Harvest Time Knives!!

[Steve Warden]

My wife makes a delicious zucchini bread.

Hmmm... it has been a while, though.

[Doug51]

My wife makes a delicious zucchini bread.

Hmmm... it has been a while, though.

Zucchini bread with a big old slab of butter is the best!

[313 Mike]

Tomato sandwich for breakfast today. Purple Cherokee variety. Not grown by me unfortunately, from a roadside stand. Absolutely delicious nonetheless!

[jerryd6818]

Miracle Whip of course.

[philco]

Oh boy Mike, that sure gives me a case of the "want ones".

[Dinadan]

That tomato sandwich makes me hungry just seeing the photo, Mike. I love a tomato sandwich, but to me the king of sandwiches is the BLT. When I have one of those for breakfast then I know life is good!

[Meridian_Mike]

WOW.... what a good lookin' sandwich!
Now I gotta go see if I can get my wife to fry us up some bacon.

[TripleF]

Love it Mike!!!

[313 Mike]

Really weak harvest for me this year, due to the move..but here are two plump Black Cayman chile peppers I just plucked from the vine...resting up against a couple Roma tomatoes

[jerryd6818]

Those are fine looking peppers. They look like they would be very flavorful. What's the heat index?

[313 Mike]

Well folks, time to dredge this old thread back up again for another year. For the newer members who aren't familiar with it, feel free to post up any gardening or planting type pics or comments, maybe toss in a pic of a knife from time to time to keep it on topic. The title of the thread is "Harvest Time knives" but that's just a name, I encourage everyone to post at any time!
Still some snow on the ground here, but temps are starting to rise and spring is in the air!
Sofia and I started some seeds today in the basement, a couple different types of basil, some tomatoes, peppers, and bunching onions, plus some flowers, Sweet Alyssum, Cockscomb, Phlox and some Bee Balm.
Used the GEC 54 harness Jack to poke holes in the Dixie cups for drainage.
Anybody else getting anything going yet? Veggies? Herbs? Flowers?

[treefarmer]

Hey Mike! We started pulling the wild geraniums, pepper grass and other winter weeds from the raised beds. It's still as the old saying goes, "too wet to plow". The water table has remained extremely high since Hurricane Michael and with so many trees down we will have to be careful not to bog the equipment down. A mature pine will uptake over 100 gallons of water a day and the uptake for oaks is even greater according to the experts. With so many trees destroyed we'll probably have to deal with wet fields and gardens for a while all across the hurricane's path.
We are, I've been told, going to cut down on the size of the garden. She says we're gettin' too old and I almost have to agree with her. Sure do love gardening time!
We have had a very short summer for the last week, now they're forecasting lower 40's at night for the next week. Cold, wet ground usually doesn't provide the best germination results. The raised beds will warm much quicker and we usually only transplant into them. This is the spot for the peppers and tomatoes.
Mike, show us the sprouts as they emerge and don't let that pretty young lady eat too much potting soil!
Treefarmer

[Paladin]

My 1st planting of tomatoes went south with the last freeze. It was unexpected, at least by me, and temps dropped well into the 20s and stayed there for a couple of days. I covered them up to no avail. I have re-planted and have blooms as of today.

Ray

[Steve Warden]

After moving into our new place back at the end of October, we finally have the room and sunlight for a garden. We're going small to start, going to try container gardening.
Regular and grape tomatoes, sweet peppers, jalapeno peppers, green beans, maybe some herbs.
We'll put in starter plants end of April, early May.
I'll be sure to post some pics.

[313 Mike]

Thanks for chiming in fellas!

Phillip, sounds like Hurricane Michael is really wreaking havoc with your water table. Sheesh, I did not know a Pine could take up a hundred gallons of water and day and an Oak more, that is crazy. With them gone that does leave a heckuva lot of water to be absorbed. So you may scale back the garden a bit this year , eh? Just go for quality over quantity instead maybe? Perhaps try a new heirloom variety of tomatoes or two..or three? Keep us in the loop as you go along!

