Show Us Your Crops....

[brachiomyback]

I am inquiring if there are any Fossil Forum green thumbers out there. This year I decided not to plant tomatoes because my back yard squirrels had the keen sense to “pick” them just before I would. The squirrels didn’t have a taste for the okra last year, so I decided to primarily plant them. They are coming in strong now and I have been able to harvest them about every other day. Just slice them, sauté for a few minutes with some good olive oil and top with sea salt. Delish!! Like my old man always says, “It’s like a sore peter.”

I even have a couple of small self seeded cantaloupes… just two left, after the squirrels ran off with the first three.

I loaded my car up with some my old man’s garden tomatoes from my recent trip back to Illinois. They are some real “whoppers” this year. A person can never have too many BLTs. In addition, you can never have too many freshly sliced tomatoes and fresh slices of mozzarella cheese drizzled with good balsamic vinegar and olive oil and topped with fresh basil. Mmmmm......

Like my old man says, “You just can’t beat it”.

…enjoy

[Hawkeye]

I loaded my car up with some my old man’s garden tomatoes from my recent trip back to Illinois. They are some real “whoppers” this year. A person can never have too many BLTs. In addition, you can never have too many freshly sliced tomatoes and fresh slices of mozzarella cheese drizzled with good balsamic vinegar and olive oil and topped with fresh basil. Mmmmm......

Like my old man says, “You just can’t beat it”.

…enjoy

I used to have a huge garden back in Iowa but I haven't gotten one in yet in GA. My wife loves that Caprese Salad, she eats it at least once a week during the summer. I could eat anything with fresh sweet basil!

[barefootgirl]

Great okra! What variety is that? I always enjoyed the Clemson spineless and longhorn variety.

About 2 years ago I had a very large garden. I planted about 60 tomato plants about 10 different varieties, 4 different types of okra, 2 kinds of cream peas, purple hull peas, blackeyed peas, pinto beans, 2 kinds of corn, 4 different types of watermelons and cantaloupe. We ate good that year, so did half the neighbors. I also canned about 100 jars of tomato's and froze about 500 ears of corn.

[brachiomyback]

Great okra! What variety is that? I always enjoyed the Clemson spineless and longhorn variety.

About 2 years ago I had a very large garden. I planted about 60 tomato plants about 10 different varieties, 4 different types of okra, 2 kinds of cream peas, purple hull peas, blackeyed peas, pinto beans, 2 kinds of corn, 4 different types of watermelons and cantaloupe. We ate good that year, so did half the neighbors. I also canned about 100 jars of tomato's and froze about 500 ears of corn.

Growing clemson spineless.

That must have been some garden you had and I'm sure quite the work.

It sounds like a comparable garden to what my dad has. Are you growing anything this year?

This is the second year he has been canning okra.

He cans them like dill pickles. Throws them in whole but adds a couple jalapeno peppers in each jar.

Incredible!!

Cantaloupe score to date:

homo sapiens 1

Sciurus carolinensis 4

[barefootgirl]

Just a few tomato plants this year. Clemson spineless is one of my favorite okras since it's so forgiving and doesn't get hard real fast. Ever since I started fossil hunting my gardening has fallen to the way side. I miss it though and will definitely put one in this spring. Not as big as the last few I've had though. They were ridiculously large and I got so tired of putting up corn and picking and shelling peas it took up most of my summer and everyone in my family thought they could just go out there and get what they wanted usually straight out of my freezer or canning room after I had done all the work. I am a firm believer in the Little Red Hen story and from now on if you don't help plant it, weed it, water it, you don't get to share in the profit from it.

I used to can every year as well. I have put up okra, tomato's, and my favorite was making elderberry jam and muscadine jelly. Fossil hunting has cut into those activities as well. Muscadines will be getting ripe soon and I'm thinking about making some jelly soon.

[Coco]

Hi,

...my favorite was making elderberry jam ...

Which part of the plant do you use to make jams ? Leaves or berries ? :stuff:

Coco

[barefootgirl]

Hi,

Which part of the plant do you use to make jams ? Leaves or berries ? :stuff:

Coco

You only use the berries. Elderberries are packed full of vitamins and I use the jam to make a syrup when my child or anybody in the house gets a cough or a cold. The plant is wild here and grows everywhere.

