I just cut open a red habanero, scraped the seeds and veins out, cut a very small piece and ate it. wow. That's a lot hotter than I bargained for.

I planted a habanero on a whim. Was getting some jalapeno seed at Home Depot, saw the habanero seed and thought , what the heck.

I've got one plant and that's one too many. Its producing well but I've no idea what to do with them.

Larry, recipe for squash baked whole.

Lynn, Dawn used to make a habanero jelly you pot on crackers with cream cheese. I think Jennifer has the recipe.

That sounds interesting if there's a way to tame the heat.

I use to grow habanero for my neighbor and friend that died a few weeks ago. I had better soil than he did, but that man could have grown anything. I think it was just a way he wanted to inter-act with me. I was never man enough to try to eat any of the peppers, I think he used the pepper in many ways, one was to make some kind of spray.

I bought a jar of jalapeno jelly a couple of days ago, neighbor now buys some stuff to resale in his small produce market. It is easier for me to buy some of the things like that than it is for us to make it, because we use so little of it.

Amy, I will just have to do some digging, Life for Madge and me is changing pretty fast, we both are going down hill, but as strange as it sounds, this is a very good time for us, it seems as tho we enjoy each other more than ever. We are easier to please also. I guess the down side is that the family is bigger and busier than ever, and the old folks just have to sit on the side lines, but the old folks are too tired to play anyway.

We delivered our veggies to Cedarville Ar. a while ago, Madge's son From Stilwell met us there.

Larry y’all are good people. Growing and Delivering produce.

Kim, when I was young, my dad was sick from cancer, he was down over a year before he died, we had nothing but this old place. The people of the community looked after us till we could get on our feet. I am not doing anything that has not been done for me. I like to love, look after friends and family, and take care of the land. I can never repay the grace that has been shown to me. I am not able to do much any more, but I can still do a little. I have never had a lot, but I have always had more than I needed.

Beautiful words, Larry.

Amy, thanks for starting the thread.

Normally, I make pepper jelly with jalapenos. But, you can use any hot pepper. Rick and I made Hell Jelly in 2020 when we had a lot of extra time and plenty of hot peppers. We used the superhots like Scorpion. It was too hot for Tom and I, though. You can cut the heat by using more sweet peppers. Also, by pouring a jar of pepper jelly over a block of cream cheese, you're taming the heat with the cream cheese. If that makes sense-- a little bit of jelly with a bit more cream cheese on a cracker. So good.

Our neighbor makes habanero infused tequila, if you like tequila.

How about pepper sauce, Lynn?! I normally use Scotch Bonnets (one of Tom's coworkers sends me bags of them and I turn them into pepper sauce), but habaneros would make great pepper sauce.

It's been a long day. After morning chores, I worked until noon. Then came home and started prepping all the veggies for Rick's soup. We just finished up about 30 minutes ago. He now has 21 quarts of veggie soup for his house. His looks better than mine do. But mine look great too.

Day 21 on Whole 30. It's going well.

Here's the recipe I use with the Scotch Bonnets, but habaneros would totally work too. Their flavor and heat or similar.

Pepper sauce

I appreciate the ideas. I've got a bottle of Yellowbird habanero hot sauce and I'm having trouble finding uses for that. I enjoy hot sauces, but the milder ones like Tapatio or Louisiana Hot Sauce. But it appears sauce is probably the best use for the peppers, which btw, mine have turned red.

Obviously i neglected to post the link for the squash. https://cookeatpaleo.com/how-to-roast-a-whole-squash-or-pumpkin/

Small ones can be cooked in the crock pot.

jar openers: I use this the most. https://www.amazon.com/Seniors-Arthritis-Silicone-Adjustable-Multiple/dp/B0C1W3BJF3/ref=mp_s_a_1_16?crid=2OB83DPSEKJIV&keywords=jar+openers+for+seniors&qid=1690818928&sprefix=jar+openers%2Caps%2C224&sr=8-16

flip top cans of dog food always broke my nails, that one will open a smaller jar.

my uncle made me one like this using saw blades. https://www.amazon.com/EZ-Off-Opener-Sizes-White/dp/B000X6K9J8/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?crid=2OB83DPSEKJIV&keywords=jar+openers+for+seniors&qid=1690819247&sprefix=jar+openers%2Caps%2C224&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfYXRm&psc=1

Or another option. https://www.amazon.com/Seniors-Arthritis-Strength-Children-Corkscrew/dp/B09PVLGLLM/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?crid=2OB83DPSEKJIV&keywords=jar+openers+for+seniors&qid=1690819379&sprefix=jar+openers%2Caps%2C224&sr=8-13

I wanted to suggest everyone get some vitamin c pills. More than 30 years ago I read that vitamin C helped you tolerate heat. My husband and children agree it helps. It's not Just a flaky old lady's idea. We keep a bottle of the 500 strength on hand.

