Any vegetable garderers

I don't have a garden this year, nor did I have one last year because I've had on-going construction stuff happening, but when I garden, I GARDEN. lol

Five years ago I had 286 tomato plants going (five different varieties including paste type). I canned everything from tomato juice to bbq sauce. Stewed tomatoes, plain tomato chunks, homemade spaghetti sauce, you name it, I have it in my root cellar still.

I grew an average of 300 potatoe plants, seven vined green bean towers (they keep producing all summer as you pick them rather than bush type that produce all at once), bell peppers, celery, watermelon, loupes, cukes, pickles (lots of those for sweet, kosher, bread and butter, dill chips), cauliflower, brussel sprouts, broccholi, cabbage, garlic, lettuce, three types of beets, carrots, onions, and some exotics every year like Chinese cabbage for stir fry.

Everything got processed for canning along with homemade grape, strawberry, blueberry, apple, and blackberry jellies and jams. Also processed apples for homemade apple-pie mix that went into freezer bags (enough for one pie in each bag).

I didn't know how to do any of this stuff until I moved here 15 years ago and talked some of the 'old timers' into teaching me how. After that, my flower gardening went to hell in a handbasket because I became obsessed with canning. I had people in Cleveland Ohio searching out yard sales for canning jars by the truckload full. Surprisingly, many people still had that stuff stored away from long ago days when their homesteads used to be farms instead of suburbs. Most are grandkids who didn't know what to do with all those jars from barns cleaned out, etc.

This year I'm trying to clean up the flower gardens and put them back in order before going back to the veggie end next year. Great fun, good exercise, and the end results are amazing to me, even if there's nobody left but me to eat it all. I always share with my kids in Cleveland, so they just have to show up and haul it all home to store in their basements. Nobody passes up my homemade candied yams or green beans.

TIP: For great tomatoes, calcium is the trick. However, don't waste money on packaged calcium from some feed supply store. Buy a box of generic powered milk, add water, and pour it right onto the roots. A whole lot cheaper....

TONI

Thanks for the powdered milk tip. But I always canned b4 I sold the house. Even when the kids were gone, I gave most of it to them. I miss it but I don't have the room to do it anymore. But we also had fruit and berries . I didn't have to buy much at the grocery store except meat and we didn't have meat every day/ Bought the eggs and milk from a neighbor. Also bought flour sugar and salt at the store. I wished I'd have known you when I moved as I had a really hard time getting someone to take the canning jars. Seems not too many people do that anymore. Hope you can do it next year.

Hi Toni!

If you get your garden going again let me know! I'll drive the 20 miles to your house and pay you to boot! I have no gardening skills at all (and am unable to physically do so anyway), so I'm always looking for folks who have extra to part with.

--Cindi
Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email the mods

that you and I won't wait until next summer to finally meet. You live so close I could almost spit in your yard to get your attention. LOL

Email me and we'll exchange phone numbers...I'm looking forward to getting into the Mt. Airy area real soon so I can take you to lunch. We have no decent restaurants in this backwards town, so it will be a double plus for me.

TONI

Last time we tried meeting something came up. Hopefully nothing will get in the way this time!

--Cindi
Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email the mods

That's a tongue twister.

Heard it on the news, a couple election cycles ago, and it cracked me up!

Don't know what there is in Mount Airy, but I think I remember eating at the Mayflower seafood there when spent couple of days there in 2002.

Good food and lots of it for the money is what I seem to remember.

RogerNC

click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

Hi Roger,

Yes, the Mayflower is pretty good! Restaurant food at the family-style restaurants is quite inexpensive here, I was surprised. Greg and I can go out for breakfast, leave stuffed and leave the friendly waitress a VERY hefty tip for under 10 bucks. Same thing in MI would run at least $15 before tip!

If you want famous, there's the Snappy Lunch ( http://www.snappylunch.com )which Andy Griffith mentioned by name on his TV show. The pork chop sandwich is to die for!

--Cindi
Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email the mods

I made a pot roast for dinner A nice roast with brown gravy and carrots, potatoes, onions Yummy!
Glenda

Now that's one of my favorites! Especially when the roast gets so tender you only need a fork.

DE

I am evil huh??? LOL

Well yeah, lol. That's the BEST!

DE

You mentioned you had kidney problems. Unless you are already on dialysis, a bit of sweating can help take the toxin loads off the kidneys, and relieves the system quickly of excess sodium. Before dialysis, I remember this preacher who had kidney disease (in the late 60's to early 70's) and the thing that helped him live longer was being in Florida and getting out each day and doing enough yard work to sweat salts out of his system. Drink water and sweat it out. I don't know if they still recommend such now, but it seemed to help him.

Hi James,

I don't sweat easily, I overheat. They're also suggesting I eat more salt, as I already had low blood pressure before putting me on the ACE inhibitor. I also have fibromyalgia and other connective tissue issues that have left me quite a mess as far as physical abilities go. But hey, I'm still sucking air!

--Cindi
Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email the mods

and I do quite well with my six or eight plants. In-fact, I have won an online tomato growing contest three out of the past four years. I am addressed as *The Tomato King* in certain circles. lol

I usually grow two potted plants and they do well also. My largest tomato so far is almost two lbs. It was a Beefsteak tomato. I like the Rutgers and Betterboy tomatoes, too.

A shared secret:
One can take un-blimished tomatoes at the end of the season and wipe them with clorox and water and hang in a dark room (cool preferably like the basement) and in January those tomatoes will taste as fresh as the day they were picked.

I used to grow superior tomatoes, and some better than average cucumbers in my younger days.

Today a neighbor hung a bag of her home grown tomatoes on my gate. What a nice surprise! BLTs- here I come!

Another way to store those green tomatoes.... after the clorox bit, layer them between sheets of newspaper, then store in a cool, dry place.

And always keep them stem-side up, just like they hang on the vine.

Angeline
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com