Tag: freezing

Posted on

Afternoon harvest and repotting

Buckwheat is blooming.
Peruvian ground cherries are having a few potential fruits!
Paula and I repotted all the winter babies.
More babies.
The Missouri Yellow Watermelon weighs almost 12 lbs!
It’s so ripe that when I started to slice, it cracked open more on its own.
It was very tasty and sweet and crisp.
In the evening, I sliced some peppers for freezing. Green ones are jalapeños from our garden and red ones are serranos from a friend.
I made a small batch of salsa verde. Too little to can, so I froze it.
Posted on

Saturday stuff

I froze tiny tomatoes last night and they left funny holes.
Two Bombus impatiens (common eastern bumblebee).
Trimmed out the dead spots in the middle rosemary. I’m not sure why it’s upset.
Paula very wisely suggested trimming the Salvia greggii so we can better access the veggies, plus it’ll make them bloom more again.
As an experiment, we also trimmed back one of the Salvia farinacea (mealy blue sage) which are all getting very leggy.
Posted on

Suspense

Did the tender plants (tomatoes, peppers, ground cherries, potatoes, and runner beans) make it yesterday??? Tuesday night into Wednesday morning it got down to 29F in Norman, apparently a new record low (the previous being 30F in 1918. SEE WHO WEATHERED THE WEATHER!!

Tommy toe tomato did not make it. Note how the leaves are a darker, mushy/soft green and drooping. Goner.
Both of my new tomato varieties, supposed to be better for canning, died. One was the Amish paste (not pictured), which I have more of in pots. The other was Hungarian heart tomato (pictured). I have planted some more seeds and put them in the warm plant window to sprout. The culprit is pictured on the left… oatmeal container cardboard does not insulate enough. I thought it would be nicer since they’re tall and big, but apparently you need more, like the air trapped in corrugated cardboard. All the survivors were under towels, glass jars, plastic jars, plastic pots with newspapers, cardboard boxes, or even leaves-as-mulch (one Peruvian ground cherry in the backyard). A few branches got frosted but they can be trimmed off.
One branch of this potato died when the box top fell in (I had set another bag of potatoes on top). But the rest of the plants were fine. An example of corrugated cardboard doing its insulation job. I was surprised that an uncovered potato in a raised bed did not completely die of frost. Only a branch or two was dead.

Three casualties of a late frost, and all due to poor choices of insulation (which I now know to avoid), are really not bad. I’m pretty pleased.

Posted on

30s next few nights

I put towels, newspapers in pots, glass jars, and plastic jars over the tender plants (peppers, tomatillos, tomatos, ground cherries). The unplanted ones will go in the garage or house.
Posted on

Cilantro: 359 g

I’ve been meaning for several weeks to harvest, blanch, and freeze some cilantro.

After blanching, I balled it up to squeeze out water, though I left a few flat with stems too. Last year I only froze it, no blanching, and it was only good to mix in stuff. When it thawed out it was gross looking. Maybe this will help a little. Plus, now that I’ve cut all the plants back, hopefully that will delay bolting a little longer. Plants in the backyard are starting to flower so I’m just letting them go to seed.