Madge and I do a lot more together now than we did a few years ago, for one reason we are not able to work like we once did, so we interact with each other more. We have gone out to eat at least 3 times in the past week, the last place was a bar b q place in Ft Smith, "The Link" I think was the name. The food was very good. They had 3 sauces on the table, Scorpion, was the hottest, I used a good size helping on my meal, we even brought extra meat, beans, and sauce home with us. The owner said that he grew a lot of his stuff in his garden. If I could go back a few months, I think that I would try to plant some of those peppers.

I am trying a new to me jalapeno this year. I had run out of jalapeno seeds a few years ago and just bought Jalapeno seeds from the co-op, they were much smaller, and much hotter than what I had before, so I bought jalapeno M seeds to try this year I like them better, but they may be a little too mild, I will have to wait for very hot, dry weather before I make up my mind. I will say one thing, they are the prettiest jalapenos I have ever grown.

I thought I would add a picture of my jalapenos. The red ones are from the wildlife garden where I don't have any water, the green ones are from the north garden and get plenty water. I got to haul water to the wildlife garden if I am going to save anything.

Hope everyone is pulling fruits and veggies out left and right. We have been doing a lot of canning lately, mostly tomatoes. We pulled all of the indeterminate san marzanos & bush steak about a week ago or so.

Very impressed with the bush steaks from Burpee and the san marzanos will always be a mainstay.

We went back in with the clones of those two in the same spot. We'll see how they do. Sure is hot out there though. Reprieve coming this weekend.

We planted a couple rows of zipper creams and that will be a first for us both growing and eating. Not sure how fall carrots will do, but we seeded a few rows last weekend. So far so good on sweet potatoes, guess we'll find out in Sept.

All in all, it's been a pretty good growing year. Everywhere I look, people are cutting and bailing hay. Beats last year by miles!

I've had more tomatoes than I can tend to.

Okra is in full production , I'm getting over ran with them.

Lot's of canning , beans , corn , tomatoes , vegetable soup.

It's a good year for a change.

On to fall gardening.

Rick

hwy, do you have any tricks for making tomato clones? I've tried a few times and they've failed. Everyone makes it look so easy, but I must be missing something.

Jennifer, I am sure hwy20 can give you much better advice than I can, but the only way I have done cloning is just sticking the sucker, of limb in the dirt of potting soil, I would be a little afraid to try it this time of the year. If I wanted extra plants this time of the year, I would try it in the house, out of this 100+ temp, and grow it in a pot till weather improved.

I stuck 4 suckers into the ground some weeks ago, and just kept the watered well. I think I still have some rooting hormone, but I haven't used it in over 10 years, I don't think that I have ever used on tomatoes.

Here in the center are 4 plants I rooted from suckers. I have a plant that I started from a limb off of a tomato plant, but I have better luck using something smaller than a limb. The limb is smaller than these plants, and I doubt that is has any blooms on it yet. At the bottom of this picture is a group of knuckle peas where I just tossed some green pea seeds to see what % of the peas would come up without being dried first.

On the right is the parent plants the suckers were taken from. I did not keep track of what kind of tomatoes they were, I was just playing to see if I was still able to root suckers and limbs. For me, I have to watch the heat and moisture to make rooting work. I also strip most of the limbs and leaves off if the cutting is very large.

You can see that we are short on water, I have to water today. I have some good sized cracks in my soil.

I went to the Dr. again today, and had to stop in Poteau OK. on the way home. I managed to come home with 2 oz. of rutabaga seeds and some water hose repair parts. I enjoy stopping by the Farmers Co-op and shooting the bull with them when I am in town.

Looks good, Larry. Thanks for the advice. I've always tried cloning by putting them in water indoors. Sometimes they'll make a few roots and then die.

I wouldn't try cloning right now in this heat. It's so awful out there. There are things in the garden that probably won't make it through this week.

I should invest in some rooting hormone.

