What's New?

Nothing much new around here. The weather is still all the news. Temps expected to reach 101 degrees today with a heat index over 110 degrees. We're staying close to the air conditioner where it's at least bearable.

I went outside and gathered some fresh basil to go in my tomato, onion, and cucumber salad we're having for "Lupper" (that's lunch and supper for those who don't know). I'm going to microwave some potatoes and grill a couple of small steaks. That's going to be our evening meal.

I plan to cut some fresh chives to sprinkle over the baked potatoes. So there will be another trip out into the heat. Also, have to heat the grill up and keep the steaks from burning. But, that's not like staying outside all evening nor is it as hot as heating up the kitchen with the oven/stove. :)

We've had a rough week around here. William's youngest brother had a stroke last Monday. He's recovering nicely except he still can't speak but for a few words. He was paralyzed on the right side at first but he has regained use of his arm and leg even though he is still weak in these areas.

William's Mom had some tests done last Monday to check out some lumps the doctor found in her abdomen. The doctor is concerned that the cancer has come back. We're going with her tomorrow to get the results of the tests. I pray they are negative and must have faith in the prayers but I'm really afraid for her and for William (and all her family).

William will be starting back to school on Tuesday. He's supposed to start tomorrow but is taking off to go with Mamaw. I hope he gets to start on a positive note.

I know this isn't about gardening but it's about family and family is more important than gardening. Or it is to me, anyway. Gardening comes in second!

Back to gardening.....We did get the squash, zucchinis, butternut squash, cucumbers, and green beans planted. I hope these will produce better than the ones we had this summer. We also have eight tomato plants growing in a raised bed. Good food for the fall.

We need to get a bed or some beds made in which to plant greens. We can plant greens here until around the first of September and they will have time to get a head start on the cold.

Our fall/winter garden will include turnip greens, mustard, kale, swiss chard, lettuces, spinach and transplant some collard greens. The collard greens and kale will survive our winters. The other greens will make it through several light frosts.

I've been looking into row covers to protect the greens from frost. If I order the row covers the veggies should make it until we have a hard freeze. I'll go to any lengths to have fresh veggies on my table. LOL

That's enough rambling for me today. There's a steak with my name on it waiting to be grilled and a potato waiting to be baked. Wish y'all could join us. Maybe one day!

Thank Goodness For The Neshoba County Fair!

The Neshoba County Fair is being held this week....This fair is known as the Giant House Party. The fairgrounds have two and three story cabins built all over the grounds....except for the race track and an area for carnival rides and games. There are acres and acres of cabins and camping trailers set up just for the fair.

People come home from all over the world (or just come from all over the world) to attend the Neshoba County Fair. It's a huge reunion every year.

William and I don't attend this giant get together mainly because it's hotter than heck without being around the huge engines running the rides and the crowds of people bumping into each other swapping sweat.

William and I have looked forward to this week for another reason. We have had a very dry summer. There has been no rain to amount to anything for close to two months. BUT.......

Every year during the Neshoba County Fair it rains. It rains most every day. It thunders and there's lightening. This has been true this week. It has been a little rain every day since Saturday. Some days it was only a short sprinkle, some days it came a good shower for about fifteen minutes but today it rained for almost an hour. A good soaking rain...just what we need for our old veggie plants and the new ones we have growing.

William and I have discussed several times the probability of rain the week of the Neshoba County Fair. If we had bet on it we'd won and won big time.

The best thing about this is today is only Tuesday. By Friday we should be saturated. Maybe!

This is how dry we have been here in East Central Mississippi.....The Kudzu is withering and drying up. Now when Kudzu withers and the leaves start turning brown from lack of water, it has been extremely dry for quite a spell.

Where's The Turnip Greens And Collard Greens?....

I have the pepper sauce!

I canned these four jars of hot peppers on Thursday, July 22nd. If the vinegar gets as hot as the Jalapeno peppers are, I don't know if we'll be able to eat it.




I ate a Jalapeno pepper with my dinner last night and today I have a small blister on my bottom lip. Can't imagine what my innards must look like if the pepper blistered my lip. It was really, really good even though it was really, really hot! That's what summer is all about.....Fresh ripe tomatoes and hot Jalapenos. :)

That's enough about the peppers.....Today is my Sweet William's birthday. He's sixty-three years young today. Happy Birthday, Honey. I still plan to keep you to your promise of drinking coffee together each morning when we're eighty-two (You'll be eighty-two and I'll be eighty-three but who's counting?). You are my Sunshine!

All those Tommy Toes, Grape and Red Pear Tomatoes...

What to do? What to do? Make tomato juice! That's what I will do.

The Yellow Tommy Toes, the Jelly Bean Grape, the Red Pear and the Red Tommy Toes are producing a lot of tomatoes. Why do I do this every year? One plant each would be plenty to nosh on but NO! I plant three of each and then we can't eat all the tomatoes they produce and nobody wants the little tomatoes, they all want the ones the worms wanted. Well, I wanted them too. LOL

William gathered a plastic dishpan full of small tomatoes. I made salads, we ate them for snack, I cut them in quarters and put them with our eggs and bacon for breakfast and there were still loads of little tomatoes. So......I cleaned them and cut them in pieces, put one cup of water in the boiler with the tomatoes and cooked them. Then I strained the juice and all the pulp I could get through the strainer, put the juice in pint jars and canned it.


