Just finished a batch of nectarine chutney. Nectarines were a good
price this week but not terribly ripe.

two squat wide-mouth pit jars
two 12 ounce jars
one 8 oz. jar

with about 4 ounces in a jar that will go in the refrigerator.

I think I'm done for the season but plan to make a batch of
Mexican-style pickled carrots for the refrigerator.

Our garden was not a success this year. The cucumber vines had some
kind of problem, maybe borers, that killed the plants early. Squash
has been so-so since our vacation. (They may have lacked water during
our vacation.) The heirloom tomatoes were obviously not vf resistent
but the cherry tomatoes and yellow pear tomatoes are starting to do well.

No apricots (and our neighbors don't have peaches or many apples.)
Last fall's very early freeze and our Mother's Day blizzard this spring
killed many trees, prevented bloom, and retarded leaf production on
many trees. Our honey locust was just a few days away from the chain
saw in late June when it burst into leaf. Makes me wonder how the early
settlers made it through the years.

As do most gardeners, we hope for better gardening luck next year.

gloria p

On 8/22/2015 5:53 PM, gloria p wrote:
>
>
> Just finished a batch of nectarine chutney. Nectarines were a good
> price this week but not terribly ripe.
>
> two squat wide-mouth pit jars
> two 12 ounce jars
> one 8 oz. jar
>
> with about 4 ounces in a jar that will go in the refrigerator.
We put up eighteen pints of fig jam this year, we planted the tree,
about three feet tall, in early 2013. Last year we got two pints, it did
well this year and then a contractor to the local MUD sprayed herbicides
behind our fence. Killed the sage, Russian tarragon, oregano, some
onions, and killed the top leaves on the fig tree. We're hoping it will
come back strong next year.
>
> I think I'm done for the season but plan to make a batch of
> Mexican-style pickled carrots for the refrigerator.
We and our great grands love pickled carrots, what makes them
Mexican-style, hot chiles?
>
> Our garden was not a success this year. The cucumber vines had some
> kind of problem, maybe borers, that killed the plants early. Squash
> has been so-so since our vacation. (They may have lacked water during
> our vacation.) The heirloom tomatoes were obviously not vf resistent
> but the cherry tomatoes and yellow pear tomatoes are starting to do well.
We had so many cukes we were giving them away to anyone who couldn't
hide from us. Squash, both zukes and yellow, gave us huge crops,
particularly the zukes. When we had the eighteen inches of rain in early
spring the zukes would jump from just a baby to three lbs in two days.
No seeds at all. The yellow squash didn't do that well but we still had
plenty. Tomatoes were prolific early on and then the stink bugs hit
them. Sweet chiles did very well early on and then the drought hit us
and everything went north. We are now getting a little rain regularly
but I don't think the tomatoes and chiles will come back. We had so much
eggplant coming in that we were giving them to anyone would take them
and we made fritters of the rest and froze them.
>
> No apricots (and our neighbors don't have peaches or many apples.)
> Last fall's very early freeze and our Mother's Day blizzard this spring
> killed many trees, prevented bloom, and retarded leaf production on
> many trees. Our honey locust was just a few days away from the chain
> saw in late June when it burst into leaf. Makes me wonder how the early
> settlers made it through the years.
>
> As do most gardeners, we hope for better gardening luck next year.
>
> gloria p
I wish we could grow peaches, apples, and apricots. Peach borers are
endemic here so not worth while, apricots and apples just don't do well
here because of the heat. Our pear tree had two pears on it this spring
and a strong wind blew them both off the tree and darned near blew the
tree over. We had to put in stakes and brace it from all four sides.
Hope still resides for a crop next year, I'm rapidly running out of pear
jelly from 2012.

On 8/22/2015 5:25 PM, George Shirley wrote:
> On 8/22/2015 5:53 PM, gloria p wrote:
>>

>>
>> I think I'm done for the season but plan to make a batch of
>> Mexican-style pickled carrots for the refrigerator.