Edited August 23, 2010 by barefootgirl

[Coco]

Thanks BFG, if it is effective against the cough or the cold, I should stock up with it! You keep the pulp in the jam, or you keep only the juice to make a jelly when berries are cooked ?

I do not know if it is too late in my area to find elderberries, but I am affectedly going to guard your indications!

Coco

Edited August 23, 2010 by Coco

[barefootgirl]

I use the whole berry seed and all. You could just use the juice and make jelly but I prefer the texture of jam better. You can buy a product in the drug stores called Sambucol that is just elderberry syrup. It's good for coughs and is supposedly very good for shortening the duration of the flu. If your gonna make your own make sure that you are picking the right type of elderberry.

Sambucas Nigra is it's botanical name. You might know it as European elder. It's medicinal uses have been touted since the Roman times. The wood is also wonderful and my walking stick that I use to hunt with is made of Elderberry. You can also make flutes out the wood.

Edited August 23, 2010 by barefootgirl

[Auspex]

Don't forget Elderberry wine...

[Xiphactinus]

I'm trying a "salsa garden" on my deck...tomatoes, jalepenos, habaneros, green bell peppers, banana peppers and pablanos. So far so good...seems like the squirrels don't have a taste for the spicy stuff, just the 'maters.

[barefootgirl]

Don't forget Elderberry wine...

That is still on my to do list. I have always wanted to make homemade wine. It's to late for elderberries but Muscadines will do just fine!

[barefootgirl]

I'm trying a "salsa garden" on my deck...tomatoes, jalepenos, habaneros, green bell peppers, banana peppers and pablanos. So far so good...seems like the squirrels don't have a taste for the spicy stuff, just the 'maters.

Don't forget the onions, garlic and cilantro!

[Coco]

Thanks BFG for these information. Latin name helps.

Coco

[brachiomyback]

and my favorite was making elderberry jam and muscadine jelly. Fossil hunting has cut into those activities as well. Muscadines will be getting ripe soon and I'm thinking about making some jelly soon.

Nothing beats homemade jelly... my grandma used to make some mean applebutter and gooseberry jelly when I was a kid.

I was recently introduced to muscadine grapes since we moved down here in NC. By far my favorite grapes. My wife doesn't care for them because she thinks the skins are to tough. That's one of the reasons why I love them. Some pix of them I took from a local farm.

Grape Info...

North Carolina designated the Scuppernong grape as the official state fruit in 2001. A scuppernong is a large variety of muscadine (a type of grape native to southeastern U.S.). The grape was named after the Scuppernong River of North Carolina, where it was first discovered. The word Scuppernong is from the Algonquian Indian word ascopo which means "sweet bay tree."

The Scuppernong (vitis rotundifolia) has the distinction of being the first grape ever actively cultivated in the United States. It was named for the Scuppernong River, which runs from Washington County to the Albemarle Sound. Roanoke colonists are credited with discovering the Scuppernong “Mother Vineyard” (a vine that is now over 400 years old and covers half an acre).

I believe Monty Python has the best elderberry movie quote so far.

enjoy...

[brachiomyback]

I'm trying a "salsa garden" on my deck...tomatoes, jalepenos, habaneros, green bell peppers, banana peppers and pablanos. So far so good...seems like the squirrels don't have a taste for the spicy stuff, just the 'maters.

I used to put ground (cayenne) red pepper on my tomatoes to stop them from eating them.

It worked for a while but I believe the squirrels acquired a taste for spicy food.

They would even pick out the ones I "treated". They must have been looking for an endorphin high.

Edited August 24, 2010 by brachiomyback

[Auspex]

...Roanoke colonists are credited with discovering the Scuppernong “Mother Vineyard” (a vine that is now over 400 years old and covers half an acre).

I've seen it; amazing!

[barefootgirl]

Nothing beats homemade jelly... my grandma used to make some mean applebutter and gooseberry jelly when I was a kid.

