Dawn
No, you are not the only one having a problem keeping up with all the harvest. Seems like that's when the real push begins. We love to have the crops preserved and put away, but we have to remember we brought it on ourselves by planting so much,lol.

My real concern with this unseasonably cool weather is that the temps are getting so low in some parts of Oklahoma that it's going to bring an abrupt end to the harvest by spoiling some of the late summer crops. Melons still on the vine, and okra at sort of a standstill, etc.

Fortunately however, the cool season crops are planted and coming up so it may be an offset in that manner, and hopefully we'll have a nice long Indian Summer to enjoy these...... unless Mom Nature throws us another curve ball.

Barbara

Barbara,

I am pretty far south and we normally have moderate to severe drought conditions in July and August. For me, most years the big harvest is in June and continues into July in all but the worst droughts. By early to mid-July in drought years, the water bill has gone out of the stratosphere and I stop watering and let the garden go. So, being able to water enough to keep the harvest going into August/September is really special.

Some years I have a good fall garden and some years I don't--it depends on whether or not rain starts falling and also on the first freeze date.

I picked the hot pepper plants hard last week---three times. I absolutely picked every pepper that was close to its mature size and got busy trying to preserve all of them that I could. I was fairly confident I wouldn't "have to" pick peppers for another couple of weeks. Needless to say, I looked at the pepper plants today and will have to pick again by about Friday unless I want to leave the peppers on long enough to turn red.

Usually, I leave the 'last' harvest on to turn red, so that means I generally stop picking green ones in mid-October and let them all go red. (I let a few go red over the course of the summer, but pick most jalapenos when they are green and starting to cork.)

I guess this weekend will be another big weekend of pepper canning/drying.

I know we'll enjoy the fruits of the harvest for months yet, but it is wearing me out.

As for Mother Nature and her curveballs, well, I rather expect for her to lob them at us.

Dawn

Dawn - Although I am envious of all of the food you are able to store, I am not envious of the work, either in the garden or in the kitchen. LOL It is a big job. I think I will do a little more of it next year.

I normally plant only for the fresh veggies, but will "put up" a few if I have them. I can't stand to see them go to waste. I'm afraid our harvest is a bit different. LOL Today I picked a large bunch of radishes, 6 squash, 2 tomatoes, 4 bell peppers and a handful of other peppers. I can take care of that with a couple of days meals.

We got a nice little rain today. Mesonet has recorded .73 but I notice it went out for awhile so I doubt that is a good reading. I haven't checked the rain guage, but I can still walk in my garden without being in mud, but I dug down a couple of inches and it was wet. I have one end that isn't yet planted, but I have the fall transplants just about a week from being ready to put in. Some have suffered a little insect damage while still in the pots, but I have plenty to replace them.

We did get a 4x12 raised bed built which should help me in the rainy springs. I hope to put hoops on it and cover it for the winter, but don't have that part done yet. So much work and so little time. (That is kind of a joke because I could spend all the daylight hours out there if I wanted to, and some days I almost do that.) I just started the year with such a mess that it has been a big job. My fall garden looks good though so I know it has been worth the effort.

I did another canner-load of tomatoes (quarts) yesterday. Or maybe it was day-before... Since I've retired I lose track of the days. Today I picked the red Delicious apples off the one remaining, but also wobbly, apple tree in the yard. It is younger than the other tree was and didn't bear very much. Neither of the apple trees did this year because of the late frost. I got less than a peck of apples from it, and maybe half a bushel off the yellow Delicious before it gave up the ghost and fell over. I'll be ordering new apple trees soon from Stark Bros, and planting them in the front yard. The dog doesn't spend any time in the front yard so I'm kind of concerned about the squirrels -- but the neighbor's cats hang out there and on my porch so maybe that'll be sufficient. The cats are such nuisances sometimes, if they keep the squirrels away they will be earning the little snacks I give them, since they always seem to be hungry. I know some cats will prey on squirrels. When I was a kid we used to have a mama cat who would kill the young squirrels. It wasn't unusual to see her walking across the grass, with the neck of the squirrel in her mouth, dragging it's body under her belly.