I have been successful with other plants--just sticking them in the ground and watering well. But, not in weather like we're having now.

We have cracks in the ground again too, Larry. And the coop door is having a hard time shutting again. It's not as bad as last year. Yet. The main coop is on a concrete slab.

The last tomato--Dr. Wyche--that I'm saving seed from, is finally drying now.

The onions are all indoors. So many of them are already showing signs of not storing well. I knew this would happen. I made a few bad choices with them....and then the rain coming in sideways on them (wish I had some of that rain now) while they were curing on the shop porch didn't help.

We'll see how they do.

The Highlander ones look mostly good. The Borettana Cipollini ones not so much. They are cool onions though. They sorta look like a UFO/flying saucer.

I have a box that are already about to turn bad and I might chop and freeze. Not my favorite way to use onions. But, I sure hate to waste them.

The Red Creole has been in storage for awhile already. Storage is Ethan's bedroom. The blinds are closed and the ceiling fan is running on low. It's not cool in there, but it's cooler than anywhere else on my property. In October, when it hopefully cools off, they'll go to the utility room.

We are on Day 23 of Whole 30 and it continues to go well. Next Tuesday is our last day. I'll be reintroducing my favorite Greek yogurt and Ezekiel bread first.

I do enjoy cooking, but it's not my favorite in the summer. It is necessary when eating this way. I'm very proud of Tom. He's made some great progress and I hope he can keep it up. We've made some wonderful meals over the last 23 days, so that is helpful. Today, I made muffins that are quite tasty but only sweetened with fruit. The protein balls that I've been making are helpful too.

It is hard to go to eat with friends and the waitress sets a big basket of rolls on the table. haha. But, we've resisted. We just need to keep it up.

I've said it here already, but being able to have potatoes sure helps. And...making rice out of cauliflower provides that familiar texture.

I received my broccoli seeds so will be starting those this evening after watering. It will probably take 2 hours to water everything. Yuck.

And I still need to sit down and look at flights to Portland.

So...break time is over.

My min / max shows 106, Poteau Ok shows 106, our car matches, I am just not man enough for this.

You have us beat, Larry. We got to 103. It's still 102 at my house....which is having a hard time staying cool this afternoon. It's okay. It's not terrible in the house, but the poor AC.

I mostly stayed indoors today....other than animal care and taking a bowl of stuff to the compost and some stuff to the outdoor trash can.

The house plants got watered, the litter boxes got cleaned and some things arranged and sorted through. Including a big bag of okra that had started to mold. It went to the compost. Tom took a bag to work today....it was a bag I picked last night.

We ate some tonight for dinner just stir-fried with onions and peppers--all from the garden.

Can't keep up with the okra.

My broccoli seed got started today. I was too tired last night after watering. It was dark before I made it indoors.

But, it's started now. A little late.

It took two hours to find a flight that was acceptable for this October.

Ah! October....dreaming of October and cooler weather.

It's time to go outside and start the watering again. The Survivalist Garden looks awful. I didn't get it watered yesterday. I'll focus on it tonight and my perennials and pots of things.

Sheesh, it was a real hot one today. We better get some rain out of this weekend, or things might go downhill quick.

Jennifer, I'm certainly no expert on cloning as this was my first time. I used a flat with 4 inch cups about a month back. I cut about 6-8 inch tops off of each plant and stuck them in the cups. One thing I made sure of was to not have a whole lot of foliage on them while they are rooting. Oh, and I picked all flowers as they tried to put on some after beginning growth. Keeping moist is prob the hard part if doing it outside.

A few died, but I had several more than I needed. Fortunately ended up with enough to replace the original row.

Have y’all heard or seen this.

Might be a bad winter. Glad I got some canning done.

Rick

I saw that, Kim!

Hwy, thanks! maybe the trick is to start a lot and some of them will make it.

I probably won't do any gardening today. I hope everything can make it without water for a day. I'll be working until dark tonight.

I'm so tired today. Like, crazy tired. My dreams were busy--trying to solve problems and issues in my dreams, so maybe I didn't rest well. And pretty sure I wasn't careful with pulling the hose around last night---so sore too. And the heat seems to zap too. Feel like I could nap all day.

Madge went to Walmart to try to find canning supplies. We have canned in the past, but we decided that it was time to cut back. The past few years Madge has tried starting a few tomatoes on the light shelf, and has produced some very nice plants. Now Madge has the canning itch again. I love to see her taking an interest in things like that. Madge is a lady that did not even start music lessons till she was 80 years old, she has been going for lessons once a week for four years.

