A Nice Neighbor & A Bad Critter

The other day, I took my neighbor (the wine collector) three nice Heirloom Tomatoes....and look what he brought over

A bottle of wine! I'm thinking that I should just give them three at a time....maybe that way we can get stocked up in wine for the winter :)

This morning I went over to the plots. Of course, I didn't have my camera with me. I was just going to do a quick picking and get back home. It rained all day yesterday and we were supposed to have thunder storms off and on all day today. Well, I have a couple of plants that needed added support. Then I found that someone has been eating the bell peppers! Three of the ripe Pimento Peppers were completely eaten. There was nothing left but the tops on the plant. There were about a dozen more that were either completely eaten or mostly eaten! Then there were these

The pepper in the front is a Pimento. That one was not salvagable. The other peppers had just a little bite out of each one. Not all was lost. I gave these along with another 9 or so peppers to my mother in-law. She froze some and roasted the rest.

That critter also tried to eat 3 nice ripe cantaloupe! There were just a couple of teeth marks on them....so, I gathered them up and brought them home!

I did find the groundhog hole by the side of the cold frame. Now that I'm done doing the "can can" for the day, I have to go back over there and take care of that dang critter!

SVB Update

Last week I posted about SVB damage on the Spaghetti Squash vines at the home garden here. So far....so good!

This is the end of the vines where I found the damage. The vines still look great!

This is the other end of the vines growing like crazy! See that new little baby squash?

Here's another baby

This new one I hand pollinated this morning....just in case

and yet another!! Well, maybe I'll get my 6 or maybe even 7 squash after all!

My Grandmother's Canning Books

Since my rant yesterday regarding the poor quality of canning lids and bands today. I started rummaging through the box of old canning supplies that I have from my grandfather's house. I found 44 never used zinc/porcelain caps and boxes of unused rubber rings.

Then I decided that I would share some pictures of my grandmother's canning books. "The Italian" and I get such a kick out of them. I'm sure that you will too!

Click on the pictures to enlarge & read

This is the oldest book that I have © 1932

How about that statement ladies?

The next book is our favorite. The copyright is 1944 which is evident in it's contents.

Do you believe....10 cents!

The Victory Garden

How cool is all of that??? I hope that you all enjoyed this little bit of canning nostalgia!

Canning Lids and Bands

This is my first rant ever! What's with the lousey canning lids and bands? They use to be good (back when they were brass color) and lasted for years! The "new" rings are flimsy to say the least.....and this year I have already had 4 lids that didn't seal after processing!! What's with that??? I have been canning for many many years and have had very few lids that didn't seal! Last year I found some boxes of new lids in my basement that came out of my grandparents house. They had to be more then 20 years old....and those babies sealed...every single one of them!

So now we get to pay ridiculous prices for lids and bands and they are crap!

Has anyone else noticed the difference????

Harvest Monday........8/01/2011

The rain last Monday definitely put the tomatoes in full swing! Tuesday was the biggest overall tomato harvest day. The tomatoes harvested that day were the worst of the tomatoes this past week. Many were cracked, deformed and didn't want to ripen correctly....but, we love them anyway!

Here are some (not all) of the harvests from the past week.

Tuesday

Tuesday

Thursday

Saturday

Sunday

I think that you get the picture....We're up to our ears in tomatoes!! I think that "The Italian" will get his much needed 100 jars of tomatoes this year!!

Total weighed harvests this week: 106.0125 lbs!!

Cantaloupe (1st of the season) - 28 oz.
Carrots (last of the spring planting) - 9 oz
Eggplant:
   Lunga Violetta Di Firenze - 13 oz.
   Rosa Bianca - 30.5 oz.
Onions:
   Red - 51 oz.
   White - 36 oz.
Peppers:
   Corno Di Toro - 11 oz.
   Quadrato Rosso D'Asti - 7.2 oz.
   Paprika - 6 oz.
   Pimento - 11 oz.
   Jalapeno - 13 oz.
   Pepperoncini - 11 oz.
   Serrano - 11 oz.
Tomatoes - 1442 oz. - 90.125 lbs.
Zucchini - 20 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in Veggie Gardens around the globe!!