Ok, what do I do now?????? I swear, down here, you put it in the
ground and it grows and grows and grows...

I now have zucchini daily (and am picking it tiny, breading and frying
it and having it with lemon), got 10 cukes today of varying sizes and
the tomatoes are not far behind.

I got a late start. sigh I don't have any peppers yet but they are
blooming, the melons are blooming and the eggplants are as well.
Didn't get any green beans in, alas. Can I still plant those and just
have a late crop?

I didn't HAVE a garden in time to plant when I should have so I've got
the hot weather stuff producing and am starting to think about
planting for fall harvest soon.

This zone 8 thing is all new to me! I'm going to have enough stuff to
put up for an army.

So, what do I do with all this bounty that is about to happen? I know
I preserve it but what recipes are favorites for zukes, cukes and
tomatoes????? I'd prefer to start with the fairly safe ones as I've
not canned nor pickled for years and years and... Oh, I can't be
that old!

Loki

Loki wrote:

Ok, what do I do now?????? I swear, down here, you put it in the
ground and it grows and grows and grows...

I now have zucchini daily (and am picking it tiny, breading and frying
it and having it with lemon), got 10 cukes today of varying sizes and
the tomatoes are not far behind.

I got a late start. sigh I don't have any peppers yet but they are
blooming, the melons are blooming and the eggplants are as well.
Didn't get any green beans in, alas. Can I still plant those and just
have a late crop?

I didn't HAVE a garden in time to plant when I should have so I've got
the hot weather stuff producing and am starting to think about
planting for fall harvest soon.

This zone 8 thing is all new to me! I'm going to have enough stuff to
put up for an army.

So, what do I do with all this bounty that is about to happen? I know
I preserve it but what recipes are favorites for zukes, cukes and
tomatoes????? I'd prefer to start with the fairly safe ones as I've
not canned nor pickled for years and years and... Oh, I can't be
that old!

Loki


You can almost plant green beans year-round. (OK, in the winter you'd
have to plant peas instead of beans)

It's not too late to plant them now, or you can wait until August or
early September, after the borers kill your zukes, and plant the beans
where the zukes were for a fall crop.

Best regards,
Bob

Loki ) writes:

So, what do I do with all this bounty that is about to happen?

One way to delay the problem for a few months is to get some livestock and
feed them on the surplus. The livestock will turn the bounty into
meat, maybe milk, and fertilizer. Well, maybe you are not too interested in
fertilizer. Milk can be further preserved my making cheese, putting off
consumption by a year. Meat can be frozen, dried, smoked, etc. Never do
today what you can put off until tomorrow.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network
homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm
warning: non-FreeNet email must have "notspam" in subject or it's returned

Loki wrote:
Ok, what do I do now?????? I swear, down here, you put it in the
ground and it grows and grows and grows...

I now have zucchini daily (and am picking it tiny, breading and frying
it and having it with lemon), got 10 cukes today of varying sizes and
the tomatoes are not far behind.
Zukes can be pickled in slices and can be made into a tasty relish. Run
over to Walmart and get the latest version of the Ball Blue Book. I've
even succesfully frozen zuke slices in vac bags and then added them to
stews and soups, same with eggplant slices. Moussaka freezes well too.

I got a late start. sigh I don't have any peppers yet but they are
blooming, the melons are blooming and the eggplants are as well.
Didn't get any green beans in, alas. Can I still plant those and just
have a late crop?
I think you're probably in zone 8, maybe 7. You can go to the USDA
website and put in your zip code and it will tell you. You're in Monroe
area right?

I didn't HAVE a garden in time to plant when I should have so I've got
the hot weather stuff producing and am starting to think about
planting for fall harvest soon.
I plant a second crop of green beans in August to carry through the mild
part of the winter down south of you.

This zone 8 thing is all new to me! I'm going to have enough stuff to
put up for an army.

Food bank, needy neighbors, Doc Charlie's patients, lots of people like
fresh produce.

