Invasion of the produce.

[iris lilies]

Oh I know, I write endlessly about this. You would think I could solve this problem. But I can’t.

This morning this kitchen counter was pretty empty. It had maybe four tomatoes on it and two acorn squash. Now it looks like this.

https://imgur.com/gallery/ceNXTSG

Now a new development in my life. We now own a farm in Iowa. And that farm, being in Iowa, has much better soil and cooler weather. Look at the difference of these veggies! Small ones raised in Missouri. Giant ones raised in northern Iowa.

https://imgur.com/gallery/QeXnBly


This is so great because we need more vegetable bulk here. /sarcasm.

[iris lilies]

So today I asked DH, can we take the beets that are sitting out in the ground to the food bank? I refuse to eat them because they taste like crap. I wasn’t really going to take them to the food bank because they are bad products, but I wanted to see what he would say.

He said that no we cannot take those to the food bank because they are crappy vegetables. Well at least he recognizes that. Apparently they should’ve been consumed in the spring. So, I wasted two hours earlier in the week to fuss with a whole pot full of beets

The cabbage we grew here is bad, too—sour.

[iris lilies]

Looking at the items on the counter, I welcome these:


All tomatoes


All green peppers


Most of the butternut squash, I guess. I don’t know because I haven’t faced into preparing it since I prepared a large batch two weeks ago.

All of the acorn squash that went down to the basement it’s not some thing I specially like it I don’t know how good it is. See that’s one of the problems that everything that comes out of the garden is tasty in fact a high percentage of it is not.


I will make stuffed peppers and freeze them so those are worthwhile things.

[razz]

Is this a vent or was there a particular goal in mind for this thread? Inquiring minds would like to know in order to respond appropriately.

[Teacher Terry]

The purpose of this thread is entertainment:)) I am laughing a lot! Thankfully my husband is too lazy to grow massive quantities of anything. I also don’t lift a finger to help so any big ideas never come to fruition.

[iris lilies]

Razz, it is a vent for your entertainment.

There is no fixing it.

[Teacher Terry]

My own vent is that my husband won’t let me cut down our 3 fruit trees. I let 3 groups come and take fruit and it’s still dropping.

[frugal-one]

Looking at the items on the counter, I welcome these:


All tomatoes


All green peppers


Most of the butternut squash, I guess. I don’t know because I haven’t faced into preparing it since I prepared a large batch two weeks ago.

All of the acorn squash that went down to the basement it’s not some thing I specially like it I don’t know how good it is. See that’s one of the problems that everything that comes out of the garden is tasty in fact a high percentage of it is not.


I will make stuffed peppers and freeze them so those are worthwhile things.

Just found a book that is great called.... Preserving the Bounty by Rodale Press. See if your library has it. It may give you some options???

[Tammy]

I love this thread :)

[Tradd]

Just found a book that is great called.... Preserving the Bounty by Rodale Press. See if your library has it. It may give you some options???

Fire would be Iris’ better option for getting rid of this stuff! :D

[catherine]

My own vent is that my husband won’t let me cut down our 3 fruit trees. I let 3 groups come and take fruit and it’s still dropping.

Oh, no! Not another tree-liminator! How could you possibly want to cut down 3 fruit trees? We have a pear tree that was planted only a foot or so from the front of our house, and DH keeps pushing me to cut it down. So I had someone impartial come and weigh in and she said that because it is a young tree, we can transplant it over near our two other pear trees, which is smarter anyway because it needs cross-pollination.

I'm not cutting down that tree!

[iris lilies]

Oh, no! Not another tree-liminator! How could you possibly want to cut down 3 fruit trees? We have a pear tree that was planted only a foot or so from the front of our house, and DH keeps pushing me to cut it down. So I had someone impartial come and weigh in and she said that because it is a young tree, we can transplant it over near our two other pear trees, which is smarter anyway because it needs cross-pollination.

I'm not cutting down that tree!

Fruit trees are messy. Fortunately, I can ignore fruit on the ground because it’s in a whole different area of my yard and I don’t have to address it.

DH has put up quite an orchard in Hermann, about 20 trees, but it’s far enough away from Iris beds that I doubt I will have to deal with those things.

[iris lilies]

Oh, no! Not another tree-liminator! How could you possibly want to cut down 3 fruit trees? We have a pear tree that was planted only a foot or so from the front of our house, and DH keeps pushing me to cut it down. So I had someone impartial come and weigh in and she said that because it is a young tree, we can transplant it over near our two other pear trees, which is smarter anyway because it needs cross-pollination.

I'm not cutting down that tree!

I wish for people like you a grove of mulberry trees leading up to the front door. Let the Mulberry God bless you so that your floors will be splotched and stained with purple.!

You owe us a report on the wedding.

