Author Topic: Gardening tomatoes, herbs, and some veggies for 2012 (Read 16242 times)

norma427 · « **Reply #420 on:** September 23, 2012, 10:47:49 PM »

Quote from: Chicago Bob on September 23, 2012, 10:40:04 PM

Well alright! You deserved that Norma, an I hope you didn't hurt Wildwood too bad.
Save some of that fun party town for when I make it there.....

Bob,

Thanks, I did have a good time in Wildwood and Cape May, NJ, but I had wanted to weigh a Mack's pizza, which I don't think turned out okay. Darn!

Wildwood was going full speed today with an Irish festival, parade and also a car show of old hot rods. You would have liked the old hot rods.

I am not sure what time the hot rod shop ended (and we didn't really see the show, or know where it was), but we saw a lot of old hot rods leaving Wildwood when we were going there and also when we returned to Wildwood from Cape May. They were cool!

Norma

Chicago Bob · « **Reply #421 on:** September 24, 2012, 09:49:30 AM »

Sounds like you had a great time, I just googled and found The 17th annual Boardwalk Classic Car Show. Looks great, right there on the Boardwalk too. Maybe I'll bring a car up there for the next one Norma. I definetly want to get up there before then though so I'm going to see when their next motorcycle event is....maybe one of these day's we'll share some Boardwalk pizza together, eh?

norma427 · « **Reply #422 on:** September 24, 2012, 10:28:12 AM »

Quote from: Chicago Bob on September 24, 2012, 09:49:30 AM

Sounds like you had a great time, I just googled and found The 17th annual Boardwalk Classic Car Show. Looks great, right there on the Boardwalk too. Maybe I'll bring a car up there for the next one Norma. I definetly want to get up there before then though so I'm going to see when their next motorcycle event is....maybe one of these day's we'll share some Boardwalk pizza together, eh?

Bob,

I am not sure when next years motorcycle rally is, but this was the one for this year. http://www.wildwoodsnj.com/calendar.cfm?mode=results&coe_id=1121 Wildwood has stuff going on all the time. There are also a lot of places that grows grapes for wine. There was an event we saw that was yesterday, but we didn't have time to stop there.

Maybe we will share boardwalk pizza sometime.

Norma

norma427 · « **Reply #423 on:** September 28, 2012, 09:22:49 AM »

The little gardens I have been tending sure look scraggly now.

The tomato plants are still producing tomatoes, but not as many. The peppers are still growing as are the basil, chives, oregano and spearmint tea. The pumpkin vine only produced one small white pumpkin.

I used the tomatoes I picked yesterday and the day before to make another batch of Les’s sweet sauce. The only tomatoes pictured are the ones I picked yesterday. The one heirloom tomato was big, so it helped in making Les’s sweet sauce. I used fennel seed again and also the Classico tomatoes for Les’s sweet sauce. The tomatoes and the one can of Classico tomatoes made two quarts of Les’s sweet sauce. I have upped the oven temperature in slow roasting the tomatoes, garlic, fennel seed, sea salt, olive oil, fresh basil and oregano. That method seems to be fine and didn’t scorch the tomatoes or other ingredients.

I used a few small tomatoes to make a pasta salad.

I really dislike when the growing season is coming to an end.

I still have to use the good basil to make some pesto. Maybe, that will be this weekend.

Norma

norma427 · « **Reply #424 on:** September 28, 2012, 09:23:46 AM »

Norma

norma427 · « **Reply #425 on:** September 28, 2012, 09:25:44 AM »

Norma

norma427 · « **Reply #426 on:** September 28, 2012, 09:30:47 AM »

Norma

bfguilford · « **Reply #427 on:** September 28, 2012, 10:00:45 AM »

Yes, it's a sad time of year for the garden. I just pulled the tomato plants from the community garden and composted them. The plants at home are still producing a little. I think we messed up with the basil. I thought my wife was going to harvest it for pesto, but that didn't happen and it's looking pretty pale and sickly now.

Barry

norma427 · « **Reply #428 on:** September 28, 2012, 10:28:11 AM »

Quote from: bfguilford on September 28, 2012, 10:00:45 AM

Yes, it's a sad time of year for the garden. I just pulled the tomato plants from the community garden and composted them. The plants at home are still producing a little. I think we messed up with the basil. I thought my wife was going to harvest it for pesto, but that didn't happen and it's looking pretty pale and sickly now.

Barry

Barry,

I agree that it is a sad time of the year. The growing part is fun, but then you have to pull out all the stuff and no more fresh stuff until next year. I am going to try and take some of my basil and root it to try inside. I did have luck with that the other year. I just took some sprigs and put them into water until roots developed. The basil wasn't as good as when it is grown outside, but was okay for inside basil.

Glad to hear your plants at home are still producing a little.

I might have enough tomatoes for one more batch of Les's sauce to freeze. This past week it went down to 40 degrees F during one night. As soon as the first frost hits, then everything dies.

I don't know what to do with my peppers, but might Google to see what to do with them.

