How are the 2018 Gardens Progressing?

[BakerAunt]

Glad to hear that your freezer is fixed, Mike! And before the weekend! And in time for the tomato harvest!

I have been wondering about a food mill with the tomatoes for removing skin and seeds.

Is there a specific reason for removing tomato seeds? I've never done so.

[Mike Nolan]

Many people think seeds make the sauce bitter and don't like getting them in between their teeth. Looking at the reduced sauce (about 8 quarts) I don't see as many seeds as I was seeing at first, I think the seeds may rise to the top during cooking. I'm declaring it finished and will let it start cooling. If I get enough tomatoes for another batch of sauce, I may try to concasse them before running them through the Roma mill to remove the skins.

The temperature last night dipped into the lower 40's here, and the high is supposed
to be 72 today. It may hit the 80's again tomorrow, but I think the 90+ heat is over.

[S_Wirth]

Regarding the seeds, I have always heard the seeds taste bitter after freezing. I love my Foley food mill for so many things, Easy to use and clean. Applesauce, tomatoes, persimmons are just some examples.

We had eight days of 95 and one 96 before today. Our low this morning was 60 and at noon it is 61. I hope the heat is gone for this year.

[Mike Nolan]

We missed a freeze last night by a degree or two, but over the weekend it could get as low as 27, so I stripped as many of the green and ripening tomatoes as I could from the plants, 5 large bowls of them. I'll let them ripen in the garage over the next 3-8 weeks. They're not as sweet that way, but they make excellent chili and can be made into tomato sauce that's a bit on the tart side but has good flavor.

[BakerAunt]

We had our first cold day of the autumn today. It is supposed to get close to freezing the next few nights. My husband covered the garden, after picking whatever was ripe or getting close to ripe. I'm hoping we can avoid the freeze a little longer.

[chocomouse]

I put my vegetable garden to bed several weeks ago. It was the worst garden I've ever had, and I'm glad to be done with it. Now I'm cleaning up the flower beds. We are still picking raspberries, however. Temps have been in the low 50s at night, 60s during the days, although this week we had two 80* days. We're on the river, so our temps are a bit more moderate than areas just a half mile away. I don't see any frost forecasts for the near future.

[BakerAunt]

Our garden was fine last night, but tonight may be a different story. My husband and I covered it the best we could after picking what was ready.

[BakerAunt]

We returned last night from a two day excursion. Our gardening covering had blown off, but the plants were ok. My husband covered it again after we got back, and the plants did well although it got down to 30F elsewhere in the area. We'll see if we get any more tomatoes.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by BakerAunt.

[skeptic7]

I have had 6 or 7 tomatoes from my one volunteer tomato plant. I've eaten two or three and they were great! The Chinese chive seeds are all full grown and blowing off. I should remove the seed stalks and try eating the leaves again. I gave up cutting them when the flowers were in bloom.

Some of my rosemary has a bad case of scale. I sprayed soap and water in the early summer which didn't stop the infestation, and now I am doing oil sprays. I hope the plants survive the winter but from past experience the weakened branches are more likely to die. I am going to take two small plants inside for the winter. They are in pots.

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