Anybody here?

[NCW_Woodnymph]

I know other people on here garden but no one posts. Anyone want to talk about preserving the bounty of the summer. We just picked about 6lbs of wild blackberrys we are planning to make into blackberry mead. I can't wait. We're going to pick more next weekend so I can make some blackberry syrup for canning.
Also, I'm planting a second crop of peas and lettus because I hear the grow well in cool weather. Has anyone grown them in the fall? I don't know how late I should wait before planting.

[StellaBlue]

I've been working like crazy canning the veggies from my garden. I picked blackberries and made jam. Turned out pretty well. I pickled lots of beets and canned them, which made my whole house really stinky, but my husband loves pickled beets. I canned a bushel of green beans, and froze about 50 ears of sweet corn. This weekend I plan on doing my tomatoes. Tomato juice and stewed tomatoes.

I've read that you should plant carrots in the fall and then pick them in December. I hear no carrot tastes as good as one plucked from the frozed ground. And if they taste gross, at least you have a nose for the snowman.

[NCW_Woodnymph]

Thanks for the advise on the carrots. Have you ever tried drying tomatos. I use them with pesto on pasta or chicken and my husband loves them. They're really expensive in the store but they're so easy to do at home.

[Kookie_Baron]

http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/fallgarden/fallindex.html

[StellaBlue]

I've never dried tomatoes, usually I want them all for fresh eating or to add to my stewed tomatoes, or juice. I'll have to give it a try.

I was disappointed this summer, all of my cucumber plants died. I've never had a problem with cucumbers in my life. They started climbing the fence, turned yellow, and died. I was going to make lots of pickles with them. Maybe next year.

[LIBRA]

I had a huge garden this year, I love it! I am a bad weeder though, I used my own compost and mulch which helped.

I have been freezing corn, green beans, zuchini, peppers. My eggplant is still not ready yet and my tomatoes havent done well either. Its been so dry here.

We have pumpkins out the gord,lol I mean it, tons of em.

Watermelons too but they are the smallest, cutest, melons ever.

I have been on a smoothie kick, trying out veggie smoothies and its odd. some are good though, just not anything with yellow squash. So dont try a yellow squash smoothie,lol, its not great!

[toman]

Thanks for the advise on the carrots. Have you ever tried drying tomatos. I use them with pesto on pasta or chicken and my husband loves them. They're really expensive in the store but they're so easy to do at home.

I dunno if you mean whole tomatoes or just dried, but I found that buying canned whole in the supermarket was way expensive, but if I went to my local bulk-buy warehouse place, I can get #10 cans for less than the little cans elsewhere. So whenever I go there, every month or two, I pick up half a dozen cans. That way I just make a basic marinara sauce and freeze it, and thawed, I can add whatever I want and make a whole array of things. :bandit:

[Kookie_Baron]

We made sundried tomatoes in culinary school. It is just dehydrated tomato slices. All you need is one of those stackable fruit/veggie dehydraters. Slice the tomatoes semi thin, fill up your racks and let dry about 3-4 days until crisp. Of course you can also let them dry in the sun, but then you have to worry about weather and pests.

[NCW_Woodnymph]

Yeah, sundried tomatos are really easy and fun. My dehydrator only took about a day. I didn't have an abundance of tomatos this year though, so I didn't get to replenish my supplies.
I'm glad to hear I wasn't the only one to have problems with cucumbers. :hippie:

[StellaBlue]

Yeah, bad year for the cukes...my neighbor told me that the blight killed them. I don't know much about blight, except that that is what caused the potato famine in ireland...

[NCW_Woodnymph]

Mine didn't actually die. They just didn't produce any cucumbers. I got two pickling cucumbers and that was it. It looks like there are some coming on now though, so there's still hope.