Norma

kramer73 · « **Reply #429 on:** September 29, 2012, 05:43:05 PM »

I still have a TON of tomatoes on my plants, and they are not turning green. I may have to turn to the paper bag trick, I suppose.

RobynB · « **Reply #430 on:** September 29, 2012, 06:30:32 PM »

Our harvest has finally hit - 92 lbs of tomatoes picked last night, and that wasn't nearly all the ripe ones, just all we could handle in one night! That's a 70 quart muck bucket. Been slow-roasting batches all night and all today, and put 10 quarts in the freezer raw for cooking later. By tomorrow we'll be caught up and ready to pick more... Now what to do with the lbs of Serrano chiles that are way too hot for eating...?

norma427 · « **Reply #431 on:** September 29, 2012, 07:56:16 PM »

Quote from: kramer73 on September 29, 2012, 05:43:05 PM

I still have a TON of tomatoes on my plants, and they are not turning green. I may have to turn to the paper bag trick, I suppose.

kramer73,

I didn't try the paper bag trick, but did wrap some tomatoes with newspaper the other year. Only some of the green tomatoes turned out really red. Did you ever try the paper bag trick before?

Norma

norma427 · « **Reply #432 on:** September 29, 2012, 07:59:19 PM »

Quote from: RobynB on September 29, 2012, 06:30:32 PM

Our harvest has finally hit - 92 lbs of tomatoes picked last night, and that wasn't nearly all the ripe ones, just all we could handle in one night! That's a 70 quart muck bucket. Been slow-roasting batches all night and all today, and put 10 quarts in the freezer raw for cooking later. By tomorrow we'll be caught up and ready to pick more... Now what to do with the lbs of Serrano chiles that are way too hot for eating...?

Robyn,

92 lbs. of tomatoes to deal with all at once is sure a lot!

Looks like you did a great job!

Steve also gave me some really hot peppers and I sure don't know what to do with them. I am not a fan of really hot peppers, but do want to use them in some way. If you come up with any ideas for your Serrano chilies, let me know what you do.

Norma

bfguilford · « **Reply #433 on:** September 29, 2012, 10:47:04 PM »

Quote from: norma427 on September 29, 2012, 07:56:16 PM

I didn't try the paper bag trick, but did wrap some tomatoes with newspaper the other year. Only some of the green tomatoes turned out really red. Did you ever try the paper bag trick before?

Norma

I use the paper bag trick whenever I want to ripen tomatoes (and other fruit, too). I think putting them in a paper bag (and trapping some air in the bag with them) works much better than wrapping in newspaper... it allows the ethylene that they release to concentrate, which is what speeds up ripening (at least that's my understanding). If you really want to speed it up, put a ripe banana in the bag with the tomatoes (bananas kick off a lot of ethylene).

Barry

norma427 · « **Reply #434 on:** September 30, 2012, 07:56:54 AM »

Quote from: bfguilford on September 29, 2012, 10:47:04 PM

I use the paper bag trick whenever I want to ripen tomatoes (and other fruit, too). I think putting them in a paper bag (and trapping some air in the bag with them) works much better than wrapping in newspaper... it allows the ethylene that they release to concentrate, which is what speeds up ripening (at least that's my understanding). If you really want to speed it up, put a ripe banana in the bag with the tomatoes (bananas kick off a lot of ethylene).

Barry

Barry,

Thanks for posting that the paper bag trick worked for you.

I am going to try and let my tomatoes ripen naturally until I hear there is going to be a frost and then try the paper bag trick. I usually have bananas on hand, so I could try that too with the paper bag trick.

Norma

norma427 · « **Reply #435 on:** October 12, 2012, 01:18:22 PM »

Well, there is a freeze warning in our area for tonight so I picked any leftover tomatoes that looked good enough to be picked. I also cut some basil to try and root and grow inside. I picked other basil to make pesto. I guess tonight will be the last night of my garden for this year.

At least the tomatoes made another 2 quarts of Les’s sweet sauce. My tomatoes were very varied in color that I used in making Les’s sweet sauce, so the finished sauce has some chunks of lighter tomatoes, but it still tasted good. I also changed tomato products this time because I didn’t have any 6-in-1s at home, or any Classico tomato products. I used Red Pack Whole Tomatoes for this batch of Les’s sauce.

Norma

Chicago Bob · « **Reply #436 on:** October 12, 2012, 02:29:01 PM »

Looks delish!

norma427 · « **Reply #437 on:** October 12, 2012, 06:14:41 PM »

Quote from: Chicago Bob on October 12, 2012, 02:29:01 PM

Looks delish!

Thanks Bob!

Norma

norma427 · « **Reply #438 on:** October 13, 2012, 08:19:47 AM »

Well, the weathermen were right. There was frost this morning and that is the end of my garden until next year.

Norma

Chicago Bob · « **Reply #439 on:** October 13, 2012, 10:42:55 AM »

Don't forget to renew your sticker next month Norma....