***What's growing? The official garden thread***

lastexitlondon

They look great quality.  Mine were shit.

rgambs

lastexitlondon said:

They look great quality.  Mine were shit.

They start rotting before they finish growing no matter what I do in my clay soil 😠

rgambs

West Coast Dreamgirl

rgambs said:

Amazing

GlowGirl

rgambs said:

Nice. Are you canning those as well. I see marinara sauce when I look at that pile of tomatoey goodness.

lastexitlondon

Beautiful 

lastexitlondon

hot.. too hot here

rgambs

GlowGirl said:

rgambs said:

Nice. Are you canning those as well. I see marinara sauce when I look at that pile of tomatoey goodness.

Yeah, I'll finish cooking them down and can them up probably this afternoon. 
Eh, marinara/spaghetti sauce is overrated with garden fresh tomatoes. 
If you do the "light cook" for a fresher northern Italian style, you just end up with less flavor and a plate covered in tomato water when you're finished.
If you cook it down into a thick Sicilian or American style sauce, you end up with a sauce that is usually very sweet...great for pizza sauce, but too sweet for pasta dinner, IMO.
Mostly I just cook it down without any added ingredients, and use the tomato sauce for various recipes throughout the year.  Stuffed peppers, chili, pizza sauce, veggie soup, bacon/cheese spaghetti, sloppy joes mostly.

GlowGirl

rgambs said:

GlowGirl said:

rgambs said:

Nice. Are you canning those as well. I see marinara sauce when I look at that pile of tomatoey goodness.

Yeah, I'll finish cooking them down and can them up probably this afternoon. 
Eh, marinara/spaghetti sauce is overrated with garden fresh tomatoes. 
If you do the "light cook" for a fresher northern Italian style, you just end up with less flavor and a plate covered in tomato water when you're finished.
If you cook it down into a thick Sicilian or American style sauce, you end up with a sauce that is usually very sweet...great for pizza sauce, but too sweet for pasta dinner, IMO.
Mostly I just cook it down without any added ingredients, and use the tomato sauce for various recipes throughout the year.  Stuffed peppers, chili, pizza sauce, veggie soup, bacon/cheese spaghetti, sloppy joes mostly.

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that about garden fresh tomatoes. I have never made my own sauce - so that is good to know. Sloppy Joe's sound great. I haven't had one in years. Enjoy the tomatoes.

rgambs

GlowGirl said:

rgambs said:

GlowGirl said:

rgambs said:

Nice. Are you canning those as well. I see marinara sauce when I look at that pile of tomatoey goodness.

Yeah, I'll finish cooking them down and can them up probably this afternoon. 
Eh, marinara/spaghetti sauce is overrated with garden fresh tomatoes. 
If you do the "light cook" for a fresher northern Italian style, you just end up with less flavor and a plate covered in tomato water when you're finished.
If you cook it down into a thick Sicilian or American style sauce, you end up with a sauce that is usually very sweet...great for pizza sauce, but too sweet for pasta dinner, IMO.
Mostly I just cook it down without any added ingredients, and use the tomato sauce for various recipes throughout the year.  Stuffed peppers, chili, pizza sauce, veggie soup, bacon/cheese spaghetti, sloppy joes mostly.

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that about garden fresh tomatoes. I have never made my own sauce - so that is good to know. Sloppy Joe's sound great. I haven't had one in years. Enjoy the tomatoes.

There are surely people who disagree with me on that lol
Northern Italian pasta is basically just warmed tomatoes on pasta.  I don't care for it at all, I think it's bland and not a good use of either tomatoes or pasta, but plenty of people do.

deadendp

Cooking tomatoes down takes forever and when making a thick sauce, what you start with and what you end with are quite different.  I usually start the process in the crock-pot with the lid tipped open for a day or two, continuing to add as I go.  A potful of tomatoes usually cooks down to maybe a pint or two.  Great stuff though.  

rgambs

deadendp said:

Cooking tomatoes down takes forever and when making a thick sauce, what you start with and what you end with are quite different.  I usually start the process in the crock-pot with the lid tipped open for a day or two, continuing to add as I go.  A potful of tomatoes usually cooks down to maybe a pint or two.  Great stuff though.  

