Put up three more jars of dilly beans and another jar of dilly carrots
today. The tiny carrots were the thinnings of the carrot bed and the
beans were just a few days production out of the bean row. If we don't
get some more rain pretty soon we won't have much of a garden as we are
on water rationing in our city now.

Also have bun tray of pesto, covered in plastic wrap, in the freezer.
Once it is frozen solid I will cut it into squares with the pizza cutter
and then vacuum seal each square in a bag. There are two trays of
fernleaf dill dehydrating that I just started and there is plenty more
in the herb garden. I do like fernleaf dill for making dill pickles of
any type as they add an extra dimension to the attractiveness of the
product. This batch of dilly's has both garlic and baby onions in it. We
had the onions and I thought, what the hey! We shall see when we taste
test in three weeks.

Have much more dill, basil, oregano, and Mexican Mint Marigold to
harvest. The yellow squash are about done, thank goodness, as we are
rapidly getting tired of them. I'm seriously thinking of making a batch
of pickles with some of them. Did a fresh pickle for Memorial Day with
cukes, onions, squash, garlic, and a 50:50 blend of 5% white vinegar and
water. Came out nice with just a couple of days soak in the refrigerator
and all enjoyed them.

Our Memorial Day dinner was Sunday as our daughter and her husband came
over that morning and left Monday morning. I grilled four nice ribeye
steaks, the ones I recently crowed about getting out of the "used meat"
bin at Kroger. Their weight ranged from 1.1 pounds to 1.3 pounds and
they were very tasty. I grilled them to medium rare for the SIL and I
and to medium for the ladies. With them we had roasted red potatoes,
quartered, tossed in EVOO, some freshly ground pepper and sea salt
added, and some rosemary from the herb garden was put through the spice
grinder and then tossed with potatoes and EVOO. With that we had grilled
squash and eggplant. For dessert I had made a cheesecake and topped it
with crushed pineapple and flaked coconut. I think all enjoyed the meal.

Miz Anne finished this school year yesterday and is resting up at the
moment. The school year of 2010/2011 will be her last as she has made up
her mind to retire at that time. Going to be rough having her underfoot
all the time in MY house, getting in the way, sleeping late, expecting
me to cook for her at her choice of times. Bah! Humbug! Actually it will
be nice to have her around more often, the dog and I will do a happy
dance when it happens.

George Shirley wrote:
>
> Have much more dill, basil, oregano, and Mexican Mint Marigold to
> harvest. The yellow squash are about done, thank goodness, as we are
> rapidly getting tired of them. I'm seriously thinking of making a batch
> of pickles with some of them. Did a fresh pickle for Memorial Day with
> cukes, onions, squash, garlic, and a 50:50 blend of 5% white vinegar and
> water. Came out nice with just a couple of days soak in the refrigerator
> and all enjoyed them.


I just sowed basil seeds this morning, and have an oregano plant that
I bought yesterday and need to find a place for it.

You would not believe how much dill I hoed out of the garden yesterday
to make room -- it was painful to waste it. But I have no use for it
and it was taking completely over. (I left a few plants so I can cut
fresh sprigs, and so they can set seeds and shatter for next year)
Dill is hard to get started, but once you have it it reseeds itself to
the point of becoming a pest. At least up here it does.

You should see what happens if you let a few carrots go to seed.

Bob

On 6/1/2010 4:45 PM, zxcvbob wrote:
> George Shirley wrote:
>>
>> Have much more dill, basil, oregano, and Mexican Mint Marigold to
>> harvest. The yellow squash are about done, thank goodness, as we are
>> rapidly getting tired of them. I'm seriously thinking of making a
>> batch of pickles with some of them. Did a fresh pickle for Memorial
>> Day with cukes, onions, squash, garlic, and a 50:50 blend of 5% white
>> vinegar and water. Came out nice with just a couple of days soak in
>> the refrigerator and all enjoyed them.
>
>
> I just sowed basil seeds this morning, and have an oregano plant that I
> bought yesterday and need to find a place for it.
>
> You would not believe how much dill I hoed out of the garden yesterday
> to make room -- it was painful to waste it. But I have no use for it and
> it was taking completely over. (I left a few plants so I can cut fresh
> sprigs, and so they can set seeds and shatter for next year) Dill is
> hard to get started, but once you have it it reseeds itself to the point
> of becoming a pest. At least up here it does.
>
> You should see what happens if you let a few carrots go to seed.
>
> Bob

You get a flower that looks like Queen Anne's lace and the Monarch
butterflies love it just as much.

We have caterpillars here that eat dill, parsley, cilantro, etc. Miz
Anne knows what species of butterfly and/or moth they belong to but I
just see them as another thief that gets my groceries. Almost as bad as
squirrels, pigeons, redbirds, and grackles.