Ray, sorry to hear you lost your first tomatoes, 20 degrees is tough, poor things never stood a chance at those temps. Glad to hear the second round is doing better. Did you plant transplants, or start from seed?

Steve, good luck with the container garden. I have had mixed results with veggies in containers in the past. I would say make sure you use big enough pots so the roots have enough room, and make sure to keep up on the watering, easy for them to get dried out in pots in the summer heat. Post some pics if you can and keep us posted!

[Paladin]

Thanks for chiming in fellas!,,,,,,,,
Ray, sorry to hear you lost your first tomatoes, 20 degrees is tough, poor things never stood a chance at those temps. Glad to hear the second round is doing better. Did you plant transplants, or start from seed?,,,,,,

Mike,
Transplants, as I am the farthest from being a real gardner.

Ray

[313 Mike]

Thanks for chiming in fellas!,,,,,,,,
Ray, sorry to hear you lost your first tomatoes, 20 degrees is tough, poor things never stood a chance at those temps. Glad to hear the second round is doing better. Did you plant transplants, or start from seed?,,,,,,

Mike,
Transplants, as I am the farthest from being a real gardner.

Ray

Nothing wrong with that Ray, I plant seedlings every year too!

[Dinadan]

Mike - thanks for waking up this thread. Right now the only thing I am eating (that I grow) is some rosemary and parsley ... and kumquats. I have one little kumquat tree about five feet high, but just about every year it makes a lot of fruit for its size. kumquats are not one of my favorite fruits, but a couple of times a week I will pick a half dozen and eat them as part of my lunch, which is usually cheeses and fruits. This is today's haul.

[313 Mike]

Tasty looking kumquats there Mel, cant say that's an fruit that I really have a whole lotta experience with. Taste pretty citrus like I would presume?

[Dinadan]

Tasty looking kumquats there Mel, cant say that's an fruit that I really have a whole lotta experience with. Taste pretty citrus like I would presume?

They are a kind of citrus. I guess they are the smallest of the citrus family. I eat the outside, including the rind, and discard the seedy center. If I am outside where I can just spit seeds I will eat the whole thing. I cannot say that they are one of my favorites, but since I have a tree I do eat them. I just recently finished off the satsumas - I have six satsuma trees and most had a good crop this year.

I can sympathize with Treefarmer's waterlogged land. Even without a hurricane, my area has had a very wet winter. And almost no sunshine or low humidity to dry things out. Everyone is saying that they cannot remember such a gloomy and overcast winter. I certainly cannot.

But gloom and rain aside, the blueberry bushes and fruit trees seem to be having a nice bloom in my area. I was out at my sister's place in the country yesterday, and the azaleas are just about as good as they get. If you get the chance to sniff some flowers do, do not forget to try it. I think too many folks forget that they have a sense of smell. I love to put my nose to a pear or citrus or jasmine or honeysuckle or any other flower and inhale the fragrance. Some are odorless. Some almost too faint to detect, some cloying, some like the essence of Eden. But if there is a fragrance I want to savor it!

[DM11]

Garlic is doing good. Planted some French Breakfast radishes and Red Romaine lettuce yesterday. Might be a bit early but have plenty of seed should it need to be replanted.

[DM11]

Seed potatoes came in this week. Still to wet to plant. Maybe later in the week if it doesn't rain any more for a few days.

[313 Mike]

Thanks for sharing, David. I noticed your seed packets are from Baker Creek! That's where I got almost all of my seeds this year, cant beat that free shipping, and they have a great selection. Good luck with the lettuce and radishes. Taters too.

[Dinadan]

My Loquats are getting ripe now. Unfortunately, the birds love ripe Loquats, so I am stuck eating the ones that are not quite ripe. Today it was Loquats and Kumquats for lunch. Neither are my favorite fruit, but with both growing in the back yard I am eating them.

I used my GEC for food prep today, it is getting a bit of patina from fruit.

[313 Mike]

Nice spread there Mel, looks tasty. You need some sausage to make it complete!
I did a little planting today, Rainbow Swiss Chard, a couple different kinds of radishes, and some carrots.
Peas went in a few days ago.