Tag Archives: TOMATOES

AQUAPONICS UPDATE #4

May 20, 2015 darling downs 14 Comments

We are fast approaching winter and the weather has been damp and cold, but it is nice in the hot house where we have the aquaponics.

The sweet potatoes are going okay with the first ones better than the last ones. We did have some die off so I have planted some more shoots and I also planted a whole sweet potato with shoots on it. I am looking forward to seeing how they go. The potato I planted with the shoots hasn’t died back at all.

This is English spinach I think (I didn’t keep the packet – slack I know) and I pick off this about twice a week and it keeps coming back. It is very tasty sauteed with garlic and butter.We have planted some broccoli and cauliflower seeds and below is the broccoli. I planted over half a bed and the good thing about broccoli is that it grows side shoots, so once you’ve picked the main head you get the benefit of those extra bits. That is why I planted more of these than the cauliflower.
With aquaponics you can’t harvest everything at the same time, you need to stagger harvesting and planting, otherwise it mucks the system up.

The tomato seeds that I planted weeks ago are still coming up. Some came up and died off but there are about 3 decent looking plants. Here is one below.

I have also planted some more spinach seeds and pat choi seeds in the same bed.

Below are the original capsicum plants that we put in last November. The leaves all drop off and then new shoots appear and then they flower. We haven’t actually gotten any fruit off them but we are still holding out. The original tomatoes have finally died off and we might actually close this bed until we can get some more fish.
We still have fish in this milk vat and they are growing well, I still can’t get a decent photo, but this shows the water flowing and the air hose making bubbles Air into the fish tanks is so important, without this air the fish die.No 2 daughter picked the last of our tomatoes and we have laid them on newspaper on top of the sump tank. I have left some red ones amongst them in the hope that they ripen. I go out each day or so and pick out the majority of the red ones and bring them inside to eat.
Well that is the latest on our aquaponics, we now have power installed properly and have decent lights so we can work in there at night.

We are working on getting some more fish, we need at least 100 more and at the moment my husband is thinking of sourcing trout.

Blessings

You may find this post linked up at some of these great blogs.

Preserving Diary

PRESERVING THE HARVEST – BOTTLING TOMATOES

March 1, 2015 darling downs 37 Comments

Well it’s that time of the year in Australia, time to gather in the harvest and deal with it so that it lasts for the rest of the year.

Once again our tomatoes are only just starting to turn red, it is almost too late for them but hopefully they will continue. We are blessed to be able to purchase bulk tomatoes from our local farm produce store in town so each year our tomatoes don’t fruit enough I purchase a couple of boxes from them.

Where we live can be so tricky weather wise and it isn’t always beneficial to growing certain vegetables. Our corn looks great but I will leave that for another day.

I like to have over 50 bottles of tomatoes in the pantry each year. I could probably use 100 bottles but when I have to buy the tomatoes it is just too expensive.

Here’s what I do with them.

First of all I put as many tomatoes as I can fit into a saucepan and add some water and let them cook away until they are soft. I just chuck them in whole like they are below.

When they are finished cooking they will look like this. Nice and soft and juicy. They have reduced quite a bit too. My husband bought me this special tool years ago and I use it mainly on my tomatoes and when I preserve apples.

It’s called a tomato press and we got it at an italian/greek supermarket in Melbourne. It is a great store and we have been back there and always enjoy the experience.

You put the cooked tomato pulp in the top. (I wait until it is cooler)

You turn the handle and the tomato pulp comes out into the white dish.and the skin comes out the side. Once I have done the whole pot I put the skin mix through again to get out any more tomato pulp.

Using this tool leaves you with beautiful tomato pulp that is skinless and ready to go into bottles. You could put it back on the stove and add other ingredients and spices if you want. This lot I just bottled plain.

Now I fill my jars. Because of the acid level in tomatoes they can be processed through my Fowlers Vacola Unit which basically uses the water bath method.

My unit is a bigger electric one and it fits about 8 of these bottles.

Here is the finished product. I always double clip my bottles and then leave the clips on for 12 – 24 hours before removing and storing the bottles in the pantry.

Sometimes, if I have them I add zucchinis, and onion and other seasonings that I have on hand and then I can just cook up my mince and add this straight in it for a lovely bolognaise sauce for spaghetti.

How do you process your tomatoes??

Vegetable Planting Diary

VEGETABLE PLANTING PART 4

November 27, 2014 darling downs 6 Comments

The vegetables are growing really well and I must admit to being very excited about it, both my husband and myself like just going out and watching it all.

Here are a few photos to update you on the progress, but here is a reminder of what it looked like before.

This is what it looks like now…

The first row is the first lot of tomatoes that we planted, they have been mulched (as stated in update 3) and have a length of mesh next to them to support them. Some of these tomatoes even have flowers on them.

