Sunday's salsa:



Tomorrow's tomato sauce:



ETA:

Minus one tomato  

Just bounced my forehead off my monitor.

Warn a Brother.

TRG

Woot!  2/10th's " of rain this morning, possibly more on the way according to the radar (if it doesn't break up).
Not a drought-breaker, but at least we'll get to take a day off watering.

Any rain, right now, is good rain.

We had a good rain two nights ago.  I didn't look at the gauge, and I'm out of town now, but it was much needed.

Praying for more for Texas and all of the states surrounding Kentucky.  We are in need.

I'd send some of our SJ weather to you guys if I could. It seems like for the past week or 2 we haven't gone more than 1-2 days without some rain. It's starting to cause the zuke plants to rot, and it's not helping me get rid of the powdery mildew.... Oh well....the okra and peppers seem to LOVE it.

Just got home.   From Thursday evening until now we got 2.5"  

I am grateful.

Praying y'all who need it get some too.

Welp, the bottom corn field didn't make it.
Sad part is that pretty much all of the field corn in this area looks just like this.



Trees aren't liking it either...



Looks like fall...



But on a happier note, the irrigated stuff is doing good:



Still have lots of tomatoes to harvest...



... and the irrigated hot peppers (Bhut jolokia,Trinidad Scorpions, Caribbean Red habaneros) are doing OK too.  Slow to put on peppers, though... flowering now, but not sure they'll make it before the first frost.  Paprikas planted in this same area didn't make it (the holes in the rows):



High of 84F here today!     But still no rain.  A little in the forecast for Sunday, but it's pretty much too late for either the garden or the ag crops in the area.

Buy groceries now.  They're a rock-solid, high-yield investment at this point.

What tomato variety is that with all the green ones on it?  None of mine look that good.

"Italia" paste tomatoes...one of the few hybrids we grow.

Thanks.  I have a couple beef steaks that are doing okay, but nothing like that.  I haven't gotten enough to can yet off 12 plants.

What are you doing for water?  All of our tomatoes have done pretty well this year, probably because of the drip irrigation.  They seem to like the combo of hot, dry weather and root-directed watering.  The only plants that didn't do well was one that was kind of an oddball variety (I forget what it was now) which probably just didn't agree with our soil or some other factor, and another where the drip emitter wasn't working correctly and I didn't catch it in time.  Didn't take many missed watering cycles for that second plant to wither and die. You can actually see one branch of that plant in the foreground of the pic you're referring to.

Ready for the smoker!
Japs, a few habaneros and paprika (the red ones).
These'll be smoked, then replace the tomatoes in the dehydrator, then be ground into powder.  Next batch we'll just freeze and have on hand to toss into a pot of chili or whatever.

I've dehydrated and ground peppers before, but I have not smoked them first.  Best it is tasty.

You considered putting fresh peppers in to pure vinegar and using them as condiments?

I think i have two gallons , or more, of densely packed quart jars of babnana, jalapeno and bell peppers.  

I basically pack (tightly to crush/crack/split the air pockets) them in to a jar, add 2 tbsp salt, 4 tbsp sugar, 1 tspn lemon juice, red pepper flake, garlic powder and then fill with vinegar.  

We don't eat them very much, but, they are attractive and make for a low-cost giveaway from the garden that looks good on a shelf and lasts forever for shtf storage of some vitamin C.

TRG

Hmmm, we've canned, and pickled and canned them before, but never tried it with no processing.  One of the complaints I have about canning them is that they always come out way too mushy for my tastes, though they work OK for most things regardless.  Might have to try this with some this year.  Wasn't planning on canning any up this year because we've got pints and pints left over from years past, but I'm always up for something new!

If you google, you'll find the basic recipe is red peppers, vinegar, salt.  Nothing more to it than than.

TRG

I'm just watering with the hose.  City water.  I will probably set up a drip system for next season.  Too late this year, and its looking like the heat is pretty much over for this summer.  I certainly hope so, anyway.

I've been thinking about putting in a really big garden at the farm up north, but that would mean I would be spending a lot more time there.  Not a bad thing.  The wife works, I don't, so I'd be there by myself when I was.  Also lack of a way to water there.  The bottom is a couple hundred yards from the house and water.

I'd also have to fence out the deer.

I hear ya!  It's been nice to have a break from the 100's; actually been pretty pleasant here a few days, especially early in the mornings.  Still not getting any rain, though .  There's been some here and there throughout the state, but it's been playing the "let's see how close we can get to midmo's property but not actually rain on it" game.

Sounds like you've got a pretty good commute to the farm, but...  seeds are cheap.  You could always give 'er a go, see how it works out schedule-wise, and if it didn't work out then you're still not any worse off than you are now (other than a little gas money down the drain).  Even then, there's something to be said for using your spare time to tend a garden, work the land... personally I'd rather do that than sit around and watch TV or whatever anyway, even if a yearly harvest turns out to be a bust.

If you do decide to do that, there's a lot of stuff you can do this fall to make next year's effort more successful.  I'd get the proposed garden spot cleared and mowed, and see how much compost I could get trucked in and spread out.  You really don't even need to plow if you do the compost/mulch right.

The problem would be to find compost.  I may be able to get some "used hay" from a neighbor, but haven't tried yet.  The plot is already mowed.  I have a Ford 9N and a finish mower, but no disc.  A three point tiller would be good.  I have a Troy-bilt tiller, so I could use that.

As for the rain playing "Dodge John's garden", sounds like you live next door to me.

Sometimes you can find compost on Craigslist.  If not, call up some local landscaping supply companies; they should have it.

I've got a chipper/shredder, and every year we grind up our cornstalks at the end of the season and add those to the mulch collection.  I'm thinking dried-up cornstalks won't be in short supply this year.

Thank you Isaac!  

Condolences to those in the Gulf states suffering loss and hardship from the hurricane's landfall, but the remnants passing through the Midwest have been a blessing.  2.5" of rain here yesterday, and another 2/10" so far today with the possibility of more later.  While it's too late to help the major ag crops (or my garden, for that matter ), hopefully it will kick some of the hayfields back to life, allowing at least some grazing to conserve what baled hay is still out there.

The feeling of a strong, steady rain after months of heat and drought is hard to describe.

Our garden's on its last legs, only survivors are some of the tomatoes and peppers that were on the drip system.  May get a few more 'maters yet, and while the pepper plants look great, all of them, irrigated or not, seem to have had a lot of trouble setting fruit.  Jalapenos are producing fruit OK, but are very small - 1-2" where we normally see 4-5" peppers.  Paprika's didn't make it at all; even with the irrigation, I think the heat earlier in the season did them in.  Virtually all of them withered and died.  Removing the emitters and plugging the drip lines to those plants felt strangely like a doctor removing the IV line from a deceased patient - I could almost hear the "beeeeeeeeep" of a flatline heart monitor as I did it.

Will probably get a fair number of habaneros, though nowhere near what I expected.  B. jolokia and Trinidad Scorpions probably aren't going to produce; very little fruit on the plants and probably not enough time to mature even if they were to pop out a bunch in the next couple of days.  Oh well, better luck next year!