What's for supper?

@tinamarie1974
Come on down… Tropical storm Fred just left so the rain should let up. And it won’t take too long to clean the leaves out of the pool! I’ll even run the meh robo-vac in the poolhouse for you. Charlie like to swim?

@chienfou oh that sounds lovely!! And Charlie has never had the opportunity, so I am not sure

If I am ever able to get that pool installed up here I will find out

Did you guys have any damage from Fred? Hope all is OK!

@Kyeh
Don’t really remember. Maybe red delicious? Planted the tree MANY years ago (like 15+). Hadn’t really done well in the past but this year really stepped up it’s game! We had lots of rain in the spring so maybe that was part of it. I need to prune it this fall though. It’s now in the part of the yard we built Mom’s house on.

@chienfou @Kyeh I think the apples are Wolf River. My MIL had several varieties of apple trees out back. I think it was also known as Pound Apple.

@chienfou @dyounghbic Definitely not Red Delicious, I have them and they’re not delicious, sadly enough. Are those good for baking? My neighbor has a tree with good baking apples and this year it’s absolutely laden and some branches hang over the fence into my yard, so I’m excited to have them!

@dyounghbic @Kyeh
yeah, I haven’t baked with them to speak of. (well, actually I have made them as baked apples, just cored and filled the center with brown sugar and a pat of butter then baked or microwaved til apple is soft) Generally use them to eat or as applesauce. They are still pretty green but I will leave them out to ripen. They were starting to show some bruising so I picked them

@chienfou @Kyeh We used them in apple butter. She had a big kettle we set up outside. They hold their shape well when cooked so I would say yes to baking although I haven’t tried them.

@chienfou @dyounghbic Nice! The apples I have aren’t flavorful when cooked, but aren’t all that great to eat raw either. The tree does have beautiful blossoms in the spring, though.

@dyounghbic @Kyeh
Just turned them into applesauce.
Used the instant pot to cook them down for 8 minutes with some water, cinnamon and fresh ground nutmeg (brought back from our last trip to the Grenadines) and a little citric acid. Water bathed for 10 minutes and voila! Put up 12 pints in all. Yummm…

@chienfou @dyounghbic
Sounds wonderful! What does the citric acid do?

@dyounghbic @Kyeh
Replace the lemon juice. Used to keep the pH in a safe range for canning

@yakkoTDI
Thanks. The red jalapenos are destined to become Chipotle. They will spend a few hours in the smoker, then once I dry them I will grind them into Chipotle powder. The green ones will get chopped into foods or stuffed with smoked cream cheese as poppers. Eggplant will be made into Ratatouille or cut up and grilled on the barbecue. Apples will go into the InstaPot to become applesauce and get canned. Pears will be poire au vin (alas still no casemates yet but that is set to change soon).
Tomatoes are still making a few but it’s really too hot at night for them to produce well. They may go into a caprese salad. Green peppers are set to get stuffed for lunch today. Eggs may become French toast tomorrow…

However, in spite of the drought that is stunting almost everything else, the wild (invasive) blackberries growing in the woods are as vigorous as ever.

@macromeh Do you pick them and use them?

@Kyeh I mostly just graze on them right off the bush but a couple years ago I made a batch of blackberry/apple hard cider that was very popular among friends and family.

@macromeh That sounds wonderful!

@pooflady
Too late for this year but i have found that if you put some extra calcium is with the dirt when you plant them, you can eliminate blossom end rot. I generally run my eggshells thru the toaster oven after I eat eggs, then crush them to feed back to the chickens or to use in the garden.

@chienfou He always adds calcium, but this year did the egg shells, too. Just rinsed them out and crushed them.

@pooflady
I run mine through the toaster oven primarily because I also feed them back to the chickens. This discourages them from pecking their own eggs…

@sillyheathen Carolina reapers?? WoW!!

@ruouttaurmind oh no!!

@tinamarie1974 It’s ok. I hear they’re really good roasted with garlic and olive oil.

@ruouttaurmind @tinamarie1974 Yuck! Can your tree be saved?

@ruouttaurmind @tinamarie1974
I discovered this on a small rose bush:

It’s rose gall, caused by a wasp. Luckily I’ve read that I can cut them off and it won’t do too much damage to the rose.

@Kyeh From what the state ag department published on their website, I can cut the affected branch about 6 inches below the lowest gall, and inspect the cut ends for signs of infection. If none is evident, soak the pruners or saw in bleach for 45 seconds and do the next. But in this case, The galls are prolific and run within an inch of the main trunk. Plus I can see discoloration in the bark of the affected branches and into the trunk. That sucker has got to come out. It’s an oleander, and unfortunately they’re very difficult to kill off. But if I don’t, the fungus will stay dormant in the stump as long as there is life left in the thing. I am not looking forward to digging up the stump and roots, but that’s the only way I’ve managed to keep oleanders from reviving. Once it’s completely removed, I’m supposed to pour bleach in the vacant hole and surrounding soil once every few days for about a week to kill any lingering fungus.

