What are you growing and cooking?

[DeniseM]

GROWING: It's Tomato Thursday! These are mostly Romas, which I will allow to completely ripen a few days on the counter and then dice them for the freezer. There are also some Early Girls on the bottom, and we will keep the best of them for fresh eating. The yellow pear cherry tomatoes are destined for snacking and salads. One nice thing about using the net bags over the tomatoes is that the skin comes out with no blemishes. I'm happy to say that we seemed to have arrested the calcium deficiency, too.

 

[DeniseM]

It is cool and a little breezy here at 5,000 feet on our patio in Reno, so I'm working outside this morning. * I was just eating a blueberry muffin out on the patio, and when I stepped inside for a moment, our resident blue jay helped himself to it!

GROWING: It's supposed to be 113º at home in Northern, CA this week, but I have my automatic sprinklers set on the raised beds, my shade cloth up, and my fingers crossed!

COOKING: Last night we had Mexican Lasagna, and a garden salad, with Apple Cherry Crumble, for dinner.

Mexican Lasagna

Ingredients
1 pound lean ground beef (I used ground turkey)
1 (1 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
1 (14 ounce) can peeled and diced tomatoes with juice (I used Rotel w/peppers & onions)
10 (6 inch) corn tortillas
1 cup prepared salsa
½ cup shredded Colby cheese (I used 1+ cups of cheese, and did 2 layers)
(I added a layer of my seasoned homemade refried beans)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown the ground beef, and stir in the taco seasoning and tomatoes. Line a 9x13-inch baking dish with half the tortillas. Spoon the beef mixture into the dish, then top with the remaining tortillas. Spread salsa over the tortillas and sprinkle with the cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 20 to 30 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

 

[slip]

Here's an update on my Greenstalk. Everything is growing well. We couldn't find any Strawberry starters so I will have to keep looking. Looks like one will pull through and maybe two.

Peppers are behind the Tomatoes but they were smaller to start with. I planted some Basil and Lettuce on Saturday so we'll see how those work out.

I cut up some Chicken Thighs and have them marinating in Teriyaki Sauce. We are just going to fry those and have them over Rice with Onions and Peas. Easy Peasy.

 

[DeniseM]

WOW! Your plants are ginormous!

 

[slip]

WOW! Your plants are ginormous!

Yes, I'm really happy I invested in the plant supports. I have over 30 Tomatoes on that top plant.

I still have to cut back that Sage too.

 

[AnnaS]

Besides missing my husband now so much - still can't wrap my head around it. Coming on three months and still cannot believe he is not here and won't be coming back. This is not for this post .

I will miss the vegetables he grew in our small back yard - some in soil and some in pots. Eggplants, peppers, basil, different tomatoes, Italian squash, zucchini, cucumbers, etc. I might attempt to grow some next year. Will have to search when to "plant".

Your vegetables are looking wonderful.

 

[amycurl]

*hugs you*, @AnnaS


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[AnnaS]

*hugs you*, @AnnaS


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thank you

 

[slip]

The Lettuce, Basil and Beans that I planted on Saturday are popping up already.

 

[amycurl]

I never try to grow from seed, but I do get small plant starts from our farmer's market and plant in pots on our porch. I've got a huge pot of orange mint at the base of the porch stairs--fully exposed to the elements--that I planted about two year ago and had been doing well early in the season. But it's been so dry here, and ungodly hot, that's it's starting to brown and die back. But my two pepper plants (banana and shishito,) and my rosemary (which didn't make it through the winter this year,) are still doing okay with periodic watering. My basil plants (Thai and what should have been Italian, but seems to be lemon basil instead,) seemed to be goners earlier in the season, but have recovered (esp. the Thai basil.) We'll see if they make in through the summer....

I stopped trying to grow tomatoes in the pots, because the squirrels here are a-holes and would take one bite and then drop them on the porch. Usually while looking at me through our glass front door. They don't seem to molest the peppers, so now I just rely on the tomatoes from our CSA.

 

[Brett]

I never try to grow from seed, but I do get small plant starts from our farmer's market and plant in pots on our porch. I've got a huge pot of orange mint at the base of the porch stairs--fully exposed to the elements--that I planted about two year ago and had been doing well early in the season. But it's been so dry here, and ungodly hot, that's it's starting to brown and die back. But my two pepper plants (banana and shishito,) and my rosemary (which didn't make it through the winter this year,) are still doing okay with periodic watering. My basil plants (Thai and what should have been Italian, but seems to be lemon basil instead,) seemed to be goners earlier in the season, but have recovered (esp. the Thai basil.) We'll see if they make in through the summer....

I stopped trying to grow tomatoes in the pots, because the squirrels here are a-holes and would take one bite and then drop them on the porch. Usually while looking at me through our glass front door. They don't seem to molest the peppers, so now I just rely on the tomatoes from our CSA.

I've also got squirrel problems, netting around the cages helps.

