Growing/sharing/learning to garden: 2023

[two_shoes1mit]

My mom used to can crab apples. You're right, I haven't seen them sold in years. I liked the taste but really didn't care for the texture. Though I can understand now as an adult, that peeling them would have been insane.

I can crab apples, and you can still find them on the westside. I never heard of peeling them though. Putting a bit of clove in the jar............fantastic!

[seewood]

Putting a bit of clove in the jar............fantastic!

Arrgggg Mum used to put one clove in her apple pies. I always seemed to get it in my slice. gag.

Great thread

[Catsumi]

A pal just told me she used to make watermelon pickles years ago using a much simpler list of ingredients. Something that a farm-wife would do 30-40 years ago.

The recipe above has too many flavours mixed together so the taste of w-m would be totally masked, imo

Should w-m go on sale again for cheap next year I will make some for you Norma.

[normaM]

many thanks.
Yea, I don't remember the crab apples being peeled. Faint memory of a few cloves in the liquid.. easy to avoid
Comes from having a savory tooth instead of a sweet one - like nearly anything pickled ( except gross trotters)
That was haunting

[normaM]

if anyone spots pickled cauliflower at the market pls let me know
I buy it in jars with other stuff that I dislike, so rather a waste as I toss the rest

[DANSPEED]

I have crabapples if anyone here wants them. I don't know what variety they are, something weeping. I have no use for them. Cedar Waxwings usually pass through in January and pick them clean, then some hit my front window and die. Robins get drunk on them. My quail like them too. ...

Crab apples.jpg

I went to harvest my zinnia seeds today and noticed the birds almost cleaned them out!

My covered bell pepper wall is a complete success. So many bells. Each plant must have six to ten large peppers. They are so top heavy I had to stake some. I'm having doubts I'll get red bells. The weathers good now but they need about three more weeks of sun and heat to turn red. ...

Bells in September.jpg

Believe it or not I still have sweet peas blooming and one branch on my 40 year old grape vine is trying to grow new fruit clusters. I've never seen that before! Climate change?

[Catsumi]

Lovely photos. A great crop of bells for you

Crabapples. Mom used to can them in a sweet syrup, didn’t much care for them but that was a Saskatchewan thing. She didn’t peel them or else she’d be still standing at the countertop 5 decades later.

[DANSPEED]

Crabapples. Mom used to can them in a sweet syrup, didn’t much care for them but that was a Saskatchewan thing. She didn’t peel them or else she’d be still standing at the countertop 5 decades later.

My grandmother made marmalade with them then ate it with rye bread. I guess being a Doukhobor from the old country you learn how to make just about anything edible. Add enough sugar and even chokecherries, rhubarb and saskatoons become palatable.

[Catsumi]

A Doukhobor amongst us! What luck to be of that tribe, gifted with honest and hard work ethics, two green thumbs and raisers of superior quality poultry. Born to make the earth lush, productive and beautiful.

I am not surprised now when matching your photos to your heritage Danspeed.

[Queen K]

Crabapples. Mom used to can them in a sweet syrup, didn’t much care for them but that was a Saskatchewan thing. She didn’t peel them or else she’d be still standing at the countertop 5 decades later.

My grandmother made marmalade with them then ate it with rye bread. I guess being a Doukhobor from the old country you learn how to make just about anything edible. Add enough sugar and even chokecherries, rhubarb and saskatoons become palatable.

My dad was of the Doukabour tradition, he could make a desert bloom. He terraced scrub land into lushly producing gardens and could make it all feed all of us. I also "work the land" like "toil" is still a virtue. Didn't have to live in the Kootenays to learn that.

[normaM]

because it can't be said enuff, if you inhale garlic pls think of the others in your presence. Talk about nose blind
Old school people could make a meal outta nothing I swear

[Catsumi]

Riding on Vancouver buses when I was much younger, the odour of garlic and who knows what else emanating from the elderly made me gag. To this day, I rarely use garlic other than when it is first harvested.

I suspect that as garlic ages it becomes more pungent to the point where after ingesting, it is expelled through the skin, mouth and silent pharts.

[DANSPEED]

If I got any gardening knowledge from my grandmother it be through DNA because she never gave away any trade secrets, not even recipes to my mother. I guess that comes from living a hard life.

I'm still picking cantaloupe! Hales best jumbo are ripe now. They don't turn golden like my other variety. There also not as sweet. All the vines are starting to get powdery mildew.

Queen K is done with Iris and I'm done with sunflowers! I must have shredded over 150. I had so many sunflowers this year they attracted a flock of red-winged blackbirds!

I planted a passiflora (passion flower) earlier this year at the base of a 30+ year old snowball bush and now its climbed 8' to the top and has started blooming. What a show!

[Lady tehMa]

If I got any gardening knowledge from my grandmother it be through DNA because she never gave away any trade secrets, not even recipes to my mother. I guess that comes from living a hard life.

I'm still picking cantaloupe! Hales best jumbo are ripe now. They don't turn golden like my other variety. There also not as sweet. All the vines are starting to get powdery mildew.

Queen K is done with Iris and I'm done with sunflowers! I must have shredded over 150. I had so many sunflowers this year they attracted a flock of red-winged blackbirds!

I planted a passiflora (passion flower) earlier this year at the base of a 30+ year old snowball bush and now its climbed 8' to the top and has started blooming. What a show!

I would love to see a pic of your passionflower, DANSPEED. And does it produce fruit? What is the best canteloupe, do you find? For sweetness and productivity - looking for a better yield. The one watermelon I planted did not do great, but I hear they can be difficult. Also, I had a honeydew but the flavour was not as good as the canteloupe.

[Queen K]

If I got any gardening knowledge from my grandmother it be through DNA because she never gave away any trade secrets, not even recipes to my mother. I guess that comes from living a hard life.

I'm still picking cantaloupe! Hales best jumbo are ripe now. They don't turn golden like my other variety. There also not as sweet. All the vines are starting to get powdery mildew.

Queen K is done with Iris and I'm done with sunflowers! I must have shredded over 150. I had so many sunflowers this year they attracted a flock of red-winged blackbirds!

I planted a passiflora (passion flower) earlier this year at the base of a 30+ year old snowball bush and now its climbed 8' to the top and has started blooming. What a show!

Total DNA. People ask me about my knowledge. What knowledge? I don't have any. It's DNA.
Also, please take photos of the Passion Flower and post. I had limited luck with mine but I bought late one year. I want one next year. I love my dozens of sunflowers because of the birds they attract. Even the Red-Wings.
Nothing like hearing the Chickadees.