The Gardening Thread

Good to know! I use that trick on some things, like pineapples. Some things it doesn't seem to work, like avocados.

 

After doing a batch of tomatoes in the dehydrator, I think I've got the idea dialed in a bit.

I did 145F for 7.5hrs, then 130F for 3.3 hours, then the few remaining larger pieces at 130F for 1hr.

I think 145 is a little too high and dries out the thinner parts too fast. 130 might be too low and take longer, I'd probably try it at 135 for 10hrs but check them when they had an hr or so remaining, and finish whatever larger pieces I had left for another couple hours. The lower temp seemed to result in chewy, stickier pieces rather than friable.

I'm really happy with how mine turned out. These will be great in pastas and on pizza.

 

What model do you own?

 

It says it goes down to 105 online, I don't see why not. Not sure how the airflow is but it is worth a try if you already have it.

Here are some tomatoes I pulled over the last couple days. I still have about 1.5-2x this out on the vine, but things do seem to be ripening a bit with our warm daytime temps so I'm just going to be super proactive about picking anything with a small bit of color. By Oct 6 I'll pull everything.

 

Looking good!

So I’ve gotten three tomatoes from the three plants I just let go after the rest died. I’ve spent all summer mushroom hunting instead. Maybe more of a homesteading thread but I’ve found more wild mushrooms than I know what to do with. I joined a Facebook group that helps identify them and have been out on a foray (with another planned this weekend). Very fun and some delicious delicious mushrooms. Oysters, ‘chicken of the woods’ are out of control, right now the puffballs are exploding, and a few actives I’m too hesitant to try at the moment.

 

Ok, more tomatoes than expected.

Lord y'all. This garden has kept me busy. Farmer's almanac was on the nose with the predicted Oct 6 first frost date so that was the day I pulled all the peppers and tomatoes and tore up plants. I heavily pruned back the pepper plants and will mulch deeply to attempt an overwinter. I also had a straggler zucchini and some cucumbers to enjoy fresh. These pics are pretty much all fresh pulls from the garden. I used up anything that was ripe earlier this week.





Still some cleanup to do, but this is from the day I pulled out a bunch of plants. The ducks are free to roam now. They forage for bugs all day. They don't seem to care much about the kale or swiss chard that is remaining. They fertilize for me and eat up bugs, win win.



Half the flock are lazy fucking bums. 6pm and I catch them sleeping already. All that extra room to forage had them tuckered out.



Not shown. Metric fuckton of jalapenos as well as some bananas, bells, and Anaheims. Maybe 12lbs total. It was 2 walmart bags full to the gills.

Over this last week I dehydrated jalapenos for powder, dehydrated tomatoes ("sun dried"), and broiled a batch of tomatoes ("fire roasted"). Tonight, sashouka with half the broiled tomatoes. Only had to buy onion and garlic for that dish. We will be eating that a lot, it uses up garden goodies and duck eggs. I also made some whole wheat sourdough to go with it.





Also fermenting tomato seeds to save for next season. Pro tip: Make sure they are in total dark. First beefsteak I tried to save all sprouted because I left them out on the kitchen counter.

 

That look all kinds of awesome! This weekend is a 3-day weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving), so I'll be spending a fair bit of time getting shit ready for winter, which includes ripping apart the beds from this year, digging out the wood chipper to process everything into easy-to-digest/decompose mulch... that kind of stuff.

All while it rains off and on.

 

Crap! Canadian Thanksgiving always sneaks up on me. Enjoy your holiday.

Are you totally starting over with your raised beds?

 

Just pulling out the big stuff that won’t compost on its own.

 

Oh, I thought you meant you were mulching the boards on the beds themselves.

I'm tossing all the tomato plants into street pickup like @Kubla Kahn suggested. I mulched them last time but am hoping to avoid any disease spread.

 

The last remains of the garden. The herbs will be pruned back and clippings dehydrated, then the pots will be moved inside for the winter.

Some final tomatoes coming in and then the rest gets mulched up and thrown in the back corner of the yard.

I was really happy with the flowers I planted in the garden itself, as it seemed to improve the bee population and really help with pollination this year.

 

I've been getting a few things going for fall. I planted lots of garlic, green onions (the ones from the store regrow beautifully, plus I had some others planted from last spring), sugar snaps. Turns out the ducks will eat swiss chard given some time, so my plants are mangled, but they'll come back next year. The kale is tall enough that the lower leaves were eaten and the fresh tender tops remain. The ducks like to hang out under their umbrellas.

Here's a small cutting of an umbrella plant my neighbor gave me this past summer. Maybe late spring? I've forgotten, it's been that long. It takes many months for these things to root but it's finally ready to go in some dirt!

 

Duckbrellas

 

We've had our first frost of the year, so my herbs are now moved into the laundry room for winter.

Best. Smelling. Laundry. Room. Ever.

 

Been almost -10 a couple of nights now.

Swiss Chard don’t give a fuck.

 

I've still got some salvageable kale too tall for the ducks to munch but man, they have really nibbl d the chard. Yours looks beautiful Nett.

I moved the duck water into the garden since they love to hang out there and shit all day. Full time fertilizers, they are.