It’s amazing how quickly these popped up. I raked up the area it’s planted just about 10 days ago and no sign of anything unusual. Now it’s gobbled up the whole oleander.

I need to keep an eye on everything else in the area for early signs of infection for a few months to be sure it hasn’t spread.

@Kyeh @ruouttaurmind @tinamarie1974 Awfully pretty for something so evil. I hope that poor rose bush will be okay. That other stuff on the oleander is really weird looking. I don’t think I’ve ever come across that before.

@cf1 @tinamarie1974

@ruouttaurmind That’s a huge bummer! I would be kind of scared to have oleanders if they even grew here, although they are beautiful. I hope this fungus doesn’t affect anything else in your yard.

@Kyeh I hope you found the issue in time to prevent spreading! Hacking off a bit of the end of a rosebush isn’t a big deal. Heck, it’ll grow out no problem. Like me with a bad haircut. Give it a week. But be wary of cross contamination. I learned that stuff like this can quickly consume a garden, spreading via pruning tools. Loppers, pruning shears, hedge trimmers… if you use these tools on an affected plant, then move on to trim the next plant, you’re basically a free transport mechanism for the infection. You didn’t mention if your gall had an infectious component, or if it was a simple injury gall?

Personally, I’m not at all a fan of oleanders. The few that remain at my house are only there by the grace of my lack of desire to uproot them. I let them remain until they become inconvenient, or are in the way (like the 3 I removed to make room for an RV gate into my back yard). Fortunately my dogs haven’t shown any interest in them, so their toxicity hasn’t been a problem.

I never gave much thought to plant fungus and bacterial infection and such until I found that something had invaded a 65 foot ash tree growing next to my mother’s new house. Unfortunately it had gone unnoticed by the previous owners for who knows how long. The tree was presenting a safety hazard, losing limbs in nearly every high wind, so I had to take it out. That was a pity. It had an enormous canopy that provided a ton of shade during the hot summer months. A precious commodity here.

I had to be very wary of the sawdust and handling the debris to avoid spreading the invader to other trees and plants. I also had to disinfect my saw chains and saw blades to make sure I didn’t spread the infection to other trees by using the same chains and blades on those.

@Kyeh I was just reading up on your rose gall. Very interesting. Apparently caused by the wasp laying eggs at a leaf base, and the rosebush responds by encasing the eggs inside the gall. Fortunately, no risk of spreading to other bushes via cross contamination. Not to say another wasp won’t lay eggs on another plant. But at least the solution is to simply snip off the gall. So that’s good.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@ruouttaurmind Ugh, what a hassle with the fungus. I hope you’re able to eradicate it.
Yes, I read about the rose gall (which I’d never seen or heard of before!) and was relieved to see that it doesn’t sound that destructive.
The “witches broom” phenomenon can evidently cause new variations in some plants. My mother’s beau is an avid and super-knowledgeable amateur botanist and he goes into the mountains hunting for broom growths on conifers. He developed one that has starry yellow needles when they first emerge in ths spring! They turn green later, but it looks neat when it’s happening.

@sillyheathen Yum Yum and healthy also.

@sillyheathen
Very nice. I don’t usually mess with corn. Unless you plant a bunch it seems like it always ends up blowing over in the wind. Plus it all comes in at the same time, so you end up having to do something with all that corn. Though I must say, I never considered having a ground. I generally just grew sweet corn, but didn’t want to mess with having to shuck it and process it, other than eating it fresh.

@chienfou she has a cabinet dehydrator similar to mine and brings it to a guy with a mill who lives near her. Was kind of amazing having gulf shrimp and Louisiana grits in Oregon.

@mike808 that sounds delicious

@tinamarie1974 The bacon-wrapped chiles and burgers were from Dierbergs. The pecan praline gooey butter cake was not. And you can’t get it in STL, btw. (well, without importing it)

@mike808 you found a gooey butter cake OUTSIDE of the STL?!?!?!?

And I love Dierbergs

@tinamarie1974 Yep. And it’s fucking delicious!

Sorry about the brown marble counter “plating”.

@mike808 @tinamarie1974
I covet that! (Or if it’s food do you have to crave it?)

@Kyeh I really like the Hatch chile flavor. A little heat, but really more spice/flavor than heat.

It’s a pleasant massage to your tongue rather than a punch in the face, a mugging, and then dumping your body in a dark alley like a reaper would.

@mike808

@sillyheathen I think you’re a liar.

@Kyeh me? NEVER! I still owe you a recipe. I’m terrible at writing things down.

@sillyheathen You DO… but I’ll just be patient and stay hopeful. sigh…

@Kyeh @sillyheathen I bet it was terrible. No bacon or brisket on that plate.

@mike808 @sillyheathen
No étouffée either, cher

@compunaut @sillyheathen
FTFY - No étouffée or stuffed merlitons either, cher.

@compunaut @mike808 Mais dats next week!