Now it doesn't look that good but it taste pretty good and will certainly flavor stews this winter. All those tomatoes only made five pints of juice but that's five pints of juice I didn't have. :)



I was feeling over run by "little" tomatoes but now I'm hoping that we have another load of them.

I've canned tomatoes before but never used the over abundance of little tomatoes to make juice. I'm feeling kinda, sorta proud of myself for finally getting IT!

Don't let produce spoil....Do something with it even if it's canning pale colored tomato juice. Looks aren't everything.....Nope....and I'm really glad for that!

Tomato Plants In The Ground.....

for fall tomatoes, I hope.

I just set out eight tomato plants for tomatoes until frost. There's four Marianna's Conflict for sandwiches, two Roma's for salads and two Red Pear for salads and eating straight from the vines.

We got a sprinkle of rain so I thought this would be a good time to get those plants in the ground. When I started digging in the dirt only the top was damp. A quarter of an inch down was dry as dust. We need a week of good soaking rain. Of course, there'd be some complaints about it raining so much.

In the morning we plan to plant some Yellow Squash and a couple of Zucchinis. We're going to take down the bean vines around the tepee and replant with Louisiana Purple Pod beans. They'll have time to make before the weather starts getting cold here.

We're probably going to pull up some of the cucumbers that are about gone and plant a hill or two of cukes.

Everything else will do until later on in the season. Then we'll plant some kale, swiss chard, lettuces and collard greens. If we can get another bed built I'd love to plant some turnip greens for fall/winter eating.

The multiplying onions are beginning to come out again. That is good. They're just off the back porch about three feet. I love to run out, gather green onions for salads, omelets and soups/stews.

That's about all that is going on in my world today. We're getting ready for a cookout on Saturday to celebrate my Honey's birthday which is Friday, July 23rd. He's getting to be an old man but he'll never catch up with this old woman. :)

Finally One The Worms Didn't Get.....

I went to see if there were any ripe tomatoes this afternoon and there were three ripe ones on the Dorothy's Mennonite Big Heart Plants. Two had been eaten by worms but there was one that the worms had not gotten to yet. I grabbed that tomato so fast it would have made the worm's head spin if there had been one on it or in it.

This variety of tomato is one of the largest that I've seen in years.



Not only is the Dorothy's Mennonite Big Heart a large pinkish color tomato but it's a great tasting tomato.



My dinner tonight was a tomato sandwich.



Now this is what I call a "Tomato Sandwich"! Yum, Yum!



I have gathered seven tomatoes from the DMBH vine... We got three and the worms got four. Unfair odds, I would say. The tomatoes are growing so large that it's hard to see any wiggly critters on them until we pull the tomatoes.

We have the Marianna's Conflict variety also. They're making a larger than usual tomato this year. Funny thing is the worms have left the Marianna's uneaten. They've only gone after the DMBHs.

Here's a couple of pictures of the Marianna's Conflict tomatoes:



This is one of my favorite varieties to grow. They're a tasty tomato.



We're enjoying all the Tommy Toes too. I make a salad with the Yellow Tommy Toe and Red Tommy Toe Tomatoes: The salad is a light, healthy salad, colorful and pretty..





The recipe is below.

5 Red Tommy Toe
5 Yellow Tommy Toe
1/4 of a red onion
1/2 Burpless cucumber, peeled and sliced
Salt and Pepper to taste

In a bowl with a top, cut the tomatoes into quarters, slice the onion into thin strips, and add the peeled and sliced cucumber. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put enough Italian dressing to coat all the vegetables and stir well. Put the top on the bowl and refrigerate for about an hour (can refrigerate longer if you'd like).

This makes a delicious salad served with baked or grilled chicken or eaten as a light lunch. Serves two people.

Note: I use Low Fat Italian dressing..

Worms 3 Jan 0

Grrrrrrrrrrrr......When I was taking pictures last week; the Dorothy's Mennonite Big Heart tomatoes were turning pinkish. I reached into the vine to turn the tomatoes so as to get a better picture. They felt soft.

I went back to check on them the next morning. When I pulled them around to look at them there were big holes in two of them where worms had bored into the tomato. I pulled those and put them into the compost pile.

Today, William tells me that another tomato is turning pink. I go check it out and lo and behold another hole in the tomato. These tomatoes are big as saucers and would feed a family ripe tomato slices from one tomato.

I am so disheartened. I don't want poison on the tomatoes but I don't want the tomatoes to be worm food either. William bought some Dipel yesterday so I guess tomorrow we will spray Dipel on the tomato vines to see if we can get rid of the thieves eating our tomatoes.

It's strange that we have Tommy Toe tomatoes and some Red Pear tomatoes in the same bed that are ripening but have no worm holes in them. Only the big, pretty ones attracted the critters.

I guess I can understand that since the big pretty ones are the ones that attract me too. I have to even out this score. Better yet I have to stop these worms in their tracks.

One thing of note, Felder Rushing says Dipel is safe for humans but will kill worms. His statement that people could drink the Dipel if they could stomach it makes me think that Dipel must be very safe to use. I hope he's right.

I don't think I've mentioned on my blog that I hate worms. I'd rather have a snake thrown on me than a worm. That's how much I really, really hate worms.