake cabin on Saturday and pick up a box to make a batch of Annie's Salsa and maybe some more pizza sauce.

Sorry to here about the armadillo issue. We see them quite often down at the lake. They have slowly moved north over the years but I don't think they have been slowed by the Missouri river. I haven't seen one on my property but I've seen a few road killed out on the nearby highway. They are nasty creatures. I wouldn't want to be the one handling it since they can carry leprosy. The chances of contacting it from an armadillo is very low it seems. But don't throw it on the grill!

Margi - So sorry that Wessel's isn't doing well for you and that your tomato season isn't going well either. And you as well, Jack.

I've been canning with them for the past three weeks and I still have this many to go from a total of three plants. It's always one of my most productive varieties.

Cindy - Your Wessel's look so pretty! Cool conjoined twin on top. I always like the odd ones like that. There are quite a few on one of my two plants. I'll hope that they do better as they ripen. My garden is looking pretty bare now with most of the melons out. By this time of the season the melons occupy roughly half the space available. The one bright spot, however, is the new pea/sugar snap peas coming along.

Jack - You got me wondering what grilled armadillo is like, and also smoked?

I got a package in the mail today. Very well packaged and so many bulbs. And varieties also! Thank you so much. My offer of the bottles even up is still on the table. They're not the traditional maple syrup bottles except for the hook. Here's a picture from Bascom my source:

!6.9 oz. With the caps, unused in the original box. One's missing.

Again thank you so much.

Oops uploaded these from my phone then got several calls before I could fill in the blanks!

Margi and John sorry to hear about your poor tomato harvests. Great looking basket of fruit Cindy. Mine outside are coming along if they can get ripe before the cold sets in here. I'm really disappointed that most of my tomato vines in the hoop house went on strike after the first flush of fruit set. The vines grew on but all except galina and Pink Ping Pong dropped every blossom. There are a few setting now.

Here are some of the new seeds I'm putting in for winter crops in hoophouse and greenhouse. Actually the kohlrabi is going to stay outside. There is another batch coming from Baker probably tomorrow. We will see what comes up...

Bin 1 has lettuce, corn salad, Tatsoi, mustard, bulls blood beets etc. Interesting how differently the;y are germinating.

There are still fairly sturdy asparagus spears coming up; was not expecting this strong a stand the first year on the root crowns.

Yesterday I harvested most of the spaghetti squash to get the vines out of the way. Will keep these outside for a few days to cure.

This squash is a monster! My assistant Madison is amused.

That is a gigantic squash Len-maybe the longest I have ever seen.

Margi, I had a possum knock over a couple of my peppers plants last night and was headed into my greenhouse but made the fatal mistake of being slower than I am. He got about 4 or 5 Pasilla Bajio peppers, so not too much damage.

John armadillos are not great to eat no matter how you cook them-the meat is gritty and they are the #1 carrier of leprosy, so it has been about 3 decades since I have had any and I definitely won’t be trying any in the future. My grandpa used to feed all armadillos, possums, and raccoons to the dogs. He would boil them up in a giant iron skillet outside on a wood fire and they loved it. There was one dog named Rattler (because he got bit in the face by a rattlesnake and lived without even a trip to the vet) and he would hunt up possums and coons almost every day and would attack snakes with wanton abandon-even rattlesnake, but there was a method to his madness-he would swing them around wildly by the tail over and over until they stopped coiling up and tried to get away from him and then he would bite them just behind the head and hold on. Non poisonous snakes were just dispatched immediately (if he knew they weren’t poisonous)-chicken snakes he treated like a cotton mouth as they have a similar look-all snakes were doomed around him.

Oh my goodness... it’s September!

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5987422/veggie-tales-september-2020