Who here use's Awesome?
Judy Good
4 years ago
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Comments (29)
Judy Good
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Awesome but strange weather here!
Comments (5)With tomatoes, the earlier I plant, the better the year I have, but that sometimes means planting when it is really too cold for them at night and I have to do a lot to protect them. It pays off, though, when the big harvest hits in early June and I'm canning nonstop in the early June heat instead of in the early July heat that we have in a typical summer. I almost always am canning tomatoes on July 4th because we often have a cool July 4th for reasons I cannot logically explain. The reason last year was such a great tomato year here was that I was able to start putting tomato plants in the ground during the first week in March. I never really had to worry about cold threatening them after that either because it got so hot so early. That's why a lot of us had such a great tomato year last year----just because we could plant 4 to 6 or even 7 weeks earlier than usual. I expect y'all have a good July rainy spell maybe once a decade there at best? I bet the farmers and ranchers were really excited, and I hope they got enough rain to make a real difference this year. Here in my part of OK, we have a really rainy July about twice a decade....the two I remember best prior to this year would be 2007 (really the rain was more in May and June but it carried into early July) and 2004. When you get a lot of rainfall at one time, it can have all kinds of effects on tomatoes. There are a lot of variables, including the size and stage of development of the tomatoes prior to the rainfall. You're likely to see some concentric cracking with large-fruited varieties if they already were fairly mature and about to ripen. The texture of the fruit is likely to suffer and the flavor may seem watered down. You might see rainchecking on the fruit, but it won't affect the flavor, just the appearance. Sometimes there is so much rain you even see longitudinal cracking along with concentric cracking, but that is a lot more rare here. When a big rainy spell is forecast, if I think that the rain actually is going to fall, I pick all the tomatoes that have reached breaker stage before the rain starts falling. Since we often have heavy rain in the forecast and then it misses us completely, I often wait until it is about to rain and then I run outside and pick everything at breaker stage and beyond. That saves the flavor, texture and appearance of at least those fruit. A few days of heavy rain will only affect the tomatoes that were fairly large and near ripening at the time the rain fell. The flavor of smaller and less mature fruit that won't be ripe for, let's say another 3 or 4 weeks, generally isn't impacted unless you keep having more rain and then more and more and more. That seems unlikely in your location. If you have cherry tomato fruit that was close to ripening, you'll probably see a lot of splitting. You shouldn't see the texture issues after next week since y'all undoubtedly will return quickly to your usual hot, dry, miserable summer weather in days, not weeks. When we have persistent heavy rainfall and the fruit has to grow in it endlessly, the effect on flavor and texture is devastating. In 2004 the rain was more of a May-June thing and was heavy but not overwhelmingly so and the flavor/texture of the early fruit suffered, but by mid- or late-July, the fruit were fine. Then in 2007, we had about 8 or 9" of rain in May followed by about a foot of rain (and weeks of flooding) in June (you might remember that as the year of the big Gainesville, TX, flood) and the fruit wasn't any good at all until sometime in August. Rainfall is good, of course, and I hate to complain about any rain, but in terms of growing tomatoes, it is better to have the heavy rain in April and May when the plants are young and just setting fruit, than to have it in June and July when fruit is ripening and is being harvested. Often, when the heavy rain severely impacts the texture and flavor of the fruit, I dehydrate the tomatoes about half-way and then use them on sandwiches. Partially dehydrating them can save the flavor by pulling out a lot of the excess moisture, but it does change the texture, and the flavor might improve and intensity after you partially dehydrate them, but there is no guarantee. I also cook a lot with rainfall-affected tomatoes. Using them in salsa, tortilla soup,taco soup, etc. adds lots of other flavors that help make up for the fact that the rain has watered down the flavor and also has had a negative impact on the texture. Dawn...See MoreInteresting PIC . . . who is who here?
Comments (16)Thank you Sunlight! I like taking pics of the bugs as much as I do the flowers and plants :) The caterpillar in the pic is a webworm . . . I've since found several trying to attack our pecan tree so regardless of who this little bug/fly is--he is my friend! As far as the Marsh fly pic, I thought the eyes and wing pattern were noticeably similar; those eyes are really neat. I live in Texas so, the statement from the site is supportive....See MoreWho here used SW Creamy? Also need color advice
Comments (7)There you go, I can tell you're getting tired of this decision making crap already. LOL Either would be fine. oak, to see the true color of a paint, make sure you paint a large poster board. Then take it to all lights, i.e., southern exposure, under the light bulbs you'll using, day and night. The way I found if a paint I like had undertones was to sit in my office, which is a south facing window with bright sun. I would turn sideways in my chair and hold the sample to the light on an angle and could always get the "true" color of the paint that way. I also looked at the color under the lighting of the Reveal bulbs I speak of. Don't make your decision by what you see on the monitor because that is the least accurate way. However, having the paint web site is nice because you can put other colors next to the color you are considering and it will help you to see if it has undertones. That's what I did on the BM and SW web pages. However, through all that anquish, most of my decisions were simply made at the last minute when DH announced one day "the painter is coming next week." LOL, I always work best under pressure!! My Rich Cream that I love so much came from my neighbor who I was trying to help chose paint for her rooms that my DH was remodeling for her. She happened to go to BM one day and came home with a sample, I tried it and I was hooked. So you really never know where or when you'll find that right color....See MoreWho's the awesome person with the tags?
Comments (13)Bestlawn was banned from this site. I don't know why. Some of us wrote letter to TPTB to let her come back but I guess that didn't help. I was just thinking about her right before I opened this thread. I miss her too. Linda...See MoreLukki Irish
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