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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • I recently harvested and processed my luffa! Four good gourds, plus a few smaller ones that’ll just be compost. All but one were very green still, so I roasted them in the oven at 250F for an hour to make the skins workable, squeezed out the pulp and seeds, cut them into a flat sheet, and then soaked in a bleach solution overnight to kill any mold/bacteria before leaving them to dry. I’m excited to make some sponges!

    I’ll be definitely be planting more next year, the super long vines are very fun, especially the one that grew along the top of my garden fence this year.


  • Harvested my sunflower heads this week! I probably waited a bit too long since they had worms and a bit of mold, but lesson learned for next time. I took all the seeds out, sorted out the bad ones, and I’m going to let them dry for a while longer in mesh bags before roasting and shelling or whatever.

    Any advice on processing sunflowers?


  • I was in NM for work and didn’t get to explore too much, but I definitely got some great night skies! Desert ecologies are always interesting to visit as someone from the northeast, I especially liked seeing a bit of the riparian ecosystem around the Rio Grande.

    I’m definitely doubling the number of sunflowers I plant next year! Might try some of the varieties that have multiple blooms as well, as fun as the mammoth ones are.










  • Those wildflowers look divine, my goal for next year is to have a patch like that!

    Here’s what I’ve got -

    Sunflowers!

    Tomatoes have been doing great, especially the cherry variety I’m growing

    The vineborers got half my pumpkins but I’ve harvested a few good ones, as well as a healthy crop of butternut squash

    Bonus brood of wild turkeys from my living room window, there have been quite a few families with cute little fluff balls in the yard recently


  • I missed seeing the weekly thread yesterday, thanks for posting it! Those cucumbers look great - mine are pretty much done here on the opposite side of the country (maybe I underwatered in July) but my tomatoes are doing great. Sunflowers are so close to blooming, which is super exciting.

    Here’s the coolest thing I saw this week - a large caterpillar on my tomatoes studded with parasitic wasp eggs. What a crazy insect - it infects the host caterpillar with a virus that prevents it from molting!



  • Tacked together some scrap wood to un-squash my squash arch - turns out 12 gauge wire fencing is not rigid enough to support full grown butternut squashes! I like how it looks with the wood, though.

    You can see my sunflowers too in the right of the image, just starting to form their flowers. I’m hoping they’ll open in time for the visitors I have this weekend to see them.

    The cucumbers are slowing down now but it’s the tomatoes’ turn to go absolutely wild. I bet I could start harvesting some of these squash and pumpkins soon as well.




  • xylem@beehaw.orgtoNature and Gardening@beehaw.orgIt begins
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    4 months ago

    I’ve only gotten two so far, but here’s what I’ve been doing -

    • coin the zucchini, salt, let sit for 20min and pat off the water
    • dip pieces in flour, then egg, then a bread crumb, parmesan, and seasoning mixture Bake at 400, 10 minutes each side

    After 10 I’d definitely be looking into breads and cakes, especially stuff that might freeze well