[SteveinMN]

I am so happy to live off the kindness of the people in my neighborhood who grow gardens full of vegetables and favor me with (some of) the excess! I have a friend who rents farmland and reserves the ability to glean; he sometimes invites me to stock up on the imperfect stuff. I take what I can use and no more. All of these growers would be very happy for me to take more, but I know my limits (and the time it takes to process it all). I'm happy to accept extras and return the favor in the form of pickles or hot dishes or baked goods. I'm not sure what I'd do with a dozen acorn squash. This is as close as I need to get to an oversupply of vegetables. :)

[Tradd]

I wish for people like you a grove of mulberry trees leading up to the front door. Let the Mulberry God bless you so that your floors will be splotched and stained with purple.!

You owe us a report on the wedding.

Agreed on the wedding report!

[Teacher Terry]

The apples aren’t edible. I am guessing they are crab apples. The other 2 are pears and apricots. I have to pick them up about 4 times a day so they don’t ruin our expensive Astro turf. Within a week the garbage bag is too heavy for me to lift so my husband throws it away. I worry about the pears hitting my little dogs in the head when they fall. I love trees but not messy fruit ones.

[razz]

IL, shame on you! Wishing mulberry bushes and the mess from them in an entrance on Catherine is vicious and uncalled for. There are limits on cruelty, you know. This judgement is based on seeing what mulberry bushes are capable of with birds to help them.

Wedding update is definitely needed.

[happystuff]

LOL - yes, a very entertaining thread.

Agree about the wedding update!!!! Hope plans are progressing well!

[KayLR]

I wish for people like you a grove of mulberry trees leading up to the front door. Let the Mulberry God bless you so that your floors will be splotched and stained with purple.!

You owe us a report on the wedding.

And don't forget that starlings (any birds) love mulberries and decorate your cars to show it!

[beckyliz]

A co-worker posted on FB about her zucchini (of course) crop. I told her I'd take one and only one.

[iris lilies]

A co-worker posted on FB about her zucchini (of course) crop. I told her I'd take one and only one.
When we were seeing people we would take armloads of vegetables to neighborhood gatherings. I always like to say here’s a couple ……… but you have to take some zucchini with it.


We have never given away many tomatoes even though we have lots of them because we do end up using them throughout the year.

I will say this – our onion crop was good this year. And last year. And the year before. It took DH several years to figure out what kind he grows well here, but now we have big onions that last until January. I eat a lot of onions!

[Teacher Terry]

Found out from my best friend’s mom that all the pears we gave her had worms. She assumed my husband had treated the trees like she told him how to a few years ago:)). I feel bad that I gave them to 2 groups to give to shelters. I had another talk with my husband about cutting down the pear tree and he wouldn’t budge. So I am on strike. I have been picking up fruit daily for 8 years except for winter. I am done. Maybe he will be singing a different tune when our backyard is covered in rotten fruit.

[iris lilies]

Found out from my best friend’s mom that all the pears we gave her had worms. She assumed my husband had treated the trees like she told him how to a few years ago:)). I feel bad that I gave them to 2 groups to give to shelters. I had another talk with my husband about cutting down the pear tree and he wouldn’t budge. So I am on strike. I have been picking up fruit daily for 8 years except for winter. I am done. Maybe he will be singing a different tune when our backyard is covered in rotten fruit.
How wormy? People can’t expect garden produce to be the perfection that is what they get a grocery stores. We’re they wormy to the point of being inedible? Or they wormy only to the point that yeah you have to cut out worm holes and the occasional worm?

The generic American will tell you that they do not like using “harsh chemicals “and yet they want perfect produce. I shake my head, farmer that I am.

Our friend had a bumper crop of pears a couple of years ago and she had gallons and gallons and gallons of perfectly formed sweet edible pears. It was amazing. But that was the crop she got that year. Her later crops were not anything like that.

[Teacher Terry]

My friend’s mom grew up on a farm and couldn’t use the pears so assuming very bad.

[SteveinMN]

My friend with the hobby farm met us for a socially-distanced get-together and brought a small box of produce -- gleanings from his property. Whenever he does that, I am amazed at the quality of the food that his tenant farmers choose to not bring to farmer's markets. Instagram-worthy? Hardly any of it. Tasty and fresh? Oh, yes.

[Geila]

I'd be happy to take some of those tomatoes and peppers of your hands!

[Tybee]

We always pick apples from abandoned trees, and this year, they have been particularly wormy and small. It was a very bad year for apples. We're still cutting around the yuck and using them for applesauce and pies. But it was hard to find any big enough to use.
We had a late snow that wiped out a lot of apples this year.

[pinkytoe]

For the first time in my life, last week I picked an apple from a tree . It was growing next to an old farm road in western Colorado. As we traveled about, we say many apple trees loaded with fruit. I am still amazed at how wonderful that apple tasted.

[razz]

For the first time in my life, last week I picked an apple from a tree . It was growing next to an old farm road in western Colorado. As we traveled about, we say many apple trees loaded with fruit. I am still amazed at how wonderful that apple tasted.
It was possibly an old variety of apple no longer available. So many commercially produced apples have lost their unique taste in breeding efforts to increase storage life.

[Teacher Terry]

I don’t know what type of apples we have but they are small, green and nasty. Maybe crab apples?