Fruits of my labors! Left to right: Carmello, Rose de Berne (which is a lovely, delicate pinkish-red), Heirloom Great White, two Black Plums, Kellogg’s Breakfast, some Golden Sweet Plums & one Black Pearl, Persimmon, and Cherokee Purple. (I’ve never seen a Cherokee that didn’t look like a failed sci-fi prop, but they are soooo delicious!)
Two Japanese Black Trifele (which are actually from Russian stock, and yes, they do look like organic trucknutz), another Rose de Berne, the same Great White from a different angle, and my first two Ramapos.
Rose de Berne, Black Princes, Kellogg’s Breakfast, and Cherokee Purples. I’m inordinately proud of that Kellogg’s, at well over a pound it’s the biggest I’ve ever managed to grow… so far.
Around here, we’ve finally reached the precious late-summer season where we have more ripe tomatoes than we can eat raw. When the Spousal Unit finally makes it home with the fresh mozzarella, I’m gonna take a stab at Mark Bittman’s stuffed tomato recipe. Later, I should make a batch of Smitten Kitten’s slow-roasted cherry tomatoes to freeze, if I don’t end up gobbling the delicious end product out of hand first!
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So… what’s it look like in your gardens, this week?
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(As always, if you want to demonstrate what good photography looks like, you can email jpegs to [email protected] or click on my name near the top of the right-hand column.)
jeffreyw
I’ve had good luck drying them in the oven.
jeffreyw
They are killer atop a pizza.
paradox
I have an answer from an earlier open thread question, cooling of massive concrete frames in dam construction.
Images seen from Hoover clearly show the coolant pipes surrounding the frame, which makes perfect sense, since they never would have allowed hollow pipes with moisture to cure in the pour. I still don’t like it, however, for the frame would be wood, and excellent insulator, so I don’t see how cold water cooled the frame effectively.
All big concrete pours must have an effective coolant strategy, or the pour will over-heat and crack the result. The workmen at Hoover were fanatics about concrete strength, efficiency granting a drier pour and better strength. However they did it it worked, of course. A huge coolant plant was built for Hoover and they did it well.
Steeplejack
Tomato prön. Excessive tomato prön. Another Balloon Juice first.
Lookin’ good there, Anne Laurie. I’ll have a bacon, lettuce and Ramapo sandwich, please.
dexwood
Killer tomatoes. I live for tomato sandwiches. A decades-old favorite. Haven’t had a single one yet this Summer. Weird. My arid zone is extra dry this year. My garden seems to be a month behind. Less seasonal rain, but more money to the city’s water utility just to give ’em a boost.
paradox
Oh was I supposed to talk about gardening? Whoops-a-daisy.
Steeplejack
@paradox:
LOL. You went to all the trouble to research this, but you can’t be bothered to link it back to the original post?! Epic fail.
(I keed, I keed . . . but seriously, dude.)
Steeplejack
@paradox:
Open thread is open.
RoonieRoo
It’s hitting 110 degrees pretty much every day where I am. This is also the time to begin putting in the fall garden and it’s a struggle with the temps. The soil temperature just cooks any seed you plant. I had to pre-germinate my sweet corn inside and then plant it after it got to about 2 inches high. I’ve never not direct seeded corn and I’m surprised to see that it’s worked and the corn is growing fine after that bizarre start. Weird, but it appears to have worked.
fleeting expletive
My friend told me that her household water bill was higher than her electricity this month—I guess they are trying to preserve lawn and trees a lot during this drought—but they barely run a/c even when it has been well over 100 degrees every day. Me, I rent, so I really don’t have a vested interest in my lawn and didn’t even try any plants, but I really want to be comfortable in my house, so my electric bill was higher than hers, but my water bill is 1/4th of hers.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Et noir, c’est noir.
