Smarties Bar & Grill #77

Catfish I caught last night about 2:30 a.m.
Gutted and filled about an hour later so I didn't have to mess with that mess at the house.... The picture doesn't do it justice but it was probably a good three to five pound fish

Cut the meat up into Nugget size. Salted very well and soaked in real buttermilk for a good 6 hours in the fridge before breading and deep frying.

Throw in grits and potatoes and now you have a complete meal. Coleslaw and hush puppies would have went well but I didn't go all out.

That is only half the fish on the plate.

 

Hope John Deere's are ok riding mowers. Just ordered one. Only have experience with one from my early teens that was a piece of poo because it never wanted to start and the man I worked for never wanted to have someone come look at it.

 

They're better than OK. When we moved out to our place in 2010, which hadn't been maintained in years (the previous owner had suffered a stroke), I bought one and I beat the living crap out of that thing and it lasted 5-6 years. After that I replaced it with my current mower and it's still running good. If you do the routine annual maintenance every Spring you should be fine (changing the fuel filter every year is a must). Perhaps the most common problem people have with those mowers is with the carburetor in the engine - the ethanol in low grade/octane gasolines will gum them up the carbs, and it gagged-out the engine in my first JD, so I make a point of putting at least mid-grade gas in the mower and adding Seafoam engine treatment to the gas. I've been putting Seafoam in the mower I have now from day one and I haven't had any carburetor issues at all.

 

How much seafoam do you use and