Madge told me that she had "picked all those green tomatoes", I watered this morning, and what she should have said was " I picked all the large tomatoes", we still have plenty of tomatoes, but also have a lot of insect damage, but the tomatoes wont last long in the heat we are having, and there are few small tomatoes, it is just too hot for fruit set.

I think I will go out and toss some fertilizer around some of the plants, hoping that a little extra P and K will produce more blooms, which a few of them may set fruit later, at this point blossoms are dropping all over the ground.

Larry, I wonder if one of those electric canners would be good for Madge. I wouldn't mine having one but it is not in my budget right now. You can only waterbath in them, though.

Jennifer, thanks, I doubt that electric is the way we want to go now, it may be something we can look at in the future. We dont want to take on too much now because of our age and health issues.

Well, Madge water bathed 7 pints of tomatoes, I hope they turn out OK, she is on the couch now resting, she does not sleep well, and our body's need more rest now.. She would not let me help her, we sorta do whatever we have to, some times that means that one works while the other rest. Madge does things in the house better and faster than I can, and a lot of the things I do outside she does not know how to do.

My min/max is showing 107 again now, but I think I will sneak out side and check on things. I went to TSC and got some fittings, hoping to adapt one of my 275 gal totes to a garden hose.

I need to adapt other barrels and totes to prepare for water rationing. I have 2 wells on the place, but I have not check the condition of the wells, but they are both about a half mile away.

Seven pints of tomatoes is great! I'm sure she is excited to get them done, Larry.

Jennifer, Madge canned orange tomatoes today, but she was not happy with them, she said that some of the largest ones had white spots. We don't know what caused the white spots, but she says that they are not noticeable after they were canned, she only had 4 pints of the orange tomatoes.

I am wanting Madge to try her hand at peppers next. I posted a picture of some of the jalapenos that we have, we also have some nice sweet banana, and bell peppers that I would like to do something with. The peppers are new to use, we have only eaten them fresh in the past. I would like to find a good way to pickle them, we have some elephant garlic that I would like to use in them. Our onion crop did not do well, we have almost used, or given them away.

We may not have any garden left because it is 107 again today. Phase 2 water restrictions have been enacted for us, which means that I have to water with a hand held hose, and on even days, but that is how I water anyway. I don't think I can save the garden in this type of heat, shade cloth would be nice, but I don't feel like messing with it anyway.

Larry, I had a talk with my plants today and just asked them to hold on. Even with watering, some of them won't make it. It's okay if some pass on. They've been productive in their lives. Others, I would like for them to hang in there a bit longer.

When I can tomatoes, I just cut the ugly and/or bad spots out.

Our onions aren't great this year either. They grew well, but have gone downhill during the curing process. So many of them are getting that moldy look to them. At this point, they can still be used. I just cut off the bad parts, but they certainly won't store well. I chopped up about 2 quarts today to put in the freezer. It really is NOT my favorite way to store onions. Over the next week or so, I'll try to freeze more.

The better ones are in Ethan's room/my root cellar.

While I'm doing the mindless jobs at my work, I'll often listen to/watch Hollar Homestead. They recently had a video about their onions. Theirs didn't do well either. They look very similar to many of mine. They are in North Carolina, I think. It's hot and humid there too.

I've been brainstorming with Tom about how to make a 'cold room" in our shop in the future. That's if we stay here. The turnpike situation is back on. OTA won, so they'll be getting bond buyers or however that goes. I don't really understand.

Or if we don't decide to move closer to Mason. I wish we could pick up this property and put it about 10 minutes from her. Our house isn't fancy, but I sure like my home.

It would be great if we could get some rain this weekend. Really great.

Jennifer, we got a nice slow rain early this morning, it was not near what we needed, but I was glad to get it. I ran the disc over a small spot in the north garden, the soil was damp to an inch down, then just dry powder.

I started stripping my plants yesterday, and nearly finished this morning. Some of my tomatoes are not worth picking, but I try to remove the bug damaged fruit anyway. I should have 3 sacks of peppers and 3 sack of tomatoes.

Daughter will be over today, she has a friend that has ask for any extra produce that I have, so daughter will take all extra and give it away.

I have been rigging up some of my barrels and totes to haul water from the pond or my well so I can keep a few plants alive till fall.