So, what do I do with all this bounty that is about to happen? I know
I preserve it but what recipes are favorites for zukes, cukes and
tomatoes????? I'd prefer to start with the fairly safe ones as I've
not canned nor pickled for years and years and... Oh, I can't be
that old!

Loki

Ask some specifics Loki and this group will help you. Also a book
"Putting Food By" is good but I like the Ball Blue Book better myself.
If you have a Big Lots nearby they sell fruit jars and lids at cheaper
prices than any others I've found except for thrift stores and garage
sales. Hang in there, either the bugs will get their share or the
critters in the urban environment or the woods will get some of it.
We're having to pick tomatoes at the barely pink stage to get them
before the squirrels do.

Glad to hear you've settled into north Louisiana though.

George

On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 16:46:14 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:


Zukes can be pickled in slices and can be made into a tasty relish. Run
over to Walmart and get the latest version of the Ball Blue Book. I've
even succesfully frozen zuke slices in vac bags and then added them to
stews and soups, same with eggplant slices. Moussaka freezes well too.

And since my charming new (hey, it's not quite a year yet) husband is
of Greek extraction that would be most appropriate. I even have his
mother's recipe. grin Ok, so I have her personal three volume
family cookbook. Yes, three volumes of family recipes. Yikes! Talk
about intimidating a new bride...

I think you're probably in zone 8, maybe 7. You can go to the USDA
website and put in your zip code and it will tell you. You're in Monroe
area right?

Yep, zone 8. I did check. I don't find the local extension office a
lot of help, I must admit. I'm out in the boonies and not a farmer.
LOL.

I plant a second crop of green beans in August to carry through the mild
part of the winter down south of you.

Good. I will probably go put in a row or three this week then. I'm
accustomed to gardening in the intensive manner but the guy who did
the garden for me (disabilities suck) did it the old way with long,
raised rows. I have a two acre lot so space is not a problem for the
first time in my life and my usual method of vertical gardening does
not seem to be necessary. Well, not this year anyway.

Food bank, needy neighbors, Doc Charlie's patients, lots of people like
fresh produce.

Yeah, I could show up at the ER with food. LOL. He's not in private
practice these days so I'm a little limited but generally food in the
ER is greeted cheerfully. That *is* an option. The neighbors are all
trying to dump food on me...

I do think I'll go see if we have a local food bank that will take
extra produce though. Heck, if we do, I'll plant more for them!

Ask some specifics Loki and this group will help you. Also a book
"Putting Food By" is good but I like the Ball Blue Book better myself.
If you have a Big Lots nearby they sell fruit jars and lids at cheaper
prices than any others I've found except for thrift stores and garage
sales. Hang in there, either the bugs will get their share or the
critters in the urban environment or the woods will get some of it.
We're having to pick tomatoes at the barely pink stage to get them
before the squirrels do.

I am losing my tomatoes to them, I know. I got the first cherry
tomato today before they found it! Well, probably not THE first, but
the first one *I* saw.

I grabbed your sweet pickle recipe. I'm going to try that later in
the week when those little cukes that were *everywhere* today are a
bit bigger. I've got a bunch of jars from last year when I didn't
manage to get the garden in but my loving husband wanted to be sure I
had enough jars for the produce I hadn't grown yet. grin I will
check out Big Lots though. We have one in Monroe. I know I'm going
to run out of quart jars. I didn't plan on needing a lot of those.

Is this blue book different from the one last year? I have that one.
It's just been sooooooo long since I even did jelly that I feel like a
newbie at it. I don't have any family recipes at all and am wondering
which ones folks here like best that are in the ball blue book? There
are a lot and I don't know where to start!

I know I want to do sweet pickles. Chuck does not like dill pickles
(or pickles at all) so I will limit my pickles to just the sweet ones.
What else do folks do with cukes?

I make them up with onions in a vinegar, water, sugar mix and eat
those every day with cheese and bread for lunch. I also do a Thai
stir fry with cukes, tomatoes and scallions (and some beef) that is
wonderful and I can eat every day too. But, Chuck is home a few days
a week so I need more ideas.

