I think this is the beginnings of an economy based on perpetual growth and fossil fuel energy running headlong into geological energy constraints. Basically I see an undulatory downward path for the rest of my life. From here out, I think any rallies in our economic condition are going to be met with spiking commodity prices that knock us right back down.
Indeterminate tomatoes grow up the pole! They take up only 1 sq ft of space!
Determinate grow in cages and end up as sauce or dried!
......
Now let me sing the praises of LACTO-FERMENTATION!
For years I pressure-canned and water-bathed everything.
Last year I made SAUERKRAUT and CANNED COLE SLAW. Right in the jars!
Those old Europeans sure knew a good thing. I love taking a jar of homemade sauerkraut to work with me.
You can let just about any vegetable pickle itself via acetobacter(?)
A great book on this is called: Keeping Food Fresh: Old World Techniques and Recipes.
The garden is sucking big-time this year. We've barely had a summer here in the northeast. It's all we can do to get the hay in.
I'm hoping for a good mid-summer planting and a fall crop. _________________ "By the time individuals discover that remaining resources will not be adequate for the next generation, the next generation has already been born. " David Price
Joined: Nov 09, 2004 Posts: 1249 Location: Big Rock Candy Mountain
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 2:58 pm Post subject:
Pops, beware of drying tomatoes on wire. Better to string them on fishing line. Tomatoes will stick tenaciously to any surface including plastic screen. Also the galvanizing used on wire can taint dried foods--I know since I learned everything the hard way.
Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 6956 Location: My Grandkids' Farm
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 3:29 pm Post subject:
Thanks oowolf, saved me lots of trouble! Me and my big ideas.
They used to use wooden drying trays in the old days in CA, what about lauan plywood underlayment I wonder? It’s about as cheap as anything you can buy and fairly smooth - I don’t need any strength. _________________ Make a plan and work it:
My dehydrator uses plastic grates for trays; big holes for air flow and they appear to be made of some kind of polycarbonate - very strong and very slippery so they seem to resist sticking as well as anything, though pears can be pretty tenacious.
Regarding the use of wire, a friend of mine was using chicken wire to keep fish from falling apart over a charcoal fire - seemed like a good idea to me until another friend told me that the galvinizing they use on it contains all kinds of nasty trace metals - like cadmium - and you don't want it anywhere near your food.
Pops, beware of drying tomatoes on wire. Better to string them on fishing line. Tomatoes will stick tenaciously to any surface including plastic screen.
Perhaps it has something to do with the variety of tomato?
I've been drying paste tomatoes on wire for a long time now. I just put the rack in the warming closet of our cookstove (we run it year-round).
Never have a problem with Amish Paste and Grandma Mary. _________________ "By the time individuals discover that remaining resources will not be adequate for the next generation, the next generation has already been born. " David Price
Okay, so if indeterminate tomatoes ripen gradually, anybody got a variety they reccomend, that I might be able to find for next year? I can see the benefit of having both kinds - some to keep you going with fresh tomatoes through out the season, and some to get all at once for canning sauces, etc.
Killjoy,
I was really wanting to make some sauerkraut this year - and still might, but I'll have to buy the cabbage if I do. My early cabbage sucked this year - though I might plant some for the fall.... I know in theory the process (and have Carla Emery's recipe from The Encyclopedia of Country Living. It sounds easy enough. But is it really that easy?
Joined: Mar 14, 2005 Posts: 70 Location: Northern Massachusetts
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2005 7:17 pm Post subject:
killJOY wrote:
I've been drying paste tomatoes on wire for a long time now. I just put the rack in the warming closet of our cookstove (we run it year-round).
Never have a problem with Amish Paste and Grandma Mary.
This year I will make my first attempt at drying paste tomatoes and really would appreciate your answers to a few novice questions.
Do you dry them whole, cut them in half or squish them flat?
How long does it take in your warming closet and at what temperature?
Do you treat them with anything? The store bought package of sun-dried tomatoes in my pantry lists ingredients of citric acid, ascorbic acid, salt and another type of acid that I can't translate from the Italian. These additives seem a bit excessive to me.
Joined: Mar 14, 2005 Posts: 70 Location: Northern Massachusetts
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2005 7:58 pm Post subject:
Pops wrote:
Thanks oowolf, saved me lots of trouble! Me and my big ideas.
They used to use wooden drying trays in the old days in CA, what about lauan plywood underlayment I wonder? It’s about as cheap as anything you can buy and fairly smooth - I don’t need any strength.