George Shirley wrote:
> On 6/1/2010 4:45 PM, zxcvbob wrote:
>> George Shirley wrote:
>>>
>>> Have much more dill, basil, oregano, and Mexican Mint Marigold to
>>> harvest. The yellow squash are about done, thank goodness, as we are
>>> rapidly getting tired of them. I'm seriously thinking of making a
>>> batch of pickles with some of them. Did a fresh pickle for Memorial
>>> Day with cukes, onions, squash, garlic, and a 50:50 blend of 5% white
>>> vinegar and water. Came out nice with just a couple of days soak in
>>> the refrigerator and all enjoyed them.
>>
>>
>> I just sowed basil seeds this morning, and have an oregano plant that I
>> bought yesterday and need to find a place for it.
>>
>> You would not believe how much dill I hoed out of the garden yesterday
>> to make room -- it was painful to waste it. But I have no use for it and
>> it was taking completely over. (I left a few plants so I can cut fresh
>> sprigs, and so they can set seeds and shatter for next year) Dill is
>> hard to get started, but once you have it it reseeds itself to the point
>> of becoming a pest. At least up here it does.
>>
>> You should see what happens if you let a few carrots go to seed.
>>
>> Bob
>
> You get a flower that looks like Queen Anne's lace and the Monarch
> butterflies love it just as much.
>
> We have caterpillars here that eat dill, parsley, cilantro, etc. Miz
> Anne knows what species of butterfly and/or moth they belong to but I
> just see them as another thief that gets my groceries. Almost as bad as
> squirrels, pigeons, redbirds, and grackles.


Wife loves Queen Anne's Lace, so I stuck a few grocery store carrots
in the ground a few years ago and let them bloom. Apparently
carrots really like it here, because they reseed almost as readily
as the dill -- except the resulting carrots are tough and white
instead of orange (they must have been hybrids, perhaps crossed with
QAL), and the second year when they bloom they get 6 feet tall.

Bob

On 6/1/2010 5:57 PM, zxcvbob wrote:
> George Shirley wrote:
>> On 6/1/2010 4:45 PM, zxcvbob wrote:
>>> George Shirley wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Have much more dill, basil, oregano, and Mexican Mint Marigold to
>>>> harvest. The yellow squash are about done, thank goodness, as we are
>>>> rapidly getting tired of them. I'm seriously thinking of making a
>>>> batch of pickles with some of them. Did a fresh pickle for Memorial
>>>> Day with cukes, onions, squash, garlic, and a 50:50 blend of 5% white
>>>> vinegar and water. Came out nice with just a couple of days soak in
>>>> the refrigerator and all enjoyed them.
>>>
>>>
>>> I just sowed basil seeds this morning, and have an oregano plant that I
>>> bought yesterday and need to find a place for it.
>>>
>>> You would not believe how much dill I hoed out of the garden yesterday
>>> to make room -- it was painful to waste it. But I have no use for it and
>>> it was taking completely over. (I left a few plants so I can cut fresh
>>> sprigs, and so they can set seeds and shatter for next year) Dill is
>>> hard to get started, but once you have it it reseeds itself to the point
>>> of becoming a pest. At least up here it does.
>>>
>>> You should see what happens if you let a few carrots go to seed.
>>>
>>> Bob
>>
>> You get a flower that looks like Queen Anne's lace and the Monarch
>> butterflies love it just as much.
>>
>> We have caterpillars here that eat dill, parsley, cilantro, etc. Miz
>> Anne knows what species of butterfly and/or moth they belong to but I
>> just see them as another thief that gets my groceries. Almost as bad
>> as squirrels, pigeons, redbirds, and grackles.
>
>
> Wife loves Queen Anne's Lace, so I stuck a few grocery store carrots in
> the ground a few years ago and let them bloom. Apparently carrots really
> like it here, because they reseed almost as readily as the dill --
> except the resulting carrots are tough and white instead of orange (they
> must have been hybrids, perhaps crossed with QAL), and the second year
> when they bloom they get 6 feet tall.
>
> Bob

Most modern varieties of carrots are hybrids and they all tend to go
back to the original carrot, which looks more like a parsnip than a carrot.

The purple and green colored eggplant are not the original, the original
was actually white and about the size of an egg.

"George Shirley" > wrote in message
...
> Put up three more jars of dilly beans and another jar of dilly carrots
> today. The tiny carrots were the thinnings of the carrot bed and the beans
> were just a few days production out of the bean row. If we don't get some
> more rain pretty soon we won't have much of a garden as we are on water
> rationing in our city now.


Y'all are making me so jealous. We have had so much rain this spring that
getting the garden planted has been a hard thing. My tomato plants stayed
in the house so long because first, it took forever for the temperature to
even be warm enough to set them outside and not worry about frost. Same
with the pepper plants. The tomatoes didn't look so great when they were
first planted, but are finally greening up. Pepper plants have blossoms.
My husband just got the green beans and peas planted. This weekend we'll
plant the squash, lettuce and spinach.

The only canning I'm doing is stuff out of the freezer. Took yet another
turkey out and roasted it on Monday and had sandwiches, made bone soup
Tuesday and today all the leftovers were chunked up, put in pint jars and
canned. I got nine pints total (it was about a 22-pound bird).

Oh, and I'll gladly send you some of our rain. We have so much that last
night we were on flood watch for many of the region's rivers.

--
-Marilyn