> We and our great grands love pickled carrots, what makes them
> Mexican-style, hot chiles?

Yes.


> I wish we could grow peaches, apples, and apricots. Peach borers are
> endemic here so not worth while, apricots and apples just don't do well
> here because of the heat.


Biologist daughter in California says stone fruit and apples don't do
well unless they undergo very cold temperatures in winter.

gloria p

On Sat, 22 Aug 2015 16:53:58 -0600, gloria p >
wrote:

>
>
>Just finished a batch of nectarine chutney. Nectarines were a good
>price this week but not terribly ripe.
>
>two squat wide-mouth pit jars
>two 12 ounce jars
>one 8 oz. jar
>
>with about 4 ounces in a jar that will go in the refrigerator.
>
>I think I'm done for the season but plan to make a batch of
>Mexican-style pickled carrots for the refrigerator.
>
>Our garden was not a success this year. The cucumber vines had some
>kind of problem, maybe borers, that killed the plants early. Squash
>has been so-so since our vacation. (They may have lacked water during
>our vacation.) The heirloom tomatoes were obviously not vf resistent
>but the cherry tomatoes and yellow pear tomatoes are starting to do well.
>
>No apricots (and our neighbors don't have peaches or many apples.)
>Last fall's very early freeze and our Mother's Day blizzard this spring
>killed many trees, prevented bloom, and retarded leaf production on
>many trees. Our honey locust was just a few days away from the chain
>saw in late June when it burst into leaf. Makes me wonder how the early
>settlers made it through the years.
>
>As do most gardeners, we hope for better gardening luck next year.
>
>gloria p


Amen.

Boron Elgar wrote:
> gloria p wrote:
>
>>Last fall's very early freeze and our Mother's Day blizzard this spring
>>killed many trees, prevented bloom, and retarded leaf production on
>>many trees. Our honey locust was just a few days away from the chain
>>saw in late June when it burst into leaf. Makes me wonder how the early
>>settlers made it through the years.

some didn't, but i think things are a lot different
when you know how to hunt and gather vs. what most
people do today (go to the store). most gardeners these
days are not relying upon their gardens for their whole
diet, settlers had chickens, cows, horses, goats, pigs,
and likely also had a wider diversity of garden plants,
if some failed they still had others to take up the slack,
they also smoked, salted, dried to preserve extra food
any scraps went to the pigs/chickens as those are good
converters of scraps to meat/fat. which is also vastly
unlike current times where most people throw out their
scraps.


>>As do most gardeners, we hope for better gardening luck next year.
>
> Amen.

Gloria, it seemed that every time i looked at the weather
this past spring and early summer there was plenty of rain
in eastern Colorado. are you further up into the mountains
and missed out on that?

this season has been mostly decent here. the large
tomatoes are getting the usual late season blight, but
the cherry tomatoes always do ok. about the only thing
that's interrupted a few plants was a hailstorm which
did some damage to some fruits/veggies/plants, but
otherwise i'm still picking japanese beetles off the
wild grape vine as often as i can get out to do it (which
keeps a lot of them from getting onto the beans) and
also scanning the beans for the ones that do cross-over.

we've had good rains, regularly spaced so that i'm not
having to water much at all (saves a lot of time), a few
really hot days of high humidity, but we are now on the
downswing for temperatures for the rest of the season.
should be near perfect weather for gardening at least for
several days this week (mid-70s, sunny). things are
coming along. hard to believe that we'll be getting some
frosts within another 30 or so days. it's been going by
way too fast for me...