I want to do tomato sauce, tomato paste (if that's possible), tomato
juice (not much, but I use it in marinades so some), crushed tomatoes,
diced tomatoes, whole tomatoes, spaghetti sauce (will freeze that),
and whatever else folks here recommend. I didn't get my Principe
borghese tomatoes in this year so I won't do sun dried tomatoes but
next year I plan to. Well, oven dried, I think it's too humid here to
let the sun do the work.

I suppose I'll make this a trial year for a lot of things.

Oh, and the HUGE fig tree is loaded as is the neighbor's that hangs
over our fence. Those will be ripe soon so fig jam/preserves/whatever
but what else?

Glad to hear you've settled into north Louisiana though.

Well, sorta. See, there is this lack of animal control (complete
lack) and this excess of stray dogs and well, I can't stand to see a
stray hungry or sick or anything so we now have 8 dogs and adding
more. I'm the new Humane Society down here. We currently have 2 labs
(one black, one cream), one golden retriever, and one tiny spaniel up
for adoption. There rest are my own dogs.

Poor Chuck is a cat person. He *must* love me.

No, settled does not describe my life. laugh

Loki

On 13 Jun 2005 21:15:26 GMT, (William R.
Watt) wrote:


Loki ) writes:

So, what do I do with all this bounty that is about to happen?

One way to delay the problem for a few months is to get some livestock and
feed them on the surplus. The livestock will turn the bounty into
meat, maybe milk, and fertilizer. Well, maybe you are not too interested in
fertilizer. Milk can be further preserved my making cheese, putting off
consumption by a year. Meat can be frozen, dried, smoked, etc. Never do
today what you can put off until tomorrow.

Oh dear. I almost got chickens this spring. Chuck talked me out of
it.

And while I *could* keep livestock despite living within city limits,
I really don't have room once I make room for all the dogs...

Loki

On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 15:14:25 -0500, zxcvbob
wrote:

You can almost plant green beans year-round. (OK, in the winter you'd
have to plant peas instead of beans)

It's not too late to plant them now, or you can wait until August or
early September, after the borers kill your zukes, and plant the beans
where the zukes were for a fall crop.

Or both. Yeah, I like both. And peas. Yep, that's a plan.

Territorial Seeds winter catalog showed up this week. They have some
long maturing types that should give me a harvest all winter long of
things like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, etc. Should be
interesting.

I can just see me canning all winter long.

Loki

Loki wrote:

Oh, and the HUGE fig tree is loaded as is the neighbor's that hangs
over our fence. Those will be ripe soon so fig jam/preserves/whatever
but what else?


I thought Pickled Figs were way too sweet, too mushy, and a general waste of
boiling water.

Glad to hear you've settled into north Louisiana though.

Ditto. I'm here in zone 7 myself, we're about the same latitude but I'm 4,000
feet up. I do well planting my dill in February and freezing fronds & tops
till the cukes on the farms are available.Plant a bay leaf tree if you can. I
have a crafter that buys my excess branches. A leaf in your shoe is supposed
to draw money to you!

Well, sorta. See, there is this lack of animal control (complete
lack) and this excess of stray dogs and well, I can't stand to see a
stray hungry or sick or anything so we now have 8 dogs and adding
more. I'm the new Humane Society down here. We currently have 2 labs
(one black, one cream), one golden retriever, and one tiny spaniel up
for adoption. There rest are my own dogs.
Poor Chuck is a cat person. He *must* love me.
No, settled does not describe my life. laugh
Loki

Goddess bless all of you. But be careful y'all don't get overrun!
Edrena, cat mama

Loki wrote:

And since my charming new (hey, it's not quite a year yet) husband is
of Greek extraction that would be most appropriate. I even have his
mother's recipe. grin Ok, so I have her personal three volume
family cookbook. Yes, three volumes of family recipes. Yikes! Talk
about intimidating a new bride...

Just look at the pages that are most stained/crinkled first.... those
are the favorite recipes.

