Growing For The Freezer and Freezing Smart:
Frozen peppers are a great addition to many dishes, and easy to sue when they are in single dish portionsThe same concept goes into freezing. We love to use peppers, onions, and snap peas in stir fry’s and other dishes, so we make sure to plant enough to eat fresh, and preserve some by freezing for later. We also freeze a large quantity of our Cajun Belle and Jalapeno peppers to use later as quick appetizers. When we first started out – we would simply freeze them into big bags – only to find out we could never use them up quick enough before going bad. Now – we freeze sliced green peppers, onion, and snap peas in the perfect dish serving size. Come winter – it’s a snap (no pun intended) to pull them out and throw them in whatever we are making. No waste of time or produce! Thinking Outside Of The Box With Surplus Vegetables: A bumper crop of peppers led to us making our own dried pepper flakes, grind and chili powderYou also have to think outside of the proverbial box when a certain plant goes crazy and your left with a huge surplus. A few years back – we had a mammoth crop of hot peppers. We love them more than anybody – but there are only so many fresh jalapenos and habaneros you can eat in a given day without shooting flames from your head. The solution: We decided to take the extras and dry them on low heat in the oven and our smoker. The result – some of the best homemade pepper grind, flakes and chili powder we have ever tasted. We’ve since cut back on the amount of peppers we grow – but we make sure to include enough every year to roast a few pans for our needs. Hot pepper flakes and powder made from our peppers.So this year as you think about the garden and all of those amazing fresh things you will grow and eat – put a little extra thought into what you want year round – you will be rewarded with some great winter produce – and huge savings on your grocery bill!
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Planting A Green Manure Crop In Your Garden Or Raised Beds In The Spring Barren soil makes it easy for soil erosion to occur, and for weed seeds to blow in. Cover crops solve both problems.We talk a lot about cover cropping in the fall – and for good reason. Fall cover crops plays a vital role in developing and keeping garden soil beds full of rich organic matter. They minimize soil erosion and hinder the establishment of weeds, and then feed your soil with organic matter when turned over in the early spring. But in the spring – we add a green manure crop to put back even more organic material prior to the vegetable garden planting. It’s quick, easy – and pays huge dividends! A lot of people are confused by the term “green manure”. First of all, it doesn’t smell and it’s certainly not a by-product from animals. So why the name? Green manure is the term given to a cover crop that is grown specifically to be turned right back into the soil to replenish valuable nutrients and organic matter. Much like a farmer spreads horse, cow or chicken manure on his fields to fertilize and replenish – growing and digging in a bright green cover crop has the same effect and benefits. It’s the same concept as why fresh-cut green grass is great to add to a compost pile. In its fresh-cut green state, grass is a valuable nitrogen source that heats your compost pile up. Green manure crops do the same, releasing nitrogen back into the earth as they slowly decompose. Consider it almost a sacrificial offering to the soil To have healthy tomato plants – you need healthy soilWhen a cover crop such as annual clover, rye or hairy-vetch are young, vibrant and bright green – they are at their absolute height of nutritional value. Their root nodules below the soil help to “fix” nitrogen levels – and the green matter that is turned back into the soil gives off additional nutrients and nitrogen as it decomposes during the summer months. All of which serves to replenish the soil and feed your summer crop of vegetables. Green manure crops also provide many of the same benefits that fall cover crops give – helping to loosen the soil with their fast and deep growing roots and protecting the surface topsoil from heavy spring rains and erosion. All the more reason to incorporate them into your garden plan! So when and how do you plant them? Bright green annual rye about to be turned under to provide nutrients for our tomatoes!We will turn our fall cover crop over in the soil beds about 4 to 6 weeks before we plan on planting our vegetables (about mid-march if the weather allows). At that point we will plant the spring “green manure” cover crop seed right into the soil, raking the soil out lightly after turning it over and spreading our seed. The new seedlings emerge in as little as 7 to 10 days, and by the time we are ready to plant our vegetables in Mid may – it has filled in with a strong thick stand of growth. Then, we simply turn them under again with the pitchfork – and plant our summer garden. As the green manure crop starts to break down – it releases its energy back into the soil and provides nutrients for the new crops. If you didn’t plant a fall cover crop, a spring green manure crop can be even more valuable to getting your soil back on track! Annual rye, annual clover and hairy vetch are all great choices as green manure crops – and can usually be found at your local feed store. My experiment we all seen all over the internet and face book growing onions, scallions in a glass jar well I am gonna put this to the test. Lets see if t works and for how long . So, today 10-14-2015 begins the experiment Heres the update 10-21 7 days later it is growing
I just don't know what we will do I think we will give it one more chance come the spring, we have had 2 community plots now for just about 10 years they are side by side so we made them one big plot. Of course we have had trouble with weeds as a lot of people do and we don't use any sprays or anything like that. But this year he weeds have just been out of control but then again we had so many things happen to us this year that we weren't able to get to the garden every day . We have had such humidity this year that we pretty much didn't have it in us to go we knew we had to but just couldn't stand the heat ,I had out of state relatives come and visit us so I took the whole week off from the garden ,then i had friends from canada come so another week we took off , then s/o was sick with his cancer, then I had surgery on my thumb and now my shoulder and left arm has been in so much pain that its just bad. Its been just one thing after another. And honestly are we getting to old for this????I just don't know maybe we should just give up 1 of the gardens since we have 2 ?. We also bought a rototiller last year and wow all that money and now I feel i was a waste. Eggplant is some how still growing ,,,,The Weeds hey are bad and last pic the Tomatoes
Great link above and video if you need it on planting your garlic watch it really a good one we will planting our garlic come mid October . after planting garlic you need to put your garden to bed for the winter here's another hood link on planting a fall cover crop
Love fresh garden tomatoes who doesn't ? well today I thought would show you a purple cherokee tomato sliced its so pretty with the colors, for lunch today i sliced one put fresh garden basil on it that I also grow and drizzled olive oil topped with fresh mozzarella cheese . Which brings me to my next topic the #Foodsaver. Now normally when you open any block of cheese or cheese in a pkg product after a few days it will turn green to mold not with Foodsaver it vacuums out the air and seals it. i have this mozzarella cheese and a food saver bag now for weeks and its in perfect condition , see pictures below
I have so many pictures thru the years I am placing them here ,there and everywhere. I am trying to share here on pinterest and on google+https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/81-Y6 This year our garden didn't do so good well maybe I should say we didn't do so good. The weeds got out of control and there's nothing we can do at this point, I got the trigger thumb and my S/O has been sick also we did get tomatoes and cucumbers and some other things but I'm not even sure if we attempt to weed or rotorill if we can save anything I will grab a pic aNd share it with you guys
My processor does so many thing slices they way you want them thin , med , paper thin, you cut slice for thing potatoes for chips or julienne , or round, it has a shredder for cabbage for exz, you can do bread crumbs, you can make salsas, or chop, or mix or even put a potato in one of the attachments and make small squared potatoes for hash brown as I use it I will post pictures and recipes for now this is a preview
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