I use a big pot lol 
I usually thicken down to about the same as a can of grocery store tomato sauce, and then go further when it comes to recipe time.

deadendp

The garden haul today. The butternut needs to still ripen a bit. But....picking dinner. Great stuff! 

deadendp

The bird gifts...

What appears to be a standard round grocery tomato, micro toms and pear tomatoes. I didn't plant any of these, but we really do try to embrace as many volunteers as we can. 

lastexitlondon

They all just turned up?

deadendp

lastexitlondon said:

They all just turned up?

Yup. I knew volunteer tomato plants popped up and left them. If I have room, I leave them ramble. 

rgambs

Took a couple days to get them dehydrated...
I shouldn't still be surprised at the low quality of commercially produced food, but here I am again marveling at home good something like onion flakes/powder can be.  So sugary sweet and onion-y that I wonder what in the fuck kind of onions McCormick isuis or how old they are.

West Coast Dreamgirl

deadendp said:

The bird gifts...

What appears to be a standard round grocery tomato, micro toms and pear tomatoes. I didn't plant any of these, but we really do try to embrace as many volunteers as we can. 

Looking good @deadendp I gave my first tomato of the season to our local homeless guy who gave me the baby tomato plant x

lastexitlondon

Disaster has struck . My whole  plot is flooded.

lastexitlondon

West Coast Dreamgirl

lastexitlondon said:

Disaster has struck . My whole  plot is flooded.

Sorry to see that, but how cute is your little girl!

GlowGirl

lastexitlondon said:

Disaster has struck . My whole  plot is flooded.

Oh no. I am so sorry. I know you have been working hard there all summer. I don’t know anything about gardening - is this at all salvageable?

lastexitlondon

Im not sure we arw forecast rain all week si in guess its all gone i hope the fucking mole died on his sword is the only positive. Nature killed him not me.

lastexitlondon

look in b+w looks very spooky. Pandemic.  Flood. Ooooo

deadendp

Oh, Rob. I am so sorry. You might have some things come through okay if it drains relatively soon. The zucchini might not make it though. (Corgettes, maybe? Might have that wrong.)

Just rainwater, right? No sewage? 

How heartbreaking. Your place of solace.

deadendp

The monster tomato that I just picked. 

lastexitlondon

deadendp said:

Oh, Rob. I am so sorry. You might have some things come through okay if it drains relatively soon. The zucchini might not make it though. (Corgettes, maybe? Might have that wrong.)

Just rainwater, right? No sewage? 

How heartbreaking. Your place of solace.

Rain is forecst for another week and this is heavy rain
 The water is clean river water but i dont know whats in it i guess  . Big time  ruined. I may have   few peppers high up in a green  house. But can't  even get to my stuff. Im gonna  walk in i think today get wet and see. But i haven't  been at all well and in a way its the end.  A relief . But  a negative  as its the only place i went. And my daughter has lost ll her toys  there she had a fairy  garden we set up now thats all washed away. I feel very very low and this is just typical. 

rgambs

That is a big time bummer, something always fails around here too.  I haven't had any beets since '18 and, despite daily watering, it looks like my fall attempt is all for naught as well.  

West Coast Dreamgirl

deadendp said:

The monster tomato that I just picked. 

@deadendp Imagine making a Greek salad with that!
@lastexitlondon Your daughter's fairy garden :_( Good luck wading through it today.

lastexitlondon

The water level is just up to my shorts. I saved the  fairy garden like a hero. My bench had the  garden on and lifted like a raft with it all on. Lucky. I saved 4 cucumbers  and my peppers but sadly the rest maybe gone. With exception of the greens.