THE RELUCTANT GOURMET COOKING COMMUNITY

[ninjabut]

$^%*#%@ gopher has gotten into my main raised bed garden! He LOVES green beans!
I made a new GB bed today, but will have to resort to stealing beans from the neighbor for the next month or so!
At least it's not the tomato bed!

[jfield]

I hear you, Nancy--the deer have reduced our "gazpacho garden" to a cucumber garden:(

[chefbear]

Our problem is the rabbits!! They love broccoli annd cauliflower. We lost all of it.

[jfield]

Sorry about your broc and cauliflower, chefbear. I know what you mean, though: our rabbits eat the low growing stuff and the deer eat the high growing stuff! I try not to get too upset about it, but it sure would be nice to have homemade salsa (or whatever) with all home-grown ingredients. Sigh.

[ninjabut]

Made a new green bean bed and have found enough room to transplant some of the other stuff to a makeshift bed while I dig out the old bed and replace the wire that keeps the gophers out.
Well, I was wondering what to do with myself with a month off!

[Dilbert]

gophers have got to rank among the worst - never had to deal with them myself - but they go over, under and through most anything.

[ninjabut]

This guy "seems" to have disappeared .........for now.
I have a box ready to be lined with wire to dig all the dirt into from the affected bed. Then I can start my winter stuff in a couple of weeks while we re-do the old bed for next spring.
That will give me a brand new fresh bed in the spring!
Oh my! It's getting out of hand! 8x8bed, 2 4x8 beds (1 for asparagus, but housing squash this year while the asparagus matures) 1 3x3 for peppers and eggplant & a few bush beans, 1 3x3 for herbs (way overgrown! have to cut it all back!) 1 1x8 new bed to grow green beans and leeks and the new bed for winter stuff!
This is for 2 people! LOL
I had to put a box of mystery squash down at the end of the driveway, hoping people will see the free sign and take some home! It's great grilled. It just got away from me, being away for 4 days! I have one squash that I'm letting grow that grows about 2 inches per DAY! NT

[Dilbert]

>>for two

yes, one needs more freezer <g> we had a big chest freezer which we sold multiple years back.

after doing some terracing I've got about 40x25 for my new garden - the freezer is now full of green beans, wax beans, shelled peas, diced banana and green pepper, I'm looking for a barrel to do a root cellar for the potatoes. the beans are not finished, in fact the succession planting has not _started_ to bear, my winter squash and lima's still have not come in.... we're eating all the tomatoes as they come, but that won't last much longer.

so, I need to check the small to medium size freezers....

[ninjabut]

Yep, got a freezer my first year of vege gardening! Unfortunately I got the smaller one! Could use a bigger one! NOT in the budget anytime soon.
I make sauce and pour it into foodsaver bags. Then I lay them in a baking pan and flatten them out into a 1 inch slab, leaving enough room to put the bag into the FS. I freeze them overnight and vac them the next day. This way I can stack the "slabs" saving a bunch of room! It's also a lot easier than canning. I do this with soups also. You don't have to have a F-Saver to do this, you can do it with quart or gallon bags. Just be sure to press out as much air as possible.
Then if someone is sick or needs a meal I say "slab-o-soup for you?"

[Dilbert]

somebody put me onto the 'freeze 'em flat' trick a few years back - it is very handy.

I also like to lay out stuff like fresh peas on a sheet pan ie thin layer, freeze them 2-3 hrs then bag them. avoids the 'lump o'peas' mess....