Worked2Death
I feel so old saying I can’t remember a hotter summer, but there it is. Roses aren’t happy and even the pines are looking sickly.
dexwood
@fleeting expletive:
Water costs more. The future is here. And, if you go over a certain, small percentage of your Winter usage here, penalty surcharges kick in. Now, even with surcharges, department revenue is down because after 20 years of water conservation PSAs, people are conserving water. Guess what? Rates are going up again because revenues are down.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Wow, that sounds almost like something by a group called Los Bravos way back in the day. But, naw, that’s crazy talk.
Fortunately, I have the antidote here.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: You bastard. You realize this means war? At least until, I get sleepy. From hell’s heart, I stab at thee.
clayton
Everything is burned up.
Literally.
Be grateful you have a crop.
The only reason a drought is not as serious here is that we have other ways to survive.
Were Texas East Africa, we would all be dead.
fleeting expletive
Dexwood @13, Yes and we are under water restrictions–every other day only and no watering on Wednesday and Thursday. Fortunately (?) my house is tiny so it isn’t awfully expensive to cool, as much as you can cool a place in 100+ heat every day.
I do limit electricity use otherwise though. Washer/dryer only at night. And if I weren’t somewhat laid up (using a cane) I’d be drying on clotheslines cleverly strung up in the garage instead of the dryer. I am grateful every day for a refrigerator, a/c, computer and tv. I’d be nutso or dead w/o these things.
I’ve tried a few of those CFL bulbs though, and they didn’t last as long as I’d hoped. The nearest recycling place is across town, and I don’t have occasion to go there very often. I drive very little because I’m practically across the street from everything I need.
waratah
Envy your lovely tomatoes. I have been fighting heat and drought all summer and finally have some green tomatoes on my celebrity tomato plant in a pot. The bush beefsteak has not set one tomato. My dwarf tomatoes, Red Robin and canary yellow are are finally starting to ripen.
I tried a mild jalapeno this year in a pot and are enjoying them. I have been slicing them and adding to scramble eggs a la Jeffrey. Thank you for the stuffed tomato recipe and if I get enough cherry tomatoes will try the slow roasted tomatoes.
dexwood
Just turned off my swamp cooler and opened the windows.Nice breeze. The smell of rain is in the air, but moisture doesn’t reach the ground. A tease. That’s how it’s been. Dog walk time.
Omnes Omnibus
@dexwood: What is a swamp cooler, pray tell?
dexwood
‘night
fleeting expletive
Ooh, Ooh, I know this one! A swamp cooler is a window box with a fan and a connection to a water hose, with the walls of the box made with something like coco fibers or straw or something. It works well in dry heat, as the fan sucks outside air and through the wet fiber, cools it, and projects it into the house. When we were kids we liked the acoustic effects of talking/singing into the fan, distorting our voices. Doesn’t work as well in hot and humid weather because the air won’t cool, I guess.
Omnes Omnibus
@fleeting expletive: Cool. Thanks.
PeakVT
@Omnes Omnibus: An evaporative cooler. Works only in dry climates.
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: Hey, Steepman. How you be? I’ve missed ya, my friend.
And, this is mah favorite Frenchy-French song. I don’t garden, so I have to contribute somehow.
BethanyAnne
I’m in Houston. I want to grow tomatoes for the November harvest. I was thinking about getting some seedlings from the nursery this weekend or the next, but I’m really a newbie at this. All I know is that I need to provide some sort of shade for the middle of the day to maybe keep them from cooking. Any advice would be appreciated :)
Omnes Omnibus
@asiangrrlMN: I love French hip hop. A lot of it ends up with strong North African influences.
Joel
Tomatoes just starting to ripen, not a huge crop, but it’s been cold as sh!t this year in Seattle. Unfortunately, also picked my first set of yellow leaves with black spots on them.
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: Par exemple.
asiangrrlMN
@Omnes Omnibus: That actually sounds like it has some Bollywood influence, too. Regardless, I can groove to it. Not quite as sexily as the woman in the video, but I do what I can.
Omnes Omnibus
@asiangrrlMN: We all do what we can.
srv
I have no tomato skills, but the layout and english blue background are quite nice.
