On 2/24/2012 4:03 PM, Shawn Martin wrote:
> On 2/22/2012 11:05 AM, George Shirley wrote:
>> On 2/22/2012 10:12 AM, Shawn Martin wrote:
>>> On 2/21/2012 3:55 PM, George Shirley wrote:
>>>> We just finished putting up ten pints of dilled carrots. We grew the
>>>> carrots and the dill, used Pickle Crisp in each jar and followed the
>>>> recipe in the Ball Big Book. We've used that one since the book came
>>>> out
>>>> and we all like them, in particular our great grands love them. We just
>>>> don't tell them we put garlic in them.
>>>>
>>>> The rest of the carrot crop we've been eating in the form of baked
>>>> carrots with onions. Peel and cut in chunks both the carrots and the
>>>> onions, put a little olive oil on them. Preheat the oven to 475F,
>>>> put in
>>>> the carrots and onions for twenty minutes, take out and eat. We like
>>>> carrots most any way but in particular the baked ones.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks for the recipe idea.
>>>
>>>> Swiss chard is finally starting to grow, looks like we may have some to
>>>> eat and some to freeze. Beets are starting to split. We've had about 12
>>>> inches of rain in the last two weeks but welcomed it. Reckon we will
>>>> probably can some beets later this week. We can them in the pressure
>>>> canner in chunks and pint jars so we probably won't need to plant beets
>>>> next fall.
>>>>
>>>> Almost time to get the spring garden in, probably in the next week or
>>>> so. Our last frost date is usually February 18th and it looks like warm
>>>> weather is upon us. We've been having temps in the low seventies most
>>>> afternoons it isn't raining. Bright sunshine today.
>>>
>>> Where are you? Gardening here in N Central TX is tricky, as we freeze
>>> sometimes in late April, but if you don't have the plants in the ground
>>> by end of Feb, they will burn up before setting fruit.
>>> (The exception is okra, and squash)
>>
>> SW Louisiana, USDA zone 9b. I'm a Native Texan Shawn I worked with a lot
>> of folks from your area. We're hoping to move back to Houston area
>> sometime this year, same heat zone as here so the gardening will be no
>> different. We've had severe drought here for two years and it has
>> finally broken, I guess La Nina has moved on and we're back to El Nino.
>> We've gotten over twelve inches of rain in the last two weeks. Didn't
>> figure on catching up quite that quick. We have to wear rubber boots
>> right now to get in the garden.
>
> Thought so. You guys don't have near the late freeze danger that we do
>
We had late, hard freezes in winter 2009 and 2010. We lost our pear tree
and our lemon tree and most of the garden was killed off. In 2010 we had
to plant the spring garden twice. Unusual for our area but devastating
when you don't expect it. The pear tree didn't come back, the lemon, a
Ponderosa, thought to be a natural cross between a lemon and a
grapefruit, came back from the roots. I expected that as it grew true
from seed or root sprouts, we probably gave away several hundred over
the twenty years we had the tree. The lemons averaged about one pound
each but we have them up to three pounds in good years. Common lemons
taste sweet to us compared to the Ponderosa. Pretty sure we can get
another one in Houston area.

Tomorrow we will blanch and freeze a good bit of chard, seems to be
really growing since we've had so much rain.