Texas Spring/Summer Thread

NativeSon · Jul 3, 2013

WOW!!! 59* this morning........Texas weather, go figure, but it sure is nice.

Jinman-My tomatoes are really doing well too. The last 2 years really stunk. I've been eating Tomato & Mayonnaise sandwiches almost every morning YUMMMMMM. MIL made Pesto Saturday and may have to make some more today. This is the best time of the year and this cool weather is unbelievable. I don't think I could ever be a total Vegetarian, but when it's like this I could get close.

Charlie

Bird · Jul 3, 2013

Yep, unbelievable that I could mow the yard in July without breaking a sweat.:laughing:

Lou66 · Jul 3, 2013

I guess I will show my tomatoes,, this is the last of the big ones for the year.. rest will be normal around a pound,, all of the big ones came from the same vine,, Better Boy,, Did not use any fertilizer other than compost,, home made,

, Lou

View attachment 325748 View attachment 325749 View attachment 325750 View attachment 325751 View attachment 325752 View attachment 325753 View attachment 325754 View attachment 325755 View attachment 325756 View attachment 325757

the last picture both weighted 4 pound 7 oz...:shocked:

jinman · Jul 3, 2013

Lou, are you sure your garden isn't over a nuclear waste site? Do your tomatoes glow in the dark? I saw a movie about alien pods that looked similar to those tomatoes. Don't turn your back on them.

:laughing:

I've had dozens of tomatoes in the 12-13 oz range with my biggest so far being 13.6 oz. After seeing yours, my only consolation is that my BHN 602 determinate tomatoes are perfectly shaped without a blemish and taste delicious. The only problem is that each vine has 20+ tomatoes and that just crushes the vines. I had side support, but the vines collapsed downwards under the weight of the tomatoes. I have lots of dry mulch for them to lay on, but they look like a messy heap of vines and softball sized tomatoes. Even so, all my tomatoes would be dwarfed by your 2 lb 7 oz monsters.:shocked:

farmgirl19 · Jul 3, 2013

jinman said:
Thanks Charlie. I think if we could get all the TBNers from TX into one development, we'd have a winner. Maybe our own version of Robson Ranch, but with 10-20 ac tracts.

I'm not downsizing! :laughing: I'd want 10 of the 20 acre tracts! The more space outdoors, the happier I am! Besides, can't have y'all too close when I go to doing the rain dance, ya know? Someone might call and report me.

JazzDad · Jul 3, 2013

My county made a good decision. Along with a burn ban- no fireworks.

One of the departments got called out recently due to people set the grass on fire with firearms target practice.

farmgirl19 · Jul 3, 2013

I always move my houseplants out onto the front porch during the spring and summer. I have been trying to thin out my aloe vera plant some. Pulled a few and potted them, so I can get them established and share them with others. I guess I must have made the original plant look inviting. A little bird has built a nest in the middle of it! The nest was built in a day, while I was at work, and that was Monday. Looked at it today, thinking the little bird might have moved on. Nope, first egg is in it! This will be fun to watch and see how many eggs, and watch the babies hatch and fledge.

Thank goodness it is in the aloe vera, so won't need much watering. I'd hate to have it be in an ivy, or similar.

pacerron · Jul 3, 2013

All the great talk and pretty pictures of the black eyed peas got my interest.
My wife got a bag of dried ones on the grocery/parts run we do every two weeks into civilization.
Tonight she fried 4 slices of bacon and put it and the grease in a pot with the beans, onions, a quart of
home canned tomatoes, and chili powder. Mighty good eating :thumbsup:

Sure beats the great northern soup beans with ham that are normal up here.
Now I may plant some in the garden next spring so we can try them as snap beans in the pod.View attachment 325794
Ron

jinman · Jul 3, 2013

Farmgirl:My MIL has hanging baskets on her patio. Every year she has bird nests in them. One brood made it through and fledged earlier in the year and another bird made the nest her home. She had three chicks, but when they fledged, they fell on her porch and her kitty just happened to be right there. Kitty - 3, Birdies - 0

Ron: Hey! There isn't a thing wrong with GNBs. I love them right from the can (heated of course). Dry blackeyes and crowder peas are good, but they can't compare with fresh peas with snaps.:licking:

bindian · Jul 3, 2013

JazzDad said:
My county made a good decision. Along with a burn ban- no fireworks.

One of the departments got called out recently due to people set the grass on fire with firearms target practice.

Montgomery County just put a fire ban into place. Also, they banned fireworks on stick or that have fins. So no rockets this year. Which is okay because I love the mortars.
hugs, Brandi

pacerron · Jul 3, 2013

[QUOTERon: Hey! There isn't a thing wrong with GNBs. I love them right from the can (heated of course). Dry blackeyes and crowder peas are good, but they can't compare with fresh peas with snaps.:licking:[/QUOTE]

Jim,
You must be talking about baked beans, out of a can.
I was talking about dried white soup beans. We do make them
into baked beans or enjoy canned baked beans with some brown sugar
and hot sauce added.