B/

Loki wrote:
On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 16:46:14 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:



Zukes can be pickled in slices and can be made into a tasty relish. Run
over to Walmart and get the latest version of the Ball Blue Book. I've
even succesfully frozen zuke slices in vac bags and then added them to
stews and soups, same with eggplant slices. Moussaka freezes well too.


And since my charming new (hey, it's not quite a year yet) husband is
of Greek extraction that would be most appropriate. I even have his
mother's recipe. grin Ok, so I have her personal three volume
family cookbook. Yes, three volumes of family recipes. Yikes! Talk
about intimidating a new bride...

I defrosted the freezer yesterday and ran upon four of the eleven
moussaka I put up in 2003. I make them up in throwaway aluminum pans and
then vacuum seal them. Thaw completely, whip up the necessary egg stuff,
then make the bechamel sauce to go on top and toss in the oven until
done. No family recipes but a neat little paperback I bought in Athens
in 1985 for about one US dollar, title is "A Bunch of Greek Recipes."


I think you're probably in zone 8, maybe 7. You can go to the USDA
website and put in your zip code and it will tell you. You're in Monroe
area right?


Yep, zone 8. I did check. I don't find the local extension office a
lot of help, I must admit. I'm out in the boonies and not a farmer.
LOL.


I plant a second crop of green beans in August to carry through the mild
part of the winter down south of you.


Good. I will probably go put in a row or three this week then. I'm
accustomed to gardening in the intensive manner but the guy who did
the garden for me (disabilities suck) did it the old way with long,
raised rows. I have a two acre lot so space is not a problem for the
first time in my life and my usual method of vertical gardening does
not seem to be necessary. Well, not this year anyway.

Wow, 2 acres, you could plant fruit trees, they do well in your area,
grapes or muscadines, kiwi, lots of stuff that doesn't require a lot of
work but provides outstanding foods for later use.


Food bank, needy neighbors, Doc Charlie's patients, lots of people like
fresh produce.


Yeah, I could show up at the ER with food. LOL. He's not in private
practice these days so I'm a little limited but generally food in the
ER is greeted cheerfully. That *is* an option. The neighbors are all
trying to dump food on me...

Since most of the folks, at least around here, that use the ER are the
poor ones who can't afford doctors they probably would appreciate some
free food.

I do think I'll go see if we have a local food bank that will take
extra produce though. Heck, if we do, I'll plant more for them!

A number of folk on this newsgroup and many on rec.gardens do just that.


Ask some specifics Loki and this group will help you. Also a book
"Putting Food By" is good but I like the Ball Blue Book better myself.
If you have a Big Lots nearby they sell fruit jars and lids at cheaper
prices than any others I've found except for thrift stores and garage
sales. Hang in there, either the bugs will get their share or the
critters in the urban environment or the woods will get some of it.
We're having to pick tomatoes at the barely pink stage to get them
before the squirrels do.


I am losing my tomatoes to them, I know. I got the first cherry
tomato today before they found it! Well, probably not THE first, but
the first one *I* saw.

I grabbed your sweet pickle recipe. I'm going to try that later in
the week when those little cukes that were *everywhere* today are a
bit bigger. I've got a bunch of jars from last year when I didn't
manage to get the garden in but my loving husband wanted to be sure I
had enough jars for the produce I hadn't grown yet. grin I will
check out Big Lots though. We have one in Monroe. I know I'm going
to run out of quart jars. I didn't plan on needing a lot of those.

Is this blue book different from the one last year? I have that one.
It's just been sooooooo long since I even did jelly that I feel like a
newbie at it. I don't have any family recipes at all and am wondering
which ones folks here like best that are in the ball blue book? There
are a lot and I don't know where to start!
Nope, you probably got the latest version, I think the latest is
copywrite date of 2003, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I know I want to do sweet pickles. Chuck does not like dill pickles
(or pickles at all) so I will limit my pickles to just the sweet ones.
What else do folks do with cukes?

