OT Gardening

[Shaboid]

Shaboid's ShaBAM Sauce!

Peter's Pepper Sauce, after my son.

 

[crandc]

Pumpkin bread

 

[crandc]

Damn! My back yard is against a high wall that separates it from adjacent street. There are blackberries growing over wall that I pick. Good eating. Today all the brambles were gone! City apparently had landscapers cut them back. They will grow again, blackberries always do, but could be a year before I have berries.

 

[crandc]

Tomatoes

 

[crandc]

Elizabeth Taylor and John F. Kennedy.

Don't know if they ever met in person.

 

[crandc]

Oklahoma! (Exclamation point part of name, from the song)

 

[PDXFonz]

Really expanded our production this year. This was about 50%

View attachment 75185

Haha, I love the edit.

Looks great man. Isn’t it crazy the price difference of making your own sauce compared to buying some from the store?

My Habanero didn’t produce as much as I was hoping, but I supplemented it with some store bought Hab’s and the ingredients together weren’t more than $14. Yielded around 7 bottles of sauce from a small batch production. Most sauces are going to run you around $10-$12 for one bottle!

Looks like the left is a Jalapeño sauce and the right is Habanero or Ghost pepper? Do you have a smoker?

For my Habanero sauce I used Apple Cider as the vinegar base as I’ve done in the past. The flavor of apple cider vinegar is strong but it doesn’t overpower the flavor of the habaneros. I like it because it’s different than the distilled flavor you find in most sauces. I keep it simple and few ingredients. Habanero, Fresh apples, Carrot, Garlic, Salt, Apple Cider vinegar.

I take the tops off the habaneros and throw them on the smoker with the peeled garlic for about 2 hours to give them a light smoky flavor. Then basically just throw everything in a food processor until it’s liquified, cook it on the stove to a boil, and then bottle it.

I bought my bottles on Amazon years ago and try to keep them cleaned to re-use them. Yours look similar to mine.

Thanks for sharing and enjoy!

 

[PDXFonz]

Oklahoma! (Exclamation point part of name, from the song)

View attachment 75757

Love the Roses Crandc, I bet they look wonderful in the yard.

 

[PDXFonz]

I feel like my habanero start was just planted too late in the season. The plant is looking great, it’s grown a lot and shows much better opportunity for fruiting and producing more fruit - but I realize we are also past the season for it to do so.

I want to try to preserve it for next year, but I’m pretty sure it will die outside as it gets colder out.

I’m wondering if there is any possibility I can keep it alive inside and care for it until next summer when I can hopefully put it out and get 3-4x the production I had out of it this year.

I guess I’ll try it and see how it goes.

 

[Shaboid]

Haha, I love the edit.

Looks great man. Isn’t it crazy the price difference of making your own sauce compared to buying some from the store?

My Habanero didn’t produce as much as I was hoping, but I supplemented it with some store bought Hab’s and the ingredients together weren’t more than $14. Yielded around 7 bottles of sauce from a small batch production. Most sauces are going to run you around $10-$12 for one bottle!

Looks like the left is a Jalapeño sauce and the right is Habanero or Ghost pepper? Do you have a smoker?

For my Habanero sauce I used Apple Cider as the vinegar base as I’ve done in the past. The flavor of apple cider vinegar is strong but it doesn’t overpower the flavor of the habaneros. I like it because it’s different than the distilled flavor you find in most sauces. I keep it simple and few ingredients. Habanero, Fresh apples, Carrot, Garlic, Salt, Apple Cider vinegar.

I take the tops off the habaneros and throw them on the smoker with the peeled garlic for about 2 hours to give them a light smoky flavor. Then basically just throw everything in a food processor until it’s liquified, cook it on the stove to a boil, and then bottle it.

I bought my bottles on Amazon years ago and try to keep them cleaned to re-use them. Yours look similar to mine.

Thanks for sharing and enjoy!

You nailed it; jalapeno/serano, and habanero/Aleppo, using a pretty similar recipe with the apple cider vinegar. I agree that it gives a different taste, might be a PNW thing haha.

I do have access to a smoker but we haven't tried any of that yet. Next year, maybe, cuz I like the idea of it. We had one family member growing for us this summer but should have another next year.

Yup, Amazon for bottles.

We did dry a bunch of our random variety the last couple months and ordered a spice grinder that we're gonna mess with some seasoning salts, rubs, or paprikas.

As far as overwintering you plants, you can definitely give it a shot. We've never done it ourselves because just like you did, habs are easy to source towards the end of the summer. They have a 6 month growth cycle and it just wasn't as consistently hot this year I feel like.

 

[crandc]

Le Petit Prince and Queen of Elegance

 

[crandc]

Massive fall clearing this week. I decided cane berries don't produce enough fruit to justify the amount of room they take up. Blackberry planted last year so not too hard to remove but raspberry planted three years ago. It had spread and grown deep roots. Took a lot of digging. That was yesterday. Today weeded back yard, cut back sage and tarragon, and pulled out excess mint and parsley, both of which spread like crazy. Pulled out kale plants that were past their prime.Then dug in compost and put in winter vegetables. I wanted to do it today as rain is forecast for tomorrow. Planted:

Several varieties of winter lettuce
Spinach
Arugula
Scallions
Red onions
Bok choy
Broccolini
Cauliflower
Mustard green mix
Two kinds of kale
Carrots
Beets

I am tired.

 

[crandc]

Three hours intensive winter gardening. Removed completed compost from drum, not easy task and messy. Spread some, most stored until spring. Weeded back yard. Finished constructing trellis for grapevines. Thinned onions and carrots, thinnings are edible. Planted winter lettuce, arugula, bok choy, braising greens, kale, carrots, scallions, red onions, garlic, spinach. Aching all over.

 

[crandc]

Forget the calendar. In California it's early spring. Spent morning digging out cover crop so young seedlings can grow. One area of my backyard is brick under about 2" of soil. No idea why, it's too out of the way to be path or patio. I have been digging out the bricks, which is no easy task. Then putting in soil since ground so compacted and planting cover crop. One more digging session should finish. Big stack of bricks by side of my house.
Roses pruned New Year putting out growth. A lot of young vegetables growing. Will do another planting Sunday.
Last year I let some celery flower and go to seed to see if it would reseed itself. Found two celery plants between beets and cauliflower. Yellow beets and purple cauliflower.

 

[andalusian]

Last season's Tomatoes decided to make a comeback and are already getting ripe. Gotta love winter in San Diego.

 

[crandc]

I need to build up raised beds in vegetable garden so went and got 2 three-cubic foot bags of soil. The store had a pallet stacked with bags that I pushed into my cart. But pushed too enthusiastically and one of the bags flipped completely out of my cart onto the ground. Pushing a three cubic foot bag, which weighs maybe 80 lb., downward isn't too hard but picking it up off the ground and into cart is. The carts were standard kind with high sides like you see in grocery stores. It took several attempts but finally was able to heave the bag up over the side and into cart. I looked up and say four men watching. I bet if I was 50 years younger they would come help. Men are so fucking useless. Then dragged the two bags from driveway to back yard. Somewhat out of breath.
Single ladies by my age learn to do shit ourselves.

 

[riverman]

Yesterday I ordered 4 yards of premium biotope garden soil from Rexius local supplier. That's twice as much as my last order and I'm going to refresh all my beds and containers and fruit trees. Plan on stocking up on staples this year with WWIII around the corner. I put down a tarp and they'll dump it tomorrow late morning or early afternoon. Will be a small mountain of black gold! 4 yards is a lot of soil. Going to put my own compost under it and get the beds and containers ready this month.