My garden's about done. I cleaned, sliced, blanched and froze about a gallon of carrots also. I could've left them in the ground but considering the insect population, I decided not to do that. I have Moon and Stars but they're having problems so I don't know if I'll get anything, and Warsaw Buff pie pumpkin but I've been having wilt problems.

Starting to get a few fall tomatoes. Mostly these are from plants that I started last February, but I left them in their 32-oz drink cups clear till early June because I had too many. Didn't sell many during the spring garage sale because it was so durn cold, I couldn't bring them out till the afternoon of the last day. By then, most of your traffic is done. I gave a bunch away. But the ones I still had, I just couldn't stand to toss, so I found places here and there in the yard -- along the fence -- in the flower bed, etc. Oddly enough, they are just now coming into their own and they are putting on fruit like crazy. Most of the tomato seed that I planted in little peat bullets in late June did not make the transplant, but I have three or four. They're still pretty small and I doubt they'll make anything before the frost. I trimmed the plants that I had put in the ground in April 'way down, and I've sprayed them all two or three times with Neem. A few of them have come out of it and started sending out new growth. The ones that didn't, I've just started pulling out.

All in all, this has been an interesting summer. Poor for beans, great for cabbage.

I'm still working on those watermelons. I borrowed my mother's juicer today and that was a huge help. My son has offered to drink the juice just as straight juice, so that may well be the fate of the rest of the watermelons. I've finally had melons that were perfectly ripe, as well as a couple black tails that were overripe.

I accidentally burned the tar out of my tomatoes, squash and pumpkins. I believe I will lose all the squash and most of the pumpkin vines as a result of spraying them with over-concentrated pesticide. I know nothing, really, about using pesticides because I never have. So when my father gave me a backpack sprayer, a sack of concentrate and a booklet of directions with directions for me to spray his garden, I misread the directions and used too much. I had decided that since squash bugs were killing my pumpkins and squash (so really, I'm not sure I'm "losing" anything I wouldn't have lost by not spraying them) that I'd spray them too. And while I was at it, I'd spray the tomatoes because I was sure there were caterpillars on there I wasn't finding. (and there were - several dropped dead out of the plants)

The tomato plants aren't dead and their new growth at the tips looks healthy. But most of their older foliage is dead. The tomatoes already on them are ripening. The squash and pumpkins died anyway, though I have plenty of pumpkins I might as well harvest. I'll lose a couple because they weren't entirely turned. :(

And of course I burned the heck out of my father's garden too, though I didn't spray his as heavily as mine and instead of outright "kill", it's more along the lines of damage and setback.

It sure did kill all the bugs. Next time I'll just let the bugs kill the plants instead though. I won't feel so guilty about it.

As a result of that, my over-abundant harvest will only be the melons (which I did not spray because they don't have bugs). I've probably set the tomatoes back so much they won't be able to give me more fruit for a while. I have only two orange fleshed cantaloupes still on the vine, but probably 20 of the green fleshed muskmelons. The watermelons seem invigorated that I'm picking the ripe melons and they're putting on a new set of fruit.

I wouldn't mind more okra to put up, but I think I have enough squash and cantaloupe. I'd love more tomatoes, but such is not to be. We've had our first white corn and it was yummy, but the corn is ripening very unevenly so it's tough to tell when it's ready. When they're all gone on the first stand I'll pull the stalks and plant something there. Something cold-tolerant.

It's been quite the learning experience.

Carol,

For me, the likely difference this year is both that the combination of rain and some irrigation kept the garden producing AND we've had very few grassfires at our end of the county, so I haven't been running all over feeding/hydrating firefighters. In a drier year, I wouldn't have a lot left to harvest by now, and that's assuming I wasn't running to fires and even had time to harvest and put food by.

