Saturday Gardening and Puttering Thread, Independence Day Weekend

The quiet firework above is brought to us by Hrothgar:

As a constant garden thread lurker (and marginally effective gardener), I always enjoy the time you put into that thread. I seem to have an abundance of day lilies at Hovel de Hrothgar, and almost none of them seem to be the same. This one jumped out at me this morning as I walked Conor.

And later, this remark: "That plant today produced its third spectacular and huge bloom (roughly 6"x8"), what a lovely thing to see in the morning."

We have already had some pretty noisy fireworks near our house, scaring the dogs. So we will be stay-at-homes in the evenings this weekend. But later in the thread, there are more examples of silent fireworks, mostly for earlier in the day. You may have to use your imagination a little. We also have some things to eat, plus baby animals to admire, and more.

Edible Gardening and Farming

Our friends have good things coming out of their garden here in the Central San Joaquin Valley of California. Tomatoes, squash, peppers. "Cucumbers are not cooperating".

They may need some shade or a trellis. And a heat-tolerant variety.

But there were enough peppers for homemade salsa, with extra tomatoes to take on a family vacation:

Tips for their veggie harvest include above-grade beds to allow heavy amendment of their clay soil and even watering.

More, from a friend in Arizona.

Getting a little late for broccoli, perhaps. There were 5 more bowls like this one.

But back to tomatoes and peppers. By-Tor has some plants growing. And he makes salsa, sometimes with his daughter.

Restaurant style salsa on my new Father's Day gift of a Ninja 3000 food processor. Pretty easy - tomatoes, garlic, onions, cilantro, salt, lemon juice, jalapenos. How much? I don't know, throw it in and blend it until it tastes right. It's hard to mess up. I cook mine a few minutes to soften everything and blend the flavors.

"Some people prefer it uncooked". Which is how our California friends make it, when they don't can it for winter.

By-Tor also reports that:

Not all of the tomatoes from my garden make it to the ripe stage.

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES

The trickier part is getting ahold of some. If you don't grow your own you need to find someone that does, and see if they can hook you up. If you get some, slice them about 1/4 inch, like in this photo. Put some flour on a plate and dip them on both side. Dont dip them in egg or any of that. When you get them dusted, fry them in about 1/4 inch of hot oil ( if you have bacon grease even better).

Put a lot of salt and some pepper on them. More salt than you think; you need it to balance the sweet/sour of the tomatoes.

Put between two slices of plain white bread. Layer them up to about 1/2 inch. No mayo, butter or weird sauces.

If you google "fried green tomatoes" you will find lots of complicated and fancypants recipes for them, and sauces. Avoid. What makes this one good is the simplicity.

I always associated fried green tomatoes with corn meal. I'm allergic to corn, so this seems like a good recipe for me. I think I would like it.

Anybody else make Fried Green Tomatoes?

Lemon Boy, an older yellow hybrid slicer, is a preferred variety for Fried Green tomatoes, if you are making a list for next year.

He also took this photo of a watermelon. He didn't grow it, but some farmer somewhere did. I have never been good at growing these. How about you?

Are you good at picking good watermelons? I seem to do a better job of judging ripeness in the market than in the garden. I have no idea why. Maybe I am taking that "little brown leaf and tendril next to the melon" thing too seriously. Or maybe I am growing them wrong.

And for the Fourth of July, berries! From the garden or farm. Recipes, simple or fancy.

Here is another one, Ricotta-stuffed strawberries, with some nice Fourth of July memories. You could also stuff the berries with sweetened, vanilla-flavored cream cheese, pudding, etc.

Cherries and blueberries are both good here right now. How about where you are?

Including garden or farm produce in your weekend festivities? Or are you going totally carnivorous? (Photo from Larro)

Puttering

Cousin's patriotic quilt for this summer:

Baby Animals

From Illiniwek's Farm:

Lots of babies showing up . . .

at least three babies there, and just happened to catch one parent leaving the nest.

Nine wood ducklings were out there yesterday.

Good to see about a dozen small turkeys appear between the beans and the creek. Raccoons and bobcats have been hard on the turkey populations.

More Quiet Fireworks

Use your imagination.

From Neal in Israel, a spectacular amaryllis that reminded me of fireworks:

From Jerry in Alaska:

Leopard's Bane

Elderberry

Shooting Stars

Brookgreen Gardens, Summer Light

If you would like to send information and/or photos for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:

ktinthegarden
at that g mail dot com place

Include the nic by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ,
unless you want to remain a lurker.

posted by K.T. at 01:05 PM

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