I tried to insert the .gif of the Texas flag so it would automatically wave but it
got attached instead, so you have to click on it. How do you just insert an image
so it is already open on this site?
Ron

farmgirl19 · Jul 3, 2013

Went out to check the garden here before time to retire for the evening. Was noticing all of the okra blooms, and then noticed I had to pick okra! Yep, first picking of the season! Even had one pod already getting a bit long! I knew it was getting ready to bloom, last week, but haven't looked closely at the blooms since. And okra blooms are really pretty flowers too!

jinman · Jul 3, 2013

Farmgirl, I think okra is in the hibiscus family. That's why the blooms are so pretty. This morning I was looking at my okra and looking at the buds that will soon bloom. Suddenly, I saw a pod of okra 6" long. I never saw the bloom open on that plant, but that sure was a healthy looking pod. I guess I'll be picking okra soon as well. As hard as I looked, I never saw any other pods, just that one.:confused2:

farmgirl19 · Jul 4, 2013

jinman said:
Farmgirl, I think okra is in the hibiscus family. That's why the blooms are so pretty. This morning I was looking at my okra and looking at the buds that will soon bloom. Suddenly, I saw a pod of okra 6" long. I never saw the bloom open on that plant, but that sure was a healthy looking pod. I guess I'll be picking okra soon as well. As hard as I looked, I never saw any other pods, just that one.:confused2:

Maybe the one pod was "just checking" to see if it was safe to produce, after all of the late frosts from our Spring, this year. :laughing:

Bird · Jul 4, 2013

Yep, the blooms are pretty, and bees think so, too. When I was a kid, I learned to watch both for our honey bees and the bumble bees to keep from getting stung.

jinman · Jul 4, 2013

I just saw a big ol' bumble bee checking out the blooms on my straight-neck squash yesterday morning. I give them plenty of space when I see them, but I don't worry about honeybees except I make sure I don't grab them when I'm picking male blooms to manually pollinate. I'm surrounded by them otherwise when picking squash and cucumbers. I've only been stung by a bee once in my life. It was last year while mowing near a tree with a hive of honeybees inside. I got stung once on my cheek and that was it. I didn't think it was that bad, and I'm lucky that I hardly do much more than turn a bit red around the sting. I don't care to tempt fate with a bumblebee though.

Ron: I'm confused about your saying that great northern beans are only baked. I'm sure they are used for baked beans, but Walmart sells them dry and in a can of their own Great Value brand. They are white and boiled with no spice except for some salt. They are just a very plain white mild bean with a good flavor, not as earthy as pinto beans. Heated in the microwave with some chopped onions and a side dish of sliced tomatoes is a delicious and quick meal. I don't think GNBs give you as much gas as pintos either. You can eat them and still have friends.:laughing:

jinman · Jul 4, 2013

farmgirl19 said:
Maybe the one pod was "just checking" to see if it was safe to produce, after all of the late frosts from our Spring, this year. :laughing:

I sliced that big pod with a knife to see if it was tough. It was nice and tender, so I ate most of it raw. Do you suppose that my eating that pod means the other okra will think it's unsafe to produce? Hope not!

pacerron · Jul 4, 2013

Ron: I'm confused about your saying that great northern beans are only baked. I'm sure they are used for baked beans, but Walmart sells them dry and in a can of their own Great Value brand. They are white and boiled with no spice except for some salt. They are just a very plain white mild bean with a good flavor, not as earthy as pinto beans. Heated in the microwave with some chopped onions and a side dish of sliced tomatoes is a delicious and quick meal. I don't think GNBs give you as much gas as pintos either. You can eat them and still have friends.:laughing:

Jim,
You are a great teacher.:thumbsup: In all my 72 years I have never eaten canned GNB or realized they were available.
Nor had I eaten black eyed peas till last night.
I've helped eat lots of big bags of dried Navy beans and/or great Northern beans boiled with a ham bone or some bacon.
My mother used to then make homemade baked beans, in the oven, from the leftovers, or bean soup.
We find Bush's Best Homestyle canned baked beans to be far more pratical with a little doctoring up, than going through
the process of making baked beans from scratch.

At the grocery I pretty much just push the cart for my wife, who has the grocery list, and smile back at the old ladies that are kind enough
to give me a grin.

I laugh, to myself, at the young and old men, who are pushing their cart with one hand and talking on a cell phone with the other to their wives or
significant other, trying to figure out what to buy next.
At my age, something to help generate a little flatulence to get things moving is often a great benefit.:laughing:
Ron

Bird · Jul 4, 2013

Nor had I eaten black eyed peas till last night.

When we went to Northwestern University Traffic Institute in 1971-72, living in Des Plaines, IL, we were surprised, and disappointed that we could not find blackeyed peas in any of the grocery stores. And most of the northerners in the class had never eaten them. So, when we came home for Christmas, I bought a case of 24 cans of blackeyed peas to take back to Illinois with us. And New Years Eve we had a big party, potluck dinner, etc. and my wife fixed a big pot of blackeyed peas with diced ham, expecting to have enough left for dinner New Years Day. But every bite of it was eaten that night.:laughing:

Lou66 · Jul 4, 2013

jinman said:
Lou, are you sure your garden isn't over a nuclear waste site? Do your tomatoes glow in the dark? I saw a movie about alien pods that looked similar to those tomatoes. Don't turn your back on them. :laughing:

I've had dozens of tomatoes in the 12-13 oz range with my biggest so far being 13.6 oz. After seeing yours, my only consolation is that my BHN 602 determinate tomatoes are perfectly shaped without a blemish and taste delicious. The only problem is that each vine has 20+ tomatoes and that just crushes the vines. I had side support, but the vines collapsed downwards under the weight of the tomatoes. I have lots of dry mulch for them to lay on, but they look like a messy heap of vines and softball sized tomatoes. Even so, all my tomatoes would be dwarfed by your 2 lb 7 oz monsters.:shocked:

Jim,,

I give them a quick start with a lot of rabbit manure or chicken manure,, high in nitrogen,, then just plan old uranium compost,, I do prune them weekly,, leaving only five or six tomatoes on the vine,, one inch of water a week,, plus they are held in place with a Nuclear radioactive spent rod.. I believe it is the static electricity in the air that makes them grow so large..:laughing: Lou