This and that in the garden

By Rennie Phillips

Most of what I'm writing about today is pretty much common knowledge. For some of you, it may be new. Some you may not agree on. But it's kind of how we do vegetables in our household.

I grew up country. Always had a big garden and still do. And even when we moved to Oklahoma and on to Wilmore, Kentucky, we still had a garden. I learned a lot in Oklahoma and Kentucky about gardening.

In the spring, everyone's mind and taste buds seem to call for bacon and tomato sandwiches.

I love them. But there are literally hundreds of different brands or kinds of tomatoes. Learn what kind you like and then buy them.

Some tomatoes will be juicy, and some never will. Some will stay firm until they go bad. I don't like a firm, hard, juiceless tomato.

Ask the vendor what kind of tomato he's trying to sell you. Google it and read about that variety.

We never put our tomatoes in the icebox. We may put a slice or two of a leftover tomato in the icebox, but never a whole tomato.

We put our tomatoes in the window in the kitchen, right in the sun.

Tomatoes like it hot. If the tomato is ripe, you can set it on the counter.

If you get a tomato with a crack, eat it first. The crack is normally from getting too much water and expanding faster than the skin will allow, so the skin cracks.

I believe a tomato with a cracked skin says it's juicy. I like them. If the crack is deeper, I cut a V down in the tomato, taking out the exposed meat. Then I devour the tomato.

A good, juicy tomato will have a decent shelf life, but it won't last for weeks.

Some of those from the grocery store will last for weeks, but not a good homegrown, juicy tomato.

If you are buying tomatoes and know you aren't going to eat them right away, buy some that aren't ripe. This will allow them time to ripen and give you a few more days if you aren't ready to eat them right away.

Cucumbers are a little different. Cucumbers taste the best right from the garden.

From the time they are picked, it seems like the flavor goes downhill.

You can store them for several days, but I'd eat them as soon as you can. If your house has air conditioning, you can store them on the counter, but probably the fridge is better.

If you can tolerate vinegar, I'd cut them up and store them in the ice box in a vinegar-water mix with some sugar and salt and pepper added.

I take some cucumbers and skin them and slice them in 1/8- or 1/4-inch slices. I then pour a half water and half vinegar mix with sugar or sweetener and salt and pepper over them.

You can adjust the amount of vinegar or salt or such to fit your taste buds.

You can add onion and garlic or even a pepper. Store this in the fridge and eat it when you want a cucumber.

I eat some and then add more. The mixture will keep for a week or two like this in the fridge. I like this cool summertime treat.

When we pick more cucumbers than we can eat, Marge also makes me a batch of refrigerator pickles.

You can find a recipe online, or email me and I'll send you one. These have to stay in the fridge, but they will keep for several months. As a rule, we make three or four gallons of them.

Most everything else needs to be kept cool.

Green beans go down fast after they are picked and allowed to get hot. If you buy green beans or raise them yourself, the best place to store them is in the fridge.

Leafy vegetables like kale, Swiss chard or collards need to be kept cool as well. I normally pick the Swiss chard I'm going to eat and take it straight to the kitchen.

I picked some Sunday and brought it to the house. It was cooking in a pan within 30 minutes.

When I'm getting a bunch of peppers, we keep them cool, but not necessarily in the fridge. You can store them in the fridge if you want. Same with eggplant. We keep them cool.

Corn should be kept cool, or at least in the shade. If corn is allowed to get hot, it will probably not be as good.

Corn is best when it's picked and taken care of the same day. A good picker will pick the corn in the morning and keep it in the shade until it's sold that same day.

One can take root crops like beets or turnips and clip the tops off, leaving a couple inches of stem.

If you can keep them cool, they will last several days. You just can't let them get hot. You can store them in the fridge if you want. We normally keep them in a room with air conditioning.

When I dig my onions or garlic, I hang them in the shop in the shade and let them dry.

The garlic normally will dry real good. Some of the onions will spoil when I hang them, so I watch them. If one looks like it's spoiling, we try to use it right away.

Cantaloupe or watermelon can be stored where it's cool until they get ripe. Once ripe, they have to be in the fridge. We watch our cantaloupe until it smells ripe or looks ripe, and then we cut off the rind and store it in the fridge. Same with a watermelon.

I can't think of any other garden crop. Drop me a note if you have a better way of keeping your veggies fresh. I'd appreciate it.

Until next time.