Dehydration time.

 
Preto


 

 

Vista

Wow! Paul, that is a beautiful sight.

Hi tyro,
Why oh why ? Were they bad boyz and gals ?
More seriously, I make jam to conserve them in the long run.
How do you then use the dried figs? How do you preserve them (from bugs nesting in them dried ) ?
You may be giving me some ideas to try ... Do you sun dry them or do you have a special device like a food dehydrator ?
Thanks for helping me finding new ways of conserving and eating the figs .

Hi Paul ,those look beautiful,...I was going to ask the same question do u put them in a dehydrater or air dry them outside......

Oh Yeah! Looks like it's time to start pumping up my vista and preto for next year.

To me the color and I bet the taste of those figs are what it's all about.

You must be one happy man.

Hi Guy's,

These are all dehydrated in an old dehydrator that I've had laying around for decades.
I'm going to have to upgrade to something larger and more flexible next year.Some of these
figs were already a day past their "use by" date.Flavor was still good but had that "a bag full
of jam"texture.

Today's juicing day.Sandul Moldovan,Crinkovic Yugoslavian,Doctor Wyche's Yellow and Chocolate Stripes.

 
Chocolate Stripes is truly stunning.Hurts to juice these.

 
Tsuyataro cukes getting long in the tooth.


 
Tomato's,cukes,celery,carrots,lots of ginger and garlic and a couple of manzano's.Yum.

Tyro that looks amazing. Very nice. !!!!

Congrats Paul. Everything looks first class awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Paul, do the cukes do well climbing the string like beans? Do the plants fall often?

I use 2 8ft sections of hog panel (long way is parallel to the ground) connected on one side with wire to make a hinge. Basically an inverted V, it works pretty good but I'm always searching for hangers in the middle and miss a few and not to mention the scratched up forearms and knuckles sometimes. Maybe I'll separate the V and put each panel completely vertical with a pole at each end for support at the next house. Thanks for the idea!
I use the hog panel to make custom tomato cages which collapse flat for storage too, no worries for a cage that collapses under the weight of a big plant with them.

Calvin: I would like to see pictures of your cages...one challenge for me is having little space to store.  Something that is easy to store.  Please post photos if you can.  Thanks!

I saw on youtube a 'solar dehydrator'. Was thinking about building one for a summer project. Love those tomatoes by the way. Where can I the seeds?

Calvin,

The cuke's will not climb,they had to be wrapped as they grew,your hog panels were my first choice but I couldn't find them around here for less than $135.00.I had 2000 ft of string on the shelf.The plants collapse under the weight of the cuke's if you allow them to size up.The only plus with string is you can tear out the entire crop,string and all,very easily at the end of the season.Since then a friend gifted me some plastic coated wire,still not optimum due to tight grid but the price was right.I've sourced the galvanized panels at a reasonable price in Central Ca.,but haven't made the trip up there yet.In the meantime I'm migrating the trellis to the gifted wire as I tear the preceding crop out.Looks like the Sun Gold tom's on the right will delay that section,at least until main crop tom's start.<G>.

 

@efletche,PM me, a SASE will do it.

Cheers,

Paul

Efletche, send me a pm I might be able to help with some seeds.

What an amazing sight, congratulations, Paul.

What is the name of the tomatoes with the green stripes?  Those are so pretty.  The cukes look awesome too.  Do use netting for your figs? to keep the birds from eating them?

Figbert, Not sure which you saw but i grew green zebra. They have green stripes. There is also one variety called red zebra. Both are beautiful and excellent flavor!

I see...you arexasking about the tomatoes in picture up top. I may not have the correct variety.

Sorry for taking my time with this. I was waiting for a foot of snow to melt, we have had some really nice days the past week and this was the first time I have been in the backyard since I don't know when.

This is one of the cages leaning against the wall collapsed in storage mode.

 

Here is one of the extensions, the picture illustrates how I just spiral some wire around the corners to make a simple hinge joint. The standard cage is 5ft tall, some varieties will get very tall so I plop a 2ft extension on top and just wrap a lighter gauge wire on 3 sides to secure it for the season.

 

This picture shows how I secure the cage so heavy winds won't blow them over. Just hammer a 3-4ft section of conduit down next to the middle of one side and secure it with some heavier wire or a T post fence clip. When I put an extension on a cage, I add a second piece of conduit because the tall ones really catch a lot of wind. This picture also demonstrates why I'm not starting any cuttings this winter, I haven't even had time to clean up last years garden! 

 

Another thing I like about these cages, there is no trying to drive flimsy wires into the ground which inevitably bend and go wonky. I generally don't secure them with conduit till the plants are about 3 ft tall, the only risk in doing this is about every other year I get busy and forget about it; which results in me coming out to a 5ft tomato plant flat on the ground after a thunder storm made some big gusts and blew it over.

If you are lucky, you can find a farm store that sells a fair amount of this. If so, they are bound to have some with damage. Then you can go in and play "Let's make a deal". The first time I did this I got them for a great price, the second time a got a discount but not the screaming deal I got the first go round. I wish I would have bought more at first, but it was just an experiment at that point. I got mine at Murdoch's Ranch Supply.

Here is a picture of the backyard. You can see the tomato plants in their cages in the back, all the cages are brimming with tomato plant and will never ever bend.

 

beautiful yard Calvin!

I am blown away by your bounty of Pretos and vistas Paul! Not to mention those gorgeous tomatoes. Then there is Calvin's beautiful yard. You guys are inspiring. Back to the garden again tomorrow working with Figs, roses and dirt! Where else can you have your heart broken by a big green worm eating a tomato and then be comforted by a big fat fig! The joy of it. I think spring is here! Summer hot on her heals.

Deep dark reds everywhere in those figs and tomatoes; It's mouth watering.