The bulk of my food preservation is usually in spring/early sumer when the broccoli, corn, potatoes, green beans, onions and tomatoes are in production big-time. Okra, peppers, melons and black-eyed peas are usually a bit later, and then from late July on, there usually isn't much to put up because I cook it and we eat it about as quickly as I harvest it. So, in August and September, I'm more likely to be harvesting and drying herbs or deadheading flowers/seed saving, etc.

This year is just odd all around....everything was late. Most of the tomatoes had to be dealt with in July, although there's enough every week to put up a couple of quarts, eat all we want, and give a few away. The peppers, though, just keep coming.

If the fall green beans, black-eyed peas, cucumbers and sweet corn do well, I'll have no complaints....the spring green beans and corn weren't that great in terms of quantity produced.

Ilene, I think I am going to pull most of the squash and all of the melon plants today. They've had every pest and disease problem under the sun in August and aren't healthy enough to bother with at this point. I really miss having the guineas and the free-range chickens. My garden is completely full of grasshoppers, squash bugs, stink bugs and leaf-footed bugs and the dreaded spider mites. I haven't seen any lady bugs this week. I wonder where they went.

At least pulling the melons and squash will leave me some space for cold-season plants.

Game bird, Sorry to hear about the pesticide burn. I just won't spray hardly anything at all in my garden other than Spinosad, which is organic. I was going to spray it today, but it is rainy, so there's no point. I hate using any spray at all, even organic ones.

My melons have really declined, so I am yanking them out today. I think their problem mostly is red spider mites and there is nothing much you can do about them (or, at least, nothing I'll spray in my garden).

I need to get the cold season stuff in the ground ASAP now that we're not having 100-degree days any more. Seems like we had to wait forever for the August temperatures to break here.

Gardening is always a learning experience, and sometimes I think I have to re-learn the same lessons over and over again.

Most years, some things produce heavily and others don't, so this year has been that way for me. My usually reliable potatoes and onions both did poorly, apparently because they didn't appreciate receiving 18" of rain in 4 or 5 weeks. Everything else, except beans, has done well though. Still, I am glad we don't rely solely on the garden for our produce.

I am hoping for a late first freeze so the fall plants have a chance to be as productive as the spring plants have been.

Dawn

What all do yall can? I'm new to canning and this year I have canned zuchini relish, jalepeno relish and salsa -- that's really all I know how to do, so I have A LOT of jars of these 3 things.

I have to say though that I really like my salsa when it's fresh but when I eat the salsa after it's canned, it's really just not as good -- any ideas? I sort of followed the recipe for anne's salsa that I found on gardenweb.

Does any one have a good hot sauce recipe - maybe that would be the difference?

Melissia,

I've made three kinds of hot jelly--Habanero Gold, Jalapeno Gold (same as Hab Gold, but with jalapenos instead of habaneros) and regular jalapeno jelly. The pepper jellies are especially good when paired with cream cheese on crackers or on homemade cornbread muffins. You also can brush them over different kinds of meat when you're grilling it to glaze the surface and add flavor.

You can make your own jalapeno pepper rings, although it is a somewhat long process because you have to soak the rings in lime/water for 12-24 hours and then do 3 or 4 rinses with an hour between each rinse to be sure you get all the lime out of them. You can make pickled bread and butter jalapenos.....just like you make regular bread and butter pickles, only substituting jalapenos for cucumbers.

As far as canned salsa, there are many recipes and you have to experiment to figure out which one you like best. If you'll tell me which ingredients you normally put in your homemade salsa, I'll post the canned salsa recipe I have that is closest to your ingredient list. One reason you may not like canned salsa as much is because of the vinegar that is added, but the vinegar is important for safety reasons.

There are other things to make with jalapenos too---jalapeno jam, candied jalapenos, candied jalapeno strips (kind of like candied orange peel), etc.

You can oven-roast jalapenos to make your own chipotles and then freeze them for use in cooking.

You can freeze jalapenos without oven roasting them and use them in cooking too.

You can dehydrate jalapenos until they are really brittle and then grind them up to make jalapeno powder to use in cooking. I save old spice bottles (always have lots of mustard seed bottles because of pickle-making) and put the powdered pepper in them.

