Man that looks good. Wish Monsanto could make us a sausage bush. I really think they aren't trying hard enough. A bacon tree would be nice too.

I think I planted my corn too thick.

Haha I would say so. Your truck must have good hearing because it sure has a lot of ears.

Isn't that acorn squash in the milk crate? How does it taste

That's what we call patty pan. It's pretty good. I like it best sliced thin,battered,and fried. It's is pretty close to fried green tomatoes.

We gave away a lot of that corn then put up 30 dozen ears in the freezer.

And having another spring where I'm reminded of why I give up on gardening. I haven't gotten one tomato or zucchini yet.

I am overloaded with tomatoes, but my squash has been pitiful. I'm not sure what caused it, but I had plants with almost exclusively male blooms this year. Very odd. The yellow squash did better, however. I still only ended up with about 20 squash off 36 plants. Sad.

My tomatoes are doing better this year than in the past few. I counted 35 tomatoes yesterday on only 4 bushes and some of those are almost fist sized. My cukes look great, with blooms everywhere, just no cukes to pickle yet. Seems almost like they aren't getting pollenated.

I've picked about 10 lbs. of Early Girls so far . The Celebrity , Roma and Cherry plants are loaded with green fruit as well as all the chilis ( except for the Tabasco ) .

I just picked my third yellow crookneck and they're already starting to get that "bumpy" look . Tennis ball size pumpkins , watermelons and cantalopes are evident but my cukes are only now starting to vine ( but they're covered with blooms) .

My thornless blackberries are finally turning black but they're almost bitter .

Strange year .

My pumpkins are basketball size. My cukes had poor germination but are trying to hold their own. My squash is doing fair to good. I'm hearing of an seeing a lot of people with male blooms only. I have sunflowers about to bloom that are 8-10' tall. Even though the green beans are blooming again I think they're about done. The peas are waist high and just started blooming. The corn is toast. The watermelons are football sized. The first planting of cantaloupes just about stunted out. I planted a second row and they are doing real good with some softball sized fruits on a 6-10 lb variety. The okra is about 1.5" tall.

Preserving Jalepenos?


I'm really starting to get japs going finally.

I want to jar candied japs.

What do I need to do to preserve them until I have enough to get them all jarred up?
Freeze? Whole/cuttup?
Put in a bowl of water in the fridge?


What about Okra, want to pickle them, just have them sitting in the fridge for now?

I wouldn't suggest freezing them before pickling/canning, fresh is best. I pickle okra just like cukes but always have enough fresh ones. You can leave them in the fridge for 2-3 days but they will probably begin to wilt after that. Same goes for the jalapenos except their shelf life is a little longer in the fridge than okra. I've canned those too. I do slices as well as whole jalapenos, even throw in a few carrots for good measure. I stuff the jar, pour the brine in the jar, add just a little bit of olive oil (maybe a teaspoon), then put the lids on lightly. Place them in boiling water till bubbles begin to appear in the jar and the jalapenos change to more of an olive color, remove, secure the lid tightly and your done. Some folks pour boiling brine into the jars then secure the lid, either method will work.

I got a mater problem. I am making beautiful red tomatoes....that the bottoms are rotted out of. I mean every single tomatoe. What causes this?

I'm having the same problem, but only on one plant. genetics? I don't know.

It's BER (blossom end rot). There is quite a bit of discussion about it a couple of pages back in this thread. You can also look it up online. Several causes, inconsistent watering, over-watering, nutrients, ph, etc. Almost too many variable to nail it down. I had 2 tomatoes with the same issue. Oddly enough, they were the first 2 to begin ripening this year. I counted almost 40 tomotoes on my plants yesterday with several beginning to turn yellow/orange (ripening) and none of them showed any signs of BER so maybe it's just the early ones. Good luck, I know it's frustrating.