I make a lot of sweet pickle relish straight from the BBB, lots of onion
and bell pepper in it, sorta looks like a jar of confetti. Our
descendants, kids, grands, and greatgrands, all love hot dogs with
pickle relish. Wife makes a lot of cold soup in the hot summer, big
batch of gazpacho made today, cukes, onions, and tomatoes from the
garden. One of the teachers at her school is retiring and a lot of them
are showing up to help her clean her classroom out tomorrow. Guess
what's for lunch?

I make them up with onions in a vinegar, water, sugar mix and eat
those every day with cheese and bread for lunch. I also do a Thai
stir fry with cukes, tomatoes and scallions (and some beef) that is
wonderful and I can eat every day too. But, Chuck is home a few days
a week so I need more ideas.

We like them done that way too, I toss in a couple cracked pepper corns
to add more flavor. Around the south that's known as a "fresh" pickle,
my old dad really loved that one.

I want to do tomato sauce, tomato paste (if that's possible), tomato
juice (not much, but I use it in marinades so some), crushed tomatoes,
diced tomatoes, whole tomatoes, spaghetti sauce (will freeze that),
and whatever else folks here recommend. I didn't get my Principe
borghese tomatoes in this year so I won't do sun dried tomatoes but
next year I plan to. Well, oven dried, I think it's too humid here to
let the sun do the work.

I've never tried to make tomato paste but made a bunch of "sun dried"
tomatoes one year in my dehydrator. Vac sealed them in quart jars, put
in the pantry, and took out as needed and resealed. Lasted about two
years IIRC.

I suppose I'll make this a trial year for a lot of things.

Oh, and the HUGE fig tree is loaded as is the neighbor's that hangs
over our fence. Those will be ripe soon so fig jam/preserves/whatever
but what else?

Fig wine ain't bad, got a Cajun friend makes a mess of that every year.
My whole family loves the jam/preserves, etc so much that they run
through a couple cases of pints every year from our tree.


Glad to hear you've settled into north Louisiana though.


Well, sorta. See, there is this lack of animal control (complete
lack) and this excess of stray dogs and well, I can't stand to see a
stray hungry or sick or anything so we now have 8 dogs and adding
more. I'm the new Humane Society down here. We currently have 2 labs
(one black, one cream), one golden retriever, and one tiny spaniel up
for adoption. There rest are my own dogs.

Don't feel bad, we have a leash law that applies to dogs and cats,
certain people in the community don't think it applies to their pets
though. Fellow across the street is one of them, he currently has 10
days to pay the fine for failing to leash his dog or they will put him
in jail with the dog. I think this is the third time they've taken dogs
away from him since he moved into the neighborhood about ten years ago.
Like you I have difficulties with folks who don't care about their
companion pets. Mine is a nine year old Rat Terrier who thinks she's the
alpha female around here and keeps rounding up the little grands and
greatgrands and makes them come in the house.

Poor Chuck is a cat person. He *must* love me.

No, settled does not describe my life. laugh

Loki

Hey, I've been with the same woman since June 1958, drug her all around
the world, lived in places genteel folks wouldn't live in at all and
she's stuck to me for all these years and keeps on smiling. If there's
someone for this old oilfield hand there's someone for everyone.

George

The Joneses wrote:

Loki wrote:


Oh, and the HUGE fig tree is loaded as is the neighbor's that hangs
over our fence. Those will be ripe soon so fig jam/preserves/whatever
but what else?



I thought Pickled Figs were way too sweet, too mushy, and a general waste of
boiling water.


Glad to hear you've settled into north Louisiana though.


Ditto. I'm here in zone 7 myself, we're about the same latitude but I'm 4,000
feet up. I do well planting my dill in February and freezing fronds & tops
till the cukes on the farms are available.Plant a bay leaf tree if you can. I
have a crafter that buys my excess branches. A leaf in your shoe is supposed
to draw money to you!


