texaskitty111 said:I don't know what people put peach mush onto to make peach leather, but I could hardly get it off the parchment paper

TK -- maybe a silicone mat? I've never made any fruit leathers, but my dehydrator came with some inserts for that purpose, which I believe are made of silicone. I've seen "Silpat" mats sold to use for baking cookies and such...

Arlene (Abhege) -- WOWSER, what a beautiful bunch of tomatoes!! That is making me very anxious to see my kitchen table and counters covered with bowls full of those beauties

Geof -- making eggrolls sounds like a great idea; do you make a whole bunch and freeze them?

No ripe tomatoes to report here, but I do need to pick the snow peas tomorrow (there were a few nice big ones today that I just ate instead of bringing in ). And I have baby Goldetti spaghetti squash, Golden Zucchini and Sunburst pattypan squash, as well as baby birdhouse gourds! Really having a hard time getting ahead of the weeds this year... but I'm getting pretty close now, at least as far as the veggie garden is concerned!

Newyorkrita said:So turns out great that I did not pick squash this morning. I didn't because I had no idea what to do with it. Anyway, my lawn mowing guy showed up. The boss and the last few times only the workers showed up. Anyway He loves my garden and I always show off my stuff. I give him veggies each year, he always loves to go home with tomatoes, or cukes, or eggplants or summer squash. So yippee, I cut 6 squash and he was happy to have them and I was happy to find a home for them.

Now to have a day or two until more need to be picked.

Oh forgot to add I picked basil also. Don't think Zucchini and basil go together but that is what I had!

Arlene - I totally agree about the weeds this year. We've never had anything like the volume of weeds and I don't know if it's the weather or what the cause is but my knees have been aching from kneeling and weeding...plus, it's so boring and feels endless. I thought we were all caught up but we had company today and they were good at identifying weeds. We went down the far side of the old vegetable garden and we all got to contribute to the weed bag for the dump. I'm thrilled that they were so anxious to help.

The excellent news out here is that far fewer deer are coming here for their nightly snacks. I'm getting to see daylilies blooming that the deer have been enjoying for the last six years.

We had our first taste of vine-ripened SunSugar tomatoes yesterday. Great flavor! The skins are tougher than I prefer, but for a first taste of summer they were just fine.

Another batch of pea pods are filling out, too. Yippee!


Played hookey from the gardens this morning; got up at 5:30, drove to the nearest Rails-to-Trails path and rode my bike for 20 miles...nice! I don't regret the time spent away from the gardens one bit. It was a lovely mosquito-free morning, and time well spent.


BTW, the mosquito dunks and the hummingbirds seem to be working hard to control our mosquito population. I was out mowing late this evening and noticed a marked reduction of the nasty little pests.

Rita--zucchini and basil go together beautifully. Just saute the zucchini in a little butter or olive oil, and sprinkle some sea salt and the fresh chopped basil right at the end. A few diced tomatoes, shallots or garlic would also go wonderfully in this. Keep it simple!

Chelle, I believe your mosquitoes have migrated to my yard... I'll be sending them back right away!

Well, here is the voice crying in the wilderness. We have had 80 degree weather here in the last few days. And all of the garden, both vegie and flowers are going nuts. I keep planting seeds as things bolt and processing. Nothing compared to you guys down south but really great here. Brocs are being blanched and frozen. Kale coming next. Carrots are slow by growing. Squash is also a little slow but I will have squash before freeze up. Quite happy with what we have.

YAY Chelle on the first tomatoes. Still waiting here, and usually we are a little ahead of you, but even my cherry tomatoes aren't ripening yet.

Arlene--feel your pain about the weeds. Simply can't keep up here. Worst part is we've not even gotten mulch down yet because our landscape guy is so far behind due to all of the rain. My worst fear is they will show up unexpectedly and just mulch over the weeds.

Did harvest garlic today. Some of the heads had split due to all of the rain we've had, but still got many that looked OK. Glad I got them after we'd had a few dry days. More rain predicted this week. I think this is going to be the wettest summer on record.

Mary, it sounds like your garden is doing great ! I check on the Weather Channel website every now and then to see how your weather compares to mine, it doesn't look that much different... Good think we aren't in a competition with the southerners!!

Sandy, I can never keep ahead of the weeds, and all the rain just makes it worse.

@weedwhacker - Sandy Yes I make a huge batch and freeze them. You can put pretty much anything in egg rolls, so its a great way to use what ever needs to be harvested. It took me several hours just to get every thing cleaned, chopped and sautéed - I'll have to roll and fry them tomorrow, cause I am done for tonight. The filling tastes good though, lots of basil and ginger.

Problem is I only used 4 heads of the bok choy - they rest may end up on the compost pile (it has to many slug holes to give it away)

Linda, those bulbs that the cloves have split threir case/capsule are still perfectly fine. Those bulbs just wont' store as long. Use then first.

mom2goldens said:Rita--zucchini and basil go together beautifully. Just saute the zucchini in a little butter or olive oil, and sprinkle some sea salt and the fresh chopped basil right at the end. A few diced tomatoes, shallots or garlic would also go wonderfully in this. Keep it simple!

Thanks! Good to know. I guess you can tell that I grow the basil (this is my second year to grow it) but really I don't much know what to do with it. Honestly I mostly give it to my friends who always seem to need some.

Weedwhacker said:Chelle, I believe your mosquitoes have migrated to my yard... I'll be sending them back right away!

Thanks...but no! I just need a little break...okay?

I didn't fill hummer feeders today, so maybe some of those poor hungry things will migrate up your way to deal with them.

Just to remind Rita what she is missing. Morning harvest

We finally had 4 or 5 dry days in a row; should I dig my garlic now, or is it okay to wait? Will something go wrong with them if I wait too long?
Rains are supposed to begin again tomorrow.

It depends on the maturity of the plants, Chelle. Are the bottom half of the leaves brown and/or are the stems falling over (softnecks and Creoles)? You can carefully dig around a couple of the bulbs and see how large they are. If they look like they are a suitable size, dig away.

If you leave them too long, particularly with a lot of rain/watering, those cloves will expand so much that they will break the capsule/casing covering the bulbs. That doesn't harm the cloves but they just won't store as long when the capsule is broken. The flavor/pungency is fine though. That's really the only downside of leaving them too long in the ground. Of course, if you really leave them a long time and with lots of wetness, those bulbs could well rot.

farmerdill said:Just to remind Rita what she is missing. Morning harvest

• Eggplants (Solanum melongena)
• Uploaded by farmerdill

Okay, I gave you a thumbs up for that lovely batch of eggplants but I was also thinking unfair as I don't have any this year!!! I did mean to plant as least those small asian types but I got too carried away with my tomatoes this spring.

Actually last night I was thinking I had to do better next year and get to growing all things that I want to plant. I guess I could have set up more pots like I had last year and the year before.

Oh and I should have added I only have a suburban sized yard to work with. And besides the veggies I Have lots of shrubs and flowers here too. Place is jam packed.