MikeJ
@Omnes Omnibus: Back in le olden days I was a big fan of NTM, but sadly I haven’t kept up with what the youngsters are into with their yeah yeahs and the long hair… But really, once I was cool if I went 3000 miles away.
Felanius Kootea
@asiangrrlMN: Nice! I like this one.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: This thread is not working on mobile. At least not on mine anyway. Which as we all know is the only one that matters, amirite?
Hi hon. I’m soooo glad it’s thisclose to Friday. And I haz Chinese food to warm up. Including quacker!
Dollared
Anne, awesome pix. Out here in the PNW, it’s past hopeless for the tomatoes. We’ve hit 80 exactly twice since last August 28th. Our cherries were six weeks late, our blueberries still haven’t happened, and our tomatoes snuck in the house and called an immigration lawyer in Miami asking about how to get asylum as a victim of persecution.
Omnes Omnibus
@Felanius Kootea: How about this?
Dollared
@Omnes Omnibus: @asiangrrlMN: Omnes, I kid you not, that’s on my not-iPod, a random drop of french amongst all the old Colombian porros and cumbias, and just before the two bachatas I destest. I had no idea what it was.
Felanius Kootea
@Omnes Omnibus: I like! This is why I love Balloon Juice.
Omnes Omnibus
@Dollared: Small world. To me, this stuff is what parks and streets in Paris sound like these days.
asiangrrlMN
@Felanius Kootea: Oh yeah. That’s right in my groove alley.
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s niiiice, too.
@Yutsano: That sucks! But, you have duck, so life is good.
Dollared. No way. I don’t believe you! I actually do, but barely.
Violet
@BethanyAnne:
If this were a normal year you could put them right into the ground and keep them well watered and mulched and they’d probably be fine with a bit of mid-day shade. It’s not a normal year. Try putting the seedlings into slightly larger pots and keep those in filtered sun/shade. Mulch well and make sure they’re watered well. Transplant them into the ground if this horrible heat ever breaks. If not, try transplanting them into the ground in a few weeks.
If you want to put your seedlings straight into the ground, be prepared to water every day during this heat. But wait, you can’t. Mandatory water restrictions start in Houston next week. Go for the pots and cross your fingers for some rain.
Omnes Omnibus
@asiangrrlMN: And so to bed, for to be ready for tomorrow’s interview.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
A touch, a definite touch. I am feeling a bit maudlin tonight, so I will end with this.
Felanius Kootea
@Dollared: I love that – it’s on a Putumayo World Groove CD I got from a 10,000 Villages store a few years ago.
asiangrrlMN
@Omnes Omnibus: Good luck, OO. Sleep well.
@Steeplejack: Aw. I hope things look better in the morn, Steepman.
Bethanyanne
Thanks, Violet. I’m in an apartment complex, but I have a couple of honkin big pots that they don’t mind, and those worked pretty well last year, so that should be ok. I was thinking of using the tomato cages and some bubble foil to make shade for them. Real tomatoes are worth a bit of finagling.
Dollared
@Felanius Kootea: That could be the source. I get a periodic drop from a friend in Vancouver who owns 2000 latin albums he bought at flea markets in the Caribbean during the late 70s. Fabulous, mysterious stuff, since much of it is out of print. Mambos from the early 60s, colombian, puerto rican, Veneuzuelan.
But since he’s in Vancouver, the whole world music thing never stops for him, and he and his partner are always onto a new groove. And of course, French is their third language.
Dollared
@Omnes Omnibus: I wish I knew what Paris is like. Three visits, less than 72 hours total.
Good luck tomorrow.
sneezy
@jeffreyw:
I have nothing to add, I just want to say how much I like Jeffrey’s food photos. Man, I wish I could cook half that well.
Joel
Anyone know where to get an inexpensive 18″ terracotta pot? I’m looking to build a smoker.
burnspbesq
While you dirtbags were ogling AL’s tomatoes, Pelosi announced her choices for the Big Swinging Committee.
