cgbascom:

Translating a 100 pounds of grapes into jam is something I have been trying to avoid thinking about. We do have two people who would like some of the grapes when they are ready.

Don't forget about making easy grape juice!  1 cup of grapes, washed & off stems, sugar if desired, put in quart jar with hot water & process.  You can make lots of juice that way & can cut down on juices bought from the store.  We would mix 2 kinds of grapes, but since you have such an abundance of Concords, they make great juice!  You could also slice the grapes in half, take out seeds, and dehydrate.

Thanks, Lynnea. I appreciate the ideas.

Nothing and it frustrate me to no end. Our ground is extremely rocky and we have lots of woodland creatures so no garden. However, I have been thinking of using grow lights and growing in the basement.  
 

Pat... any thoughts or suggestions about what and how to start.

DL

dlw:

Pat... any thoughts or suggestions about what and how to start.

 

It can be kind of expensive to provide enough light in the winter time in a basement to grow food. I don't know what you like to eat, but you can grow lettuce, radishes and other greens like spinach, on a windowsill if you have a window that gets direct sun. If you want to do the basement thing, just use flourescent light fixtures. Cinnamonhuskies (I think it was) clued me in on that. Plants take 12 to 18 hours of light a day. I found a inexpensive fixture at Walmart that I suspended over the plants I started from seed this spring and it did very well. 

If you have time now before first frost, you can plant a few things in containers, especially cool season crops like turnips, beets, lettuce, spinach and peas.  

Have you thought about raised bed gardening?

Pat:

What have you put up for the winter?  

 

I had great luck this year.  A local family with a HUGE apricot tree that was totally loaded with fruit posted the tree as free to come & pick trying to deal with all the fruit falling.  I picked two water bath canners full, along with two boxes & a 5-gallon pickle bucket full, went home & bottled a bunch of it & went back the next day & filled them again.  Altogether, I bottled 4 dozen quarts for my married DD as well as 4 dozen for DH and I.   I also made 15 half pints or apricot pickles for her & a dozen for us. I have also pressure canned green beans, carrots, beets & pickled beets. Tomatoes are just coming in, so I am making sauce.  I am also putting up more mixed summer squash: yellow crookneck sliced & quartered with zucchini, & pressured in spaghetti sauce.  I made some last year & we ate all but a few jars of the 5 dozen I put up. It's great to dump in a baking dish, sprinkle with dried onions & set chicken breasts or prok chops on top, & stick it in the oven for a couple of hours!  Speaking of dried onions, I also have dehydrated onions this year from the garden & have green & red peppers in the dehydrator right now.  My potatoes didn't grow well, but the squash are going crazy, so I will have some winter squash & pumpkins to freeze as well. 

-zohnerfarms

 

 

 

Nothing put away from the garden not this year...

Why does this topic remind me of the 2 ants 1 ant puts away food for the winter the oother didn't ,while the first ant enjoyed his harvest and the other was starving the first ant took pity on the secound ant let him inside his home the first ant had plenty to share with the harvest that he stocked up threw the winter anyone rember that story or something like that?

c.

cheapChic:

Why does this topic remind me of the 2 ants 1 ant puts away food for the winter the oother didn't ,while the first ant enjoyed his harvest and the other was starving the first ant took pity on the secound ant let him inside his home the first ant had plenty to share with the harvest that he stocked up threw the winter anyone rember that story or something like that?

 

Are you thinking of the Aesop fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper? The grasshopper sang and fiddled away the summer while the ant was putting up food for winter, then when winter came, the grasshopper came to the ant and begged for food.  

 I forgot about the sweet cherries - I was blessed to be online when the ad for free cherries posted & I was the 2nd to arrive ( of 5) at the house, so I picked against 5 other pickers to clean a decent sized tree. I came home with enought to do 19 quarts for DD & the grandkids, and 19 pints for DH & I.  

Hi pat,

Im not getting anyone mad or anything I share the winter harvest while stocking up .

(And it has to do with some of winter harvest while the begger ask for food and one has extra to share I say why not...)

My shelf is like way full from canning so fruits and berries have been put away next canning is next store from thier vegitables and meat hate canning meat she makes stew from that neighber loves doing that so we all share te harvest with someone who didn't stock up from their garden...

This year we put up green beans, black eyed peas, pink eyed peas, zippers, cream 12's, butterbeans, butterpeas, squash, tomatoes, okra, squash pickles, and squash relish, (tastes MUCH better than it sounds). Green beans were canned, and the peas were frozen or dried. Tomatoes were canned or dehydrated. I am hoping to do a making of tomato relish too. Squash and okre were frozen and pickles and relish were canned.

We froze blueberries, grapes and pears are getting ready. Pears will be canned, there will be some pear preserves, and I will make jelly with the grapes. I also put up Peaches!