I like to chop up some jalapeno peppers and freeze them in small portions. I put them in those snack-sized zip-lock bags in 1/4 cup amounts. Then, I put a lot of the snack-sized zip-lock bags in a 1-gallon freezer zip-lock bag. When I need some for cooking, I just take out as many of the little snack-sized zip-locks as needed for that recipe.

If you really like the flavor of jalapeno peppers and can take a LOT of heat, let me know and I'll post a recipe for Jalapeno Salsa, but be forewarned--it has 3 cups of tomatoes and 3 cups of jalapenos, so it is a very strongly-flavored salsa. I'm too much of a wimp to eat it.

You also can mix jalapenos with fruit for a hot and fruity salsa---like peach or mango or apricot. If you're interested in a recipe like that, let me know.

Our jalapenos have gone nuts and are producing like mad, and I am going nuts using them up!

Dawn

OK, Dawn, I'd like to have that Nacho Pepper Ring recipe -- if it doesn't call for sugar.

I've looked all over for a canning recipe that will give me a product like those jars of nacho pepper slices that are mixed into melted Velveeta for Nachos. DGS absolutely LOVES those. I've thought about using a recipe I have that calls for added sugar, and just leave the sugar out, as it also calls for vinegar and salt, but I'm kind of afraid I'll end up with something that will go bad and I don't want to risk that. I don't think there's oil in the recipe, either.

I normally end up with more jalepenos than I can use, so this year I planted light. For the past couple of weeks I have wished I had planted heavy. LOL Ilene I buy those peppers also and the jar just says, peppers, vinegar, salt, and spices. My DH likes them on lots of things, but my favorite use is to cut them up and make jalapeno cornbread with onion and cheese added to the batter also.

Oh, yeah, Carol, that's good, too! Spices bother DH's stomach so I don't make things like that very often, but you know I think I'll start cutting the recipes in half because I would like to have something spicy every now and then, and I know DGS would enjoy it. We outnumber DH two to one! LOL

I wonder what the spices are that they say are in the jar? I don't taste anything but the jalapeno, vinegar and salt. I'd think the peppers would be spice enough, wouldn't you? I wonder if I just made a brine like I was going to make dill pickles, and left out the dill, the garlic and the grape leaf, would that do it?

Ilene,

The recipe I use is from the National Center for Home Food Preservation at the Univ. of Georgia. Rather than retyping it, I'll link it below. It is a great recipe, and I looked long and hard for one I could trust to be safe before finally finding it. You might wonder why I didn't look an the NCHFP website first....and I don't know why I didn't. LOL It does require a lime/water soak to help keep the peppers crisp, but it does use up a lot of peppers and Tim does like to eat them, so it is a win-win situation. Sugar is not an ingredient either.

Carol, Now you've gone and done it....you've made me hungry for what we know as Mexican cornbread! I bet I'll have to make some now because I'll crave it until I do.

I think the spices y'all are talking about probably are mustard seed and celery seed? I think that's what is in the pepper rings. We'll see in a minute when I find and link the recipe.

Happy Peppering!

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Pickled Jalapeno Pepper Rings

Well, allrightie! Mustard seed and celery seed. Hmmmm. I just looked at my jar of peppers and the label says turmeric and sodium bisulfate in addition to the peppers, vinegar and salt.

Thanks Dawn for finding that recipe for me!

Ilene,

You are so welcome.

It is a better pickle ring recipe than anything in any of my canning cookbooks and I am always confident in using their recipes because NCHFP tests all their recipes. Some of my recipe books are so old, and the accepted/revised standards have changed so much over the years that I worry about using some of the old recipes. The NHCFP is my go-to site to find out the latest "rules" or accepted practices.

I use a lot of tumeric in pickling, but not in this recipe.

I made the pickle rings and bread and butter jalapenos the same week, and I have never sliced so many peppers in my life. Because I wanted them to look good, I hand sliced each and every jalapeno. I think it was 7 lbs. total for the two different recipes. Next time I'll just use the food processor.

Dawn