Becerra, Van Hollen, and Clyburn.
Can I get a “fuck yeah!” from the congregation?
Bethanyanne
Joel, do you live near any Garden Ridge Pottery stores? They would be the first place I’d check.
Dollared
@Joel: I use Craigslist, people giving away plants.
Yutsano
@Dollared: Hey at least you got there. The closest I could manage was a lost German bus driver 14 kilometers from the border.
Donald is delicious. That is all.
Anne Laurie
@Joel:
Might be worth calling around your local nursery centers / garden supply stores and asking if they’ve got one on season-end clearance. Those things weigh a bomb, they take up a lot of space, and they’re too fragile to leave outdoors if it goes below freezing in your area. You might be able to sweet-talk someone into making you a deal if you’re willing to haul it off their property before they have to redecorate for the harvest/Halloween/holiday season…
opie jeanne
Ooooh! I’m so jealous. I have tomato envy!
Seriously, we’ve had one tomato ripen after it had been on the plant for several months, and it wasn’t a nice thing. Now we’ve got quite a few green ones on the dozen plants, but we should be up to our eyeballs in them by now.
Our whole garden this year was considered an experiment to figure out what works and what doesn’t. The tomatoes are moving out of the veggie garden next year, into some pots or raised beds against the west wall of our house.
opie jeanne
@fleeting expletive: When I was a kid we’d go visit my cousins and grandparents in Missouri, in the summer, and every house had a swamp cooler which was simply insane. It would have been a lot smarter to have several fans.
Back then (50s and 60s) hardly anyone had AC in their home.
opie jeanne
@Joel: IKEA has some big terra cotta pots for about $6 each. We bought six last week, going back for more for some apple seedlings we’re experimenting with.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Wow, dead thread for 2 hours! The maters look great. I ran across a recipe for tomato jam. I’d never heard of it but my bride had, check it out.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Three hours!
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Scarborough going absolutely nuts about Bachmann . “SHE IS A JOKE, ANYONE WHO WOULD VOTE FOR HER IS TOO STUPID TO RUN THE SLURPEE MACHINE AT THE IOWA STATE FAIR”!
JPL
Morning Raven. I’ve been up awhile but spent sometime reading recaps of the debate. So has Scarborough appointed Perry to be the next President, also,too or is he holding out for Sarah.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@JPL: Hey. It’s pretty interesting actually, worth watching when they replay it at 8. He insists that this Iowa stuff is ridiculous and gets into it with Steele over the party.
JPL
I have an antenna but MSNBC streams there shows after they air so I’ll watch it later. The Guardian blog on the debate was funny. I guess Romney is trying to say states can order mandates but not the federal government. State laws supersede the Federal Constitution I guess. Someone should have asked him about Loving VS VA or state rights for gays to marriage since they were in Iowa.
Thanks for the heads up on the show.
JPL
SiubhanDuinne, Are you around? I’m staying away from the PGA traffic and hope that doesn’t interfere with your travels.
HeartlandLiberal
The deer attacked our 16 tomato plants before we got the water scarecrows up, and stripped them clean.
We have now been waiting over three weeks as some of the plants recovered and set new green tomatoes, hoping that turning the motion detector scarecrows which spray water for several seconds will keep the deer away, as they have for the previous 3-4 years.
I am concerned the deer are losing their fear, though, I found one surviving strip of overgrown lettuce had been browsed very near one of the crows two mornings ago.
This coming weekend, we are going to till up a good 75% of the garden that is finished producing or has been wiped out by squash borers and the heat, and plant a bunch of greens and fall cool weather crops. We did that last fall for the first time with good success, picking fresh greens and even mature turnip roots into November.
At least we managed to get about 10 nice sugar pumpkins matured and picked before the squash borers defeated both pesticide and burying the roots of the plants. They have become the pest from h*ll, as far as I am concerned.
And I do have a very nice crop of extra fine orange habaneros coming in, at least that is a plus in the general depression over the heat and lack of rain here in south central Indiana.