I was recently introduced to muscadine grapes since we moved down here in NC. By far my favorite grapes. My wife doesn't care for them because she thinks the skins are to tough. That's one of the reasons why I love them. Some pix of them I took from a local farm.

Grape Info...

North Carolina designated the Scuppernong grape as the official state fruit in 2001. A scuppernong is a large variety of muscadine (a type of grape native to southeastern U.S.). The grape was named after the Scuppernong River of North Carolina, where it was first discovered. The word Scuppernong is from the Algonquian Indian word ascopo which means "sweet bay tree."

The Scuppernong (vitis rotundifolia) has the distinction of being the first grape ever actively cultivated in the United States. It was named for the Scuppernong River, which runs from Washington County to the Albemarle Sound. Roanoke colonists are credited with discovering the Scuppernong "Mother Vineyard" (a vine that is now over 400 years old and covers half an acre).

I believe Monty Python has the best elderberry movie quote so far.

enjoy...

Thank you for all that info. Never heard of them being called Scuppernong. The Monty Python quote is hilarious!

[Coco]

Here is the basket which I collected in my kitchen garden yesterday :

You can see beet, peppers, hot peppers, french beans, tomatoes, cucumbers. But perhaps you enjoy to see my kitchen garden...

Brussels sprouts :

Cabbages red apple and cabbages :

Gourd spaghetti (Named like this because fibers inside look like spaghettis once cooked) :

Hot peppers :

Leeks and carrots :

Peppers :

Pumpkin :

Tomatoes :

Yellow tomatoes :

Taupinambours (I do not know if you know this vegetable, but it was eaten a lot during the last world war because it was the famine. Then it was cultivated to give to eat to rabbits and to animals of the farm. Then since about twenty years, we rediscover this vegetable to the fine taste.

Here is a link found on the web about the fruits of them : http://olharfeliz.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d1d7953ef011278db17a228a4-800wi

And now, a spider I meet in my ... french beans. It is a Argiope bruennichi (Scopoli, 1772)

Good appetite !

Coco

[Roz]

Nice crops, Coco

Is that a banana spider do you know?

[barefootgirl]

Nice crops, Coco

Is that a banana spider do you know?

I believe that is a common black and yellow Argiope. It's a type of orb weaver spider. My grandmother always called them writing spiders because of the zig zag pattern in the middle of there web. It looks a lot like the ones we have here in TX.

Edited August 27, 2010 by barefootgirl

[barefootgirl]

Your garden is beautiful coco!

[Roz]

I believe that is a common black and yellow Argiope. It's a type of orb weaver spider. My grandmother always called them writing spiders because of the zig zag pattern in the middle of there web. It looks a lot like the ones we have here in TX.

Thanks, Tera!

[Coco]

Hi,

Your garden is beautiful coco!

Thanks a lot

The origin of spider Argiope bruennichi is Mediterranean basin, but it exists in all the Central and North Europe, and now in North America, Asia and West Africa.

It is an "argiope frelon" (= hornet argiope).

Best regards

Coco

[bear-dog]

I am inquiring if there are any Fossil Forum green thumbers out there. This year I decided not to plant tomatoes because my back yard squirrels had the keen sense to “pick” them just before I would. The squirrels didn’t have a taste for the okra last year, so I decided to primarily plant them. They are coming in strong now and I have been able to harvest them about every other day. Just slice them, sauté for a few minutes with some good olive oil and top with sea salt. Delish!! Like my old man always says, “It’s like a sore peter.”

I even have a couple of small self seeded cantaloupes… just two left, after the squirrels ran off with the first three.

My garden was killed by the grasshopper plague of 2010.Seeing the tomato's makes me want to make tomato fritters.

Use some over-ripe tomatos and squish them up good,fix them like pancake batter adding chopped red peppers.UMM. Good.

Fried green tomatos are real goog also.

I loaded my car up with some my old man’s garden tomatoes from my recent trip back to Illinois. They are some real “whoppers” this year. A person can never have too many BLTs. In addition, you can never have too many freshly sliced tomatoes and fresh slices of mozzarella cheese drizzled with good balsamic vinegar and olive oil and topped with fresh basil. Mmmmm......

Like my old man says, “You just can’t beat it”.

…enjoy