Preserving

Sunday, July 14, 2013

What's Going on in the Garden July 14, 2013

The harvests are starting to pick up and so is the preserving! This week I harvested almost 2 lbs. of peppers. They consisted of Hot Hungarian, Hot Banana, Jalapeno & Sweet Hungarian. All of them were promptly pickled and stored in the refrigerator, since we are totally out of pickled peppers from last year.

I pickle my peppers using 4 parts of white vinegar to 1 part of water, boil, cool and then add peppers and store in the refrigerator. I also occasionally add some garlic.

The first Zucchini and Cucumbers of the season.
There will probably be two more zucchinis ready today at the plots.
 
I've been pulling more onions and starting the curing process.
These are some storage onions.....

and these are some more Walla Walla onions
My largest onion has been 11 oz!!!
 
Some of the Walla Walla onions have been chopped and frozen. They do not store very long and chopped sweet onions will sure come in handy over the winter!
 
We also harvested some more Sungold tomatoes and the first of the very few Carrots we will have this year, another head of Cauliflower and the last of the Broccoli sprouts. The Broccoli plants have been pulled and a bunch of Cauliflower plants that did not form heads. Hopefully the fall cauliflower will do better. There's one more head over at the plots that may be ready today or tomorrow.
 
The big news is that there's a Cherokee Purple Tomato out there that is half ripe......maybe Monday or Tuesday it will be ready!!!!!!
 
Tomorrow, Daphne at Daphne's Dandelions, will be hosting Harvest Monday. Hop on over there to see what's happening in gardens around the globe!
   

26 comments:

  1. That is a very large onion! we have some decent size as well but I'm letting them sit for a bit longer until they start falling on their own. And today also first time doing pickled peppers as well!

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    1. Jenny, I don't pull the onions until they fall either. I'm trying to harvest them as they fall since I planted so many of them!

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  2. look at those onions!!!! wow! great work! i just brought in some sweet hungarian peps and will pickle them in a little bit. yay summer! give that little inspector a boop right on his nose from me!

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    1. Thanks OFG, Do you believe that I planted 370 onions??? I will definitely give the inspector a boop for you.....he has days when he gets a lot of those!

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  3. Our harvesting is slowly picking up but at the moment it is mainly soft fruit and salads.

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    1. Slowly but surely....you'll soon have a nice variety coming from your garden!

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  4. It is great the harvest you are starting to get and that you got some pickled peppers done. We wait all winter for these wonderful times! It has been super hot here or so it seems to me when I want to work out in the garden! Nancy

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    1. Thanks Nancy, we sure do appreciate all the wonderful preserved veggies during the winter.

      It's definitely hot hot hot!!!

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  5. Robin,

    Nice looking onion harvest. I didn't plant Walla Walla onions myself, I planted the small cipollina's but none of them grew. My friend gave me Walla Walla and I have them drying outside. I'm thinking of making some onion powder with them.

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    1. Thanks Sandy, I think those Walla Wallas will make a fine onion powder! Sorry to hear about your failed onions. This is my best year ever for them!

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  6. Beautiful harvest! Do you start your onions with sets or transplants? They are a very nice size. Congrats on the Cherokee Purple turning, all my larger tomatoes are still green. Happy Gardening!

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    1. I start my onions from transplants. It's the only thing I buy since I've never had any success growing them from seed. I just picked that CP!!!

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    2. Soooooo jealous!!! Just curious when did you plant your tomato plants?

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    3. I plant 4 tomatoes in the home garden a few weeks earlier then the main planting at the plots. If I put them in real early, I use Kozy Koats to protect them from the frost. That way we always end up with eating tomatoes at the home garden much earlier then the plots.

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  7. Looks like your garden is doing well. I bet that first Cherokee Purple will be delicious! I love Cherokee Purples, but haven't grown them in awhile- I always have problems with them cracking and getting overrun with ants.

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    1. Hey Julie, yes the garden is doing quite well. It's so darn hot and humid though! I just picked that CP....yippee!!!!

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  8. Imagine harvesting all those peppers already! I bet you can't wait for that Cherokee purple. I don't even have any ripe cherry tomatoes yet, don't know what the hold-up is this year. Nice big onions you have there, it seems to be the year for them!

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    1. It's definitely the year of the onion! I think we will have enough for 2 years! We are eating that CP tonight!

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  9. Great onion harvest. Mine have another 2-3 weeks, but I did pull all of the garlic. And congrats on all those pickled peppers, a lot of work that will be appreciated this winter.

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    1. Thanks David! There's about 300 more onions out there! We sure are happy about the peppers!

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  10. I never thought of freezing onion, must do so instead of letting them rot, thanks for the idea.

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    1. Norma, Just cult them in to the size you will use for cooking and freeze! It's definitely better then letting them rot.

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  11. Every thing is looking great Robin!! I'm very jealous of your tomato! We are still a couple weeks away from the first sun sugars and a month at least for the first big ones!

    We usually freeze about half our onions as well, that way when the storage onions run out we still have plenty to last us till spring.

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    1. The wait will be worth it! We have had a couple of big ones so far!

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  12. Very nice! I wonder if my family would like pickled peppers. I'm not a pepper fan but they are. Looks like you got lots of good onions there.

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  13. pickling peppers is very easy. Give it a try....I'm sure your family will love them. Yes, it's going to be the year of the onion!

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