 

[DeniseM]

We're still as our home in Reno, where it is considerably cooler than northern CA! We have nice neighbors here, but one of them is an animal lover and she is feeding the PIGEONS! Now, her pigeons want to hang around our house too, which is so annoying! So we hired some security, and now we have a hawk or an owl on duty at all times. With our security force on the job, the pigeons do not land in our yard any more. Here's a picture of the hawk on duty and the owls taking a break. The blue jays and smaller birds (which we like) are smarter than the pigeons and are not fazed by our plastic security force.

 

[DeniseM]

I stopped trying to grow tomatoes in the pots, because the squirrels here are a-holes and would take one bite and then drop them on the porch.

When our tomato bushes were smaller we used the full size net bags and they worked great to keep critters out.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B51FTGZB?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

 

[Polly Metallic]

We start everything from seeds. Some survive some don’t all come up, but few things fail completely. So far doing well: winter squash, pumpkin, cabbage, leeks, carrots, romaine lettuce, potatoes, onions, garlic, peas. Tomatoes look hopeful. Heirloom “dent” corn from the 1700s that we brought home from Colonial Williamsburg a few weeks ago is doing well. We were overwhelmed with strawberries this year. Had decent black currants. The black raspberries are ripening now. Looks like another super productive year for our apple trees too. I think the grapes are going okay. I need to check for Japanese beetles. Ugh. Our elderberries are flowering currently. It’s been hotter than normal here in Western NY but the garden seems to like the mid 80s heat, and we haven’t watered anything since we’ve been getting consistent rain. The only issue is the weeds. They’re growing like . . . weeds. lol. Should have laid more weed cloth!

 

[b2bailey]

I thought fulfilling your request would be easy but it turns out most of my pics of our house are of plumbing in the slab or unfinished trim. Hopefully not hijacking the gardening thread but here are a few shots.

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Wow, just wow.

 

[slip]

Kim's Anthurium's are looking great too. We got the flag from Molokai Pizza when we ordered the July 4th Special. The flag took up resistance in her flower pot.

 

[DeniseM]

Owl on duty today - Mr. Blue Jay not impressed:

 

[DeniseM]

But a squirrel chirped at the owl for 5 min! Doesn't like it at all!

 

[slip]

Time for a Fresh Molokai Smoothie today.

Fresh Molokai Papayas, Fresh Molokai Bananas from WaveCrest, Fresh Molokai Ilikoi and the Best Molokai Honey. Awesome stuff!!

 

[DeniseM]

YUMMM! But it needs some rum!

 

[slip]

YUMMM! But it needs some rum!

Now you're talking.

 

[DeniseM]

We're back in "sunny" Northern CA, after 2 weeks in cooler Reno. Right now it's a cozy 106º at 6:15 pm, and it's supposed to be 112º tomorrow. I was really worried about my garden plants, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that nothing died, and most things grew like crazy. I have a lot of tomatoes and squash to harvest, but I'm going to get up real early tomorrow and beat the heat. I was the most concerned about my tomatoes in pots, but they are fine and the Early Girls are about 7 feet tall now! They are on the far end in this pictures:

 

[slip]

We're back in "sunny" Northern CA, after 2 weeks in cooler Reno. Right now it's a cozy 106º at 6:15 pm, and it's supposed to be 112º tomorrow. I was really worried about my garden plants, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that nothing died, and most things grew like crazy. I have a lot of tomatoes and squash to harvest, but I'm going to get up real early tomorrow and beat the heat. I was the most concerned about my tomatoes in pots, but they are fine and the Early Girls are about 7 feet tall now! They are on the far end in this pictures:

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Looks great and those are huge!! You can keep that heat though.

I made Tacos tonight and I was able to cut up some Cherry Tomatoes for them.

 

[DeniseM]

I got out in the garden at 6 am this morning to beat the heat and picked a lot of tomatoes and overgrown squash! The yellow squash are supposed to be the smooth skinned yellow crookneck squash (according to the tag) but they are either a different variety, or the original start was crossed with a gourd - I don't have any gourds. Has anyone ever grown these?

 

[DeniseM]

Cooking this week: Homemade - BBQ style ham and beans, potato salad, green salad*, grilled pork chops, grilled chicken thighs, grilled turkey cheese burgers, and fresh steams broccoli. *Made from our homegrown lettuce, marinated cubed raw zucchini, tomatoes, and wax peppers. NOT using the oven when it's 110+!

Growing: Today the Strawberry planter (Green Stalk) moved to it's 3rd home, and I think it will stay there until next spring. With our crazy 110º+ temps lately, it was just getting fried out in the sun, and it hasn't had any blooms for a month. I've given up on getting more strawberries, and now I'm just trying to maintain healthy plants for next season. We moved it to a shady covered patio off our dining room, and it only gets sun until about 11 am. There is often a nice breeze flowing through this patio, too. After our 2 week trip to Reno, I came home and found the strawberries covered with runners - some plants had as many as 6 runners! So I trimmed most of the runners off, and stuck 1 or 2 into each pocket, to grow some more plants. Even though I ordered "ever bearing strawberries," I'm convinced that they sent me "June bearing," and since I was cutting the blossoms off for most of June, as recommended for new starts, I got fewer than 10 strawberries - disappointing! They strawberries can winter-over tucked into the corner of this patio, since we seldom get freezing temps. Hopefully, they will be more successful next spring.