Well, I normally give some to family and friends...If I have an overabundance, I will wash it, slice it and freeze it...

LSS,

I am about to put a few peppers in my raised beds. I am not planning on tilling anything because I have other stuff growing up around them right now. I was wondering if adding any sand to each hole I dug would make any difference or not.

What say ye?

do you blanch it before you freeze it? Does that even matter?

I always freeze mine with some kind of tomato sauce. I add it to my homemade marinara, which I freeze in the summer, and make spaghetti primavera. Try stir frying it with peppers and onions, then add a stir fry sauce. The twice cooked pork sauce is good.

Coat in cornmeal batter and fry, bake whole or in a casserole and eat smaller ones raw in salads. I also try to pick the prettier ones ,let them mature then slice thin and air-dry for next year's seeds.

We batter and freeze our extra for frying and then when the freezer's got plenty of that we start giving away the surplus.



Here's a recipe I invented to use on some yellow squash.

Cut several yellow squash into 1/2" thick slices and throw them in a deep casserole dish.

Cut an equal amount of white onions into quarters and throw the whole quarters on top of the squash.

Take a pack of sliced bacon and cut the entire slab into 1" pieces. You'll wind up with 1" squares of bacon. Sprinkle the bacon on top of the other stuff and pop a lid on it.

Bake it at 375 for 35 to 45 minutes. Check and see if the bacon's cooked good and if it is pop the dish back in without the lid so the bacon gets crispy.

The bacon grease goes through the onions and into the squash and you just can't believe how good this stuff is. It's a stand alone so no sides needed. You'd think that this recipe would feed several folks, but no. Two people will eat the entire dish every time.

Enjoy.

Also, I never add salt or spices. The bacon and onion flavor the dish to perfection.

Yes it will make some difference...In some of the areas where I had too much gravel mixed in, I back-filled the rows with top soil I had purchased...

I will agree with MC, do NOT add salt to anything before freezing it, or it will dry it out...

No, I do not blanch...I simply wash them, let them air dry, then slice them. I take a ziploc bag, get it close to being sealed and stick in a straw. I then suck out the remaining air, seal it, and freeze it...It's my own redneck vacuum sealer...

I do the same thing, just without the straw. Zip it up until there's about enough left to stick your finger through, pinch it with both hands to make the opening stay, and bottabing.

Oh, strawberries! The strawberry plants from last year are several times larger and we've pulled about 2 dozen so far. The ones we've gotten have been small, but they're starting to get bigger. We moved them to an old oval shaped wash tub and the whole setup is real nice. It pretties up the front yard.

Also, there's two little grape tomatoes already. During the summer we keep a plate on the counter in the kitchen and EVERYBODY snacks on them. Good stuff.

...and the zucchini's flowering.

I have lots of tomatoes. The squash and cucumbers are starting to come on...I also noticed a few small cayenne peppers today...

My squash has taken off faster and earlier than any of my other plants so far. It's growing like crazy.

What do you guys mean when you talk about spanking your tomatoes? Mine are growing tall and leafy, but are only producing just a few so far.

I also need major help with my strawberry plants. I have them planted in containers hanging from my fence so they don't touch the ground. But they are getting full sun. Do I need to move them to shade or what?

This is our first attempt at gardening and it is so much fun that I go out and "check" on everything twice a day.

I can't tell you about the strawberries, but can explain the 'spanking' of one's tomato plants...

I go out and give mine a good shake (not so hard as to break anything, but to give a good vibrating jolt)...This will help the plants pollinate...Now I have over 100 tomato plants, and I dance at retirement homes for older ladies in the evening so I'm a bit too busy for the other way...However, you can also thump the back of each yellow flower when they are showing and help get the pollination process on the road...

Also, congratulations on starting a garden...My mom and grandfather started us on gardening when I was 4. I can only remember a couple of years where we didn't have a garden of some sort growing...It's a good hobby...

It is a good hobby. I find myself thinking about the dang thing, while I am at work. truthfully, I am thinking, "I wonder if i could make a living as farmer or produce man". Probably not.

I don't spank the plants. What I do, I call diddling (vulgar, I know ). Diddling is when you go to a flower cluster and cup your fingers around it and twiddle your fingers. After you do do the first cluster, go to the next, and on and on until you've diddled every flower cluster, then got back to the first one and diddle it. The result is that you pollenate the flowers and almost every one will fruit.

Is this perverse? Maybe. But the maters will be worth the act. Just try not to think about how your act helped father the maters and you'll have no problem eating them.

My Red Norland potato plant was totally brown so I dumped the container yesterday only to find 6 taters. I was sure there would be more. I ammended the soil and planted some beans.

Also, I 'planted' some fish under my squash plants that are starting to turn brown and I started my early morning watering routine per LSS.

I could probably look back on this thread to find out when I 'planted' fish under the maters but I'm lazy. Anyway, since I did that the tomatoes have grown more than a foot, probably closer to two feet. My sweet 100 is darn near as tall as the peas that are still going nuts by the way. Fresh peas for a snack today!

Glad to read your tomatoes are doing well...As the plants get larger, you'll need to increase the watering just a bit...Like 1 or 2 seconds more per plant...Since you have a smaller garden, one thing you could do is get a board, nail some big nails through it and then aerate the ground around the plants with it...

One thing to keep in mind, ESPECIALLY with the high winds, wind can be very drying and you may need to water more to counteract it...I had to turn on the sprinklers for the first time this year, after hand watering the garden, so it could soak into the ground...The 30 and 45 mph winds the day before dried my garden...

Good info..

Something I forgot to mention... When I was digging down to 'plant' my fish yesterday, I noticed the first 2-4 inches of soil was dry to semi-moist then the next say 6 inches was moist but not wet then at about 10" to a foot down the next 2 inches were pretty wet, like almost standing water wet. My beds have probably 14 inches of soil total. The last time I watered before that was Friday (light watering) and we got only a sprinkling of rain saturday night. Is this something I should be concerned with?

If you're referring to the standing water, not really...Very few vegetable plants have a long tap root...Most are less than 4 inches in length...Just continue the watering and watch the winds and temp...Both can affect the watering needs of the plants...Also, high nitrogen can be very drying, so watch the ground...You seem to have a good idea of how your garden is doing and that's the first step...My family laughs at me because I know exactly how many plants I have, where they are and how many vegetables on the plants...I KNOW when I've been robbed by a squirrel, or human, of my vegetables...

I thought I had all the bases covered on the zuccs, but I've already started giving some away. I've read some recipes of dump cake made from zuccs. I might try that next.

I found a recipe in a cookbook called 'White Trash Cooking' (I don't remember which volume) for Squash Pie...I must admit, it was pretty tasty...