You would like it down here on the coast Edrena, I live at 27 feet above
sea level but bay trees grow wild in the area. What the local folk call
"bay galls" or "bay mottes" are just huge stands of bay trees. Reminds
me I need to plant my bay tree, it's been in a 15 gallon bucket for so
many years it's completely root bound.

Well, sorta. See, there is this lack of animal control (complete
lack) and this excess of stray dogs and well, I can't stand to see a
stray hungry or sick or anything so we now have 8 dogs and adding
more. I'm the new Humane Society down here. We currently have 2 labs
(one black, one cream), one golden retriever, and one tiny spaniel up
for adoption. There rest are my own dogs.
Poor Chuck is a cat person. He *must* love me.
No, settled does not describe my life. laugh
Loki


Goddess bless all of you. But be careful y'all don't get overrun!
Edrena, cat mama



George

"Loki" wrote in message
...
On 13 Jun 2005 21:15:26 GMT, (William R.
Watt) wrote:


Loki ) writes:

So, what do I do with all this bounty that is about to happen?

One way to delay the problem for a few months is to get some livestock
and
feed them on the surplus. The livestock will turn the bounty into
meat, maybe milk, and fertilizer. Well, maybe you are not too interested
in
fertilizer. Milk can be further preserved my making cheese, putting off
consumption by a year. Meat can be frozen, dried, smoked, etc. Never do
today what you can put off until tomorrow.

Oh dear. I almost got chickens this spring. Chuck talked me out of
it.

And while I *could* keep livestock despite living within city limits,
I really don't have room once I make room for all the dogs...

Loki


Don't listen to Chuck. Get the chickens. They're hardly any trouble if you
keep the predators fenced away from them. They don't say much, keep to
themselves, and will give you eggs that are way better than the local
grocery. You're in La. They'll eat your crawfish heads, too. Just my .02.

Garrett Fulton

On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 23:33:57 -0400, "Garrett Fulton"
wrote:

Don't listen to Chuck. Get the chickens. They're hardly any trouble if you
keep the predators fenced away from them. They don't say much, keep to
themselves, and will give you eggs that are way better than the local
grocery. You're in La. They'll eat your crawfish heads, too. Just my .02.

Well, maybe next year.

The problem right now is keeping the 8 dogs inside their fenced area
(the size of a normal home lot). They are escape artists and the four
smallest ones all seem to find ways out almost daily. Four smallest
defined as two in the 15-20 lb range and two weighing in at 30 pounds
each.

Once I get that take care of, I still have to deal with the neighbor
dogs. We have a leash law, it's just not enforced. Heck, even seeing
a collar on a dog is about a 50-50 shot.

Then there are the cats. What chance do the chickens have?

Loki - who would love to have fresh eggs

On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 00:06:29 GMT, The Joneses
wrote:

I thought Pickled Figs were way too sweet, too mushy, and a general waste of
boiling water.

The *idea* of pickled figs scares me.

Ditto. I'm here in zone 7 myself, we're about the same latitude but I'm 4,000
feet up. I do well planting my dill in February and freezing fronds & tops
till the cukes on the farms are available.Plant a bay leaf tree if you can. I
have a crafter that buys my excess branches. A leaf in your shoe is supposed
to draw money to you!

Where are you? I'd not thought of when to plant the dill or how to
hold it! That's a great idea and thanks for it.

And a bay tree! Wow, I'd LOVE one. Now, what is a good source for
one larger than a 4 inch pot? I'd not heard the leaf in the shoe
either and I'm generally up on such things. Thanks for that as well.

Goddess bless all of you. But be careful y'all don't get overrun!
Edrena, cat mama

smile She has blessed me in abundance. But then, I make sure I
honor her regularly. grin

Loki

On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 20:55:50 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:

You would like it down here on the coast Edrena, I live at 27 feet above
sea level but bay trees grow wild in the area. What the local folk call
"bay galls" or "bay mottes" are just huge stands of bay trees. Reminds
me I need to plant my bay tree, it's been in a 15 gallon bucket for so
many years it's completely root bound.

Ok, where do I find such trees??????

Loki - who just *has* to have one or more now!