Lauan is good stuff. I suggest treating the plywood with a coat of mineral oil which is food safe. It would act as a release agent and also contain any tiny splinters that might tend to attach to the food. Maybe cutting some slots would allow better air circulation too.
Old refrigerator shelves and stove racks could be another option for larger produce.
Joined: May 19, 2005 Posts: 812 Location: Merry Ol' USA
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2005 11:11 pm Post subject:
pstarr wrote:
I_Like_Plants wrote:
Gawd, there are no objects in the wild more unpleasant than a black walnut with the husk on, and I'm including horse apples, dead skunks, and a vulture's dinner (gross, was being eaten by a vulture) I saw.
I'd sure like to learn how to deal with those things, since they grow fairly commonly, even in fairly dry areas, and I don't think most people want to mess with them.
we put them in the gravel driveway and ran them over with the car. This removed the fiberous green husk from the inner shell. Then we dried the inner shell in the sun. then we threw the entire mess away.
You can also make a nice stain with these walnuts. Once you crack the outer shell, you can scoop up the goop and add it to some linseed oil to make a nice oil-based stain. The more goop, the darker the stain will be (to a point). Wear gloves, because this stuff will stain for a while! There's also a way of getting oil out of the walnuts themselves, but you'd need a lot of walnuts to get enough oil to be able to do anything with it... _________________ After fueling up their cars, Twyman says they bowed their heads and asked God for cheaper gas.There was no immediate answer, but he says other motorists joined in and the service station owner didn't run them off.
Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 6956 Location: My Grandkids' Farm
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:26 pm Post subject:
Hybrid indeterminate tomatoes I had good success with in Ca (and someone recommended them out here too) are early girls and ace. I’m growing Brandywines and talk about indeterminate! There is no end to them.
I like runner (pole) beans for the same reason – not all ready at once. We’ve put up about a dozen quarts and quite a few pints from the first picking of the first row. In our experience, when bush beans are ready, they’re ready. If you have a lot to can you really can’t do anything else till they are done. OTOH pole beans stay on the vine longer, and you might be able too pick them every five or six days and if you are doing a bunch of something else that needs more prep you can just sneak in a bushel of beans at the end. Before they are done you have a pantry full.
BTW Kathy, are you preserving any eggs? I love pickled eggs. _________________ Make a plan and work it:
I've never run short of green beans since I started gardening and canning . For pole beans, I've generally grown Kentucky Wonder. They do well and there are always soooooooooo many of them . You can pick them every 5 or 6 days, Pops, but you have to be careful they don't get tough - and they will, fast, if you leave them too long. OTOH, you can always deliberately let them get tough and can up the green shell beans (the beans that form in the middle when they're left on the plant too long). They're pretty good, too.
I haven't pickled any eggs as yet, but I might end up doing that. I've eaten pickled eggs, but I'm not crazy about them. My brother loves them, though. He spent too many years in Korea and developed a taste for them when he was in the Army. My babies (brown egg layers) are just now starting to give me some eggs on a regular basis. They're small, and I'm only getting about 3 brown eggs a day, but I know before long I'll be over run with them. I have 38 hens that are brown egg layers, and theyll all be in high gear before long.
Today, to deal with the excess eggs, I've got about a dozen and a half in a pot on the stove boiling. Gonna make some egg salad for dinner. Last night, we had breakfast for dinner lol. So far, they haven't overtaken the house.... but we shall see.
Kathy
Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 6956 Location: My Grandkids' Farm
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 1:00 pm Post subject:
That's what we have too. We are used to watching them since the soil we always gardened before was very sandy - and even though it is dry for out here, rain on beans is something I've never had the luxury of before!
--
I’m always anxious for the kids to quit re-hiding the eggs at Easter cause I have a big jar of pickle juice that I’ve saved with some fresh vinegar in the fridge ready to pluck them into. I usually eat them so fast they aren’t done all the way through!
Maybe too many lunches at the ol' watering hole? _________________ Make a plan and work it:
Well, I plan on cold packing pickles, with the dill from the garden, and we'll cold pack the jalepenos,too. We also went out and picked 9 lbs of blueberries at a local blueberry farm, and froze them so that'll see my family through lots of pancakes and apple/blueberry crisps. I'm thinking, also about dehydrating the tomatos in my oven, as I can't imagine we'll have hot dry days here, and I plan on putting them in olive oil and herbs from the garden,and refrigerating. I've never done this before, but it should taste OK!
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. For pole beans, I've generally grown Kentucky Wonder. They do well and there are always soooooooooo many of them 