Next to the tomatoes are 3 rows of potatoes, the first row has been mulched down the middle with hay to prevent weeds growing up and to keep moisture in.

My husband is then going to go down each row of potatoes with a double sided mulboard plow which will turn the soil from the middle of the drain between the rows and put it up against the potato seedlings. This plow is a tractor mounted implement.

We haven’t mulched the others yet, but will probably do so in the next week. We are amazed at how the potatoes are growing, we haven’t grown them like this before. We have grown them in tyres in the past like this.

Here are the next couple rows of potatoes.

Here are the zucchinis that were planted last week, we also planted the same amount of cucumbers.

The corn is going great guns as well and there are heaps of pumpkins coming up amongst them too.

Here are the men staking up the tomatoes. We planted another 3 rows of tomatoes and we have had some losses, maybe 20 or so but we are going to replant them over the weekend.

The weather has been great for growing vegetables, we have had rain and then some clear sunny days – just perfect.

I don’t think we will have our own tomatoes by Christmas, but that’s ok, if everything keeps growing like it is it won’t be too much longer.

God is really blessing our vegetables and us, thank you Lord.

What’s up in your garden this week???

Vegetable Planting Diary

VEGETABLE PLANTING PART 3

November 19, 2014 darling downs 4 Comments

It is so exciting to see our vegetables growing (it’s the small things that make us happy).

The children and I went out this morning and mulched some of the tomatoes with hay and I took some more photos whilst I was out there. We have three more rows to mulch and will finish them on the weekend.

Here are the potatoes, there are five rows of them and they are all coming up now, reds and whites.

Mrs Abella of Sunny Patch Cottage and my daughter at Clay Clan Cultivates told me about the planting system called the 3 sisters. It’s a corn, bean and squash/pumpkin mix, the beans climb the corn, the vines grow at the bottom and the corn goes up. All 3 require plenty of water so they all get watered at once. When the corn is done the beans use it as a natural pole to climb up and the corn provides a place marker to find the middle of the vines trailing out from the bottom.

Here is a picture (above) of the corn in rows and the ones below show the pumpkins coming up amongst the corn. I think the corn has grown at least an inch in the last week. We have had some rain this past week and now it is warming up – just great growing weather.

My husband is going to plant another patch of corn, using the full system mentioned to me by Mrs Abella and my daughter. He is going to plant corn, beans and pumpkins. I will keep you updated on how this goes.

That’s all for now but more to come next week.

Once again, what’s happening in your vegetable patch in your neck of the woods??

Blessings to you all.

Vegetable Planting Diary

IT’S VEGETABLE PLANTING TIME PART 1

October 5, 2014 darling downs Leave a comment

It’s vegetable planting time in our place of the world. Spring came on the 1^st September and the weather has really warmed up quickly.

We don’t usually plant tomatoes here until after the Melbourne Cup Race on the 1^st Tuesday in November because we can still get frosts, but this year we are trying something different.

We planted 60 tomato plants today and plan to put them under plastic.

The paddock that we are planting these vegetables in was sown with peas last year and after we harvested them we left it for the winter. In late winter we moved the pigs into the paddock and let them eat the grass and work over the root matter, which then fertilizes and aerates. Graeme then ploughed the whole paddock with the tractor.

He then prepared the bed by rotary hoeing it and making raised beds, so that we can get a deeper top soil. We then found drench drums and placed them between every second tomato plant and filled them with water.

We will run hothouse plastic over the top and make a sort of poly tunnel which is held up by the drench drums. The theory is that the water will heat up in the drums during the day and then at night when the temperature drops the drums cool off a lot slower than the atmosphere does thus stopping a freeze happening around the drum (It is a cold framing idea that my husband found on u tube).

After they planted the tomatoes they planted about 40 kg of white potatoes. My husband once again prepared the bed and raised it. He then spread sheep manure down it and rotary hoed it in, then the children planted the potatoes – two rows per bed. Finally everything was watered in.

Graeme spreading sheep manure on the potato bed

This is just the beginning of our plantings. In a month, once the chance of frosts has gone we will plant another 300 tomatoes. At the moment we planted Grosse Lisse tomatoes but we will probably put in some Romas as well. Next week we will finish planting the potatoes, another 10 kg of whites and then 50 kg of reds. We haven’t really grown potatoes before with much success so we thought we’d give it another try this year.

We will also be planting zucchinis, corn, pumpkins, cucumbers, beetroot and carrots in another week or so.

I will keep you updated with more photos and information as we go.

What are you planting at this time of the year in your place in the world???

Darling Downs Diaries

Tag Archives: TOMATOES

AQUAPONICS UPDATE #4

PRESERVING THE HARVEST – BOTTLING TOMATOES

VEGETABLE PLANTING PART 4

VEGETABLE PLANTING PART 3

IT’S VEGETABLE PLANTING TIME PART 1

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