How big is your garden and how many tomato plants?

[dave1949]

Dave, my neighbor made me some last year after I did them a favor with my tractor. I didn't remember that until your post. It was delicious and nutritious since the pasta carbs were missing.

As I recall the procedure, you peel and slice the eggplant lengthwise, then lay the slices out in a pan using a fair amount of salt on each layer. Leave that in the fridge for an hour or two. Remove and rinse the salt off the slices, pat dry and they are ready to put into your lasagna. The brining removes a lot of water from the eggplant so it doesn't get to be a gooey mess when baked.

I'm sure there are online recipes and details. I don't have a favorite to post and, in any case, people have different tastes they aim at.

 

[DFB]

VERY nice looking produce, DFB. I just started picking green beans tonight & got about 6 gallons off four 40 ft. rows. Looks like it'll be a good year for canning green beans.

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Wow now that's a lot of beans...very nice indeed!

 

[DFB]

I've eaten several different eggplant dishes and liked them all, but just never got into growing them for myself. What is your favorite way of eating them? Can you slice and grill them like squash? Do they make good casseroles? Sliced, battered, and fried seems to be a tasty way I've had them in the past.

BTW: My blackeyed peas have been saved from the brink due to drought. I started flood watering between the rows and they snapped back. Now they are covered in blooms, bumble bees, and little peas. I'd say I'll be picking bushels again in two or three days.

Our okra is doing great. It's covered in blooms and small pods. I have a hard time getting my wife to let the pods go an extra day so they become 3" long instead of 2". Even so, we're getting lots of okra to freeze for great gumbo and fried okra all winter long.

Squash continues to produce a bucket full of pretty squash and zucs every couple of days. Tomatoes still producing slowly, but more than we can eat. I have a gallon of cherry tomatoes in various stages of ripeness all the time. My wife made some of the best tomato sauce that I've ever put into my mouth. She smothered steak in it last night and served it over spaghetti. It almost made me hurt myself.:licking:

I almost always make eggplant parmesan the old fashioned way its a bit of work but I've got down peeled/ sliced eggplant dipped in an egg wash, dusted with flour I use a whole wheat, then breadcrumbs and pan cooked in olive oil. Layered up with sauce and mozzarella baked til its all hot and melted its what I like. Some folks like to bake the breaded slices on an oiled cookie sheet in the oven for lighter way of cooking than pan frying.

I've been known to oil and grill them...my favorite for doing just that was an eggplant I often grew called Applegreen. Developed in NH

I also find it real easy just to cube one up and oven roast it in a deep oiled pan along with onion, garlic, black olives, diced tomatoes, some chopped green pepper and some ground sausage or sirloin. Top with grated cheese. Pretty good over pasta or just with some bread!

Never had eggplant lasagna. But I have had Moussaka many times made both with potatoes and without. Awesome dish lots of work. I highly recommend a good Greek restaurant for some! :laughing:

Years ago I used to do the salt/soak method with eggplant but I don't find it necessary these days. I always peel mine. I think its the skin that can make it taste bitter

 

[Larro Darro]

We have let a wild grapevine grow up on the dog fence. This is the first year we have picked more than one or two grapes off it. I ate my fill today, and had a double handful to bring in the house. So far Mocha hasn't learned to pick them for herself, but if you drop one, she knows how to eat them.

 

[jinman]

Larro, I think wild grapes and wild plums make the best jellies/jams. Nothing beats their sweet-tart flavor. We used to pick wild mustang grapes and my mother would make jellies and jams from them. They are quite different from concord grape jellies, but I love 'em.

 

[Larro Darro]

Jinman, these are sweeter than most wild grapes. Maybe a bird planted them from the old vines of my grandfather that are in the tops of the trees now. Our goal is to get enough for another grape pie. I picked another handful this morning, but we are going to have to wash them and put them in the freezer until we have enough. {And to keep me from eating them}

Our friend with the grapevines called us to say the coons had got most of his grapes. We {Margie is taking the day off} may go over and see if we can salvage any.

 

[kw22614]

Had a small 20'X30' garden this season. 8 tomatos, 7 cukes, 8 peppers, 3 zuc, 3 yellow squa, 3 rows corn, 2 rows string beans, 2 rows beets and a few thyme and oregeno plants. Terrible rainy and most everything got root rot. What did make it got wasted by the d*@m squirrels. Have a few late season tomatos looking good, still small and green, and I'd love to be able to harvest and eat them. I have 3' chicken wire all around and set up condiment cups with holes filled with cayenne pepper and moth balls about every 5'-6' between the rows, but the squirrels still helped themselves. Got a new puppy and she chases them whenever she sees 'em, I think that's why the few late tomatos are still there.
Anyone have any sure-fire ways to keep out the squirrels??

 

[wyeguy]

Almost 2 gallons tonight off the only two cherry tomato plants I grew. The other 46 plants with "big" tomatoes netted about 7 gallons tonight. Its a lot of tomatoes to keep up with, and a lot of these plants are going crazy! Luckily we have all sorts of stuff we can from the tomatoes.

 

[DFB]

Give a man a cherry tomato plant he'll eat...give him two he has more than he knows what do with lol!

Tomatoes harvest is still coming on strong. I had to make sauce.




Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. The sauce is a mix of La Roma's plum, Celebrity, and Big Beef!

 

[jinman]

One year I grew Improved Porter tomatoes and they produced buckets full. They couldn't compare to sweet 100s in taste, but they were the highest producing tomatoes I've ever grown.