songbird

On 8/23/2015 8:37 AM, songbird wrote:
> Boron Elgar wrote:
>> gloria p wrote:
>>
>>> Last fall's very early freeze and our Mother's Day blizzard this spring
>>> killed many trees, prevented bloom, and retarded leaf production on
>>> many trees. Our honey locust was just a few days away from the chain
>>> saw in late June when it burst into leaf. Makes me wonder how the early
>>> settlers made it through the years.
>
> some didn't, but i think things are a lot different
> when you know how to hunt and gather vs. what most
> people do today (go to the store). most gardeners these
> days are not relying upon their gardens for their whole
> diet, settlers had chickens, cows, horses, goats, pigs,
> and likely also had a wider diversity of garden plants,
> if some failed they still had others to take up the slack,
> they also smoked, salted, dried to preserve extra food
> any scraps went to the pigs/chickens as those are good
> converters of scraps to meat/fat. which is also vastly
> unlike current times where most people throw out their
> scraps.
>
>
>>> As do most gardeners, we hope for better gardening luck next year.
>>
>> Amen.
>
> Gloria, it seemed that every time i looked at the weather
> this past spring and early summer there was plenty of rain
> in eastern Colorado. are you further up into the mountains
> and missed out on that?
>
> this season has been mostly decent here. the large
> tomatoes are getting the usual late season blight, but
> the cherry tomatoes always do ok. about the only thing
> that's interrupted a few plants was a hailstorm which
> did some damage to some fruits/veggies/plants, but
> otherwise i'm still picking japanese beetles off the
> wild grape vine as often as i can get out to do it (which
> keeps a lot of them from getting onto the beans) and
> also scanning the beans for the ones that do cross-over.
>
> we've had good rains, regularly spaced so that i'm not
> having to water much at all (saves a lot of time), a few
> really hot days of high humidity, but we are now on the
> downswing for temperatures for the rest of the season.
> should be near perfect weather for gardening at least for
> several days this week (mid-70s, sunny). things are
> coming along. hard to believe that we'll be getting some
> frosts within another 30 or so days. it's been going by
> way too fast for me...
>
>
> songbird
>
We had mucho rain early in the year and now are getting sporadic rain
storms coming off the Gulf, this past week we got a little over three
inches, which helped the gardens and lawn immensely. Plus moderating the
heat from the low one hundreds down to the low eighties.

Most of the spring/summer garden is gone but we did put a lot of chopped
sweet chiles in the freezer plus tons of eggplant fritters, zucchini,
both shredded and in fritters, and at least three one gallon bags of
washed and dried whole tomatoes for winter use. Of course when thawed
they will just be skin, pulp, and liquid. Skin goes to the composter,
the rest gets made into good things to eat. Both freezers are completely
full now and we're almost ready to amend the garden beds for the fall
crop with hopes of getting enough to preserve.

George

On 8/23/2015 7:37 AM, songbird wrote:
> Boron Elgar wrote:
>> gloria p wrote:
>>
>>> Last fall's very early freeze and our Mother's Day blizzard this spring
>>> killed many trees, prevented bloom, and retarded leaf production on
>>> many trees. Our honey locust was just a few days away from the chain
>>> saw in late June when it burst into leaf. Makes me wonder how the early
>>> settlers made it through the years.

>
>
>>> As do most gardeners, we hope for better gardening luck next year.
>>
>> Amen.
>
> Gloria, it seemed that every time i looked at the weather
> this past spring and early summer there was plenty of rain
> in eastern Colorado. are you further up into the mountains
> and missed out on that?
>

No, we're in southeast Denver suburbs.

We had loads of rain in the form of thunderstorms most afternoons.
It was a cooler-than-usual summer until a week or so ago when the rain
stopped and it got hot. Although some of my neighbors do have successful
gardens most of the time because they are sheltered, ours isn't.

Another problem we have here is that the temperatures drop 20+ degrees
as soon as the sun sets. We don't have consistent night temps in the
60s until July. Good for sleeping, bad for tomatoes setting fruit.

We also have a short season, snow/frost as late as late May and as early
as the first week in September some years.

We also have become older and creaky and less motivated to work on
gardening.

gloria p