A Mom Anon
The only tomatoes I have so far are a few mini yellow pear ones. I planted and orange striped one,Cherokee Purple,Black Prince,German Queen and Roma,none of them are doing well. A damned squirrel ate every freaking pear off my two pear trees which is a problem I have no idea how to solve. My squashes are dead,I have a watermelon,cantelope and a cucumber plant that are on life support. Even the sunflowers died.
I’ve had a veggie garden for the last 12 yrs and this is the worst and hottest summer I remember. I think I’m going to hit the Farmer’s Market instead,maybe someone’s having a better year than me.
JPL
@HeartlandLiberal: The squirrels are stealing my neighbors’ tomatoes. Its comical watching them with little red balls in their mouths.
cleek
we have : 1 tomato plant, 1 jalapeno plant, 1 dwarf peach tree, a yard full of delicious wood sorrel.
the sorrel is doing fine.
bemused
The cherry trees we planted last summer were producing more cherries than we expected a couple of weeks ago but alas, the birds discovered them. We will have to invest in some netting next year.
I’m intrigued by the Romertopf clay pots people were raving about in previous thread. What size would I buy to use for roasting a large chicken and baking bread?
JPL
@A Mom Anon: There’s a farm that delivers to the area. They have a coop but often have leftover fresh vegies to sell. http://www.carltonfarm.com/
My son orders milk which I pick up for him because they deliver fairly close to where I live. I haven’t tried their eggs but their vegies and meats have been good. In my area they deliver to Fish Chiropractic off of 92.. 455 W Crossville. I’m not sure how close that is to you.
edit..I refuse to try the milk since it’s labeled for pets only but it appears a lot of people do.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL: Just waking up, getting ready to go to work soon. I usually try to go in late and come home late to avoid the worst of rush hours. I’m avoiding 141 as much as I can, but P’tree Industrial isn’t that bad. Or, well, it’s bad but no worse than usual. To tell the truth, all the school buses cause worse delays.
Once PGA is over, and SIA gets back, we three really must find a time to meet up!
SiubhanDuinne
Grrrrr, FYWP. Tried to edit to say how glad I am to see A Mom Anon posting here again and obviously would love to meet her in our ATL BJ group. Anyone else in the area too.
Phylllis
Headed to the Boone NC area for the weekend; hoping to find some good tomatoes at the Farmer’s Market tomorrow morning. Looks as if we might be back to high 60’s/low 70’s nights here in the next week or so & I’m tempted to try a fall round of tomatoes. Anne Laurie’s photos have inspired me.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Phylllis: Watch out for the seatbelt police!
waratah
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): That is not grandma’s tomato preserve recipe but the added ginger and spices sound interesting. Thank you for the recipe.
karen marie
Smitten Kitten’s slow-roasted cherry tomatoes are seriously fabulous! I made them twice last summer. Thanks for reminding me I need more parchment paper so I can make some more!
mazareth
Just picked a bunch of green beans and two whole cherry tomatoes. That being said, I have a couple large tomatoes that I hope to pick on Sunday. There are a lot of green ones. My peppers are looking great.
Lucky for me our local farmers markets goes six days a week. Waiting for the B grade tomatoes so that I can start canning.
jnfr
I finally got soaker hoses on my raised beds. So much better than using sprinklers. I have three types of tomatoes, two types of peppers, two types of squash, and Ichiban eggplants all maturing. Weather’s been good in my part of Colorado and we should have another couple months of warm, so I’m hoping for a bumper crop.
Shelton Lankford
Brag, brag, brag… I guess you didn’t get a hailstorm featuring 1″ chunks of ice falling out of the sky onto our tender young veggies, and wreaking havoc on the squash vines and tomato plants, which were already reacting to the 100 degree heat.
Didn’t hurt the crabgrass though!
Trying again with cabbage and cauliflower and broccoli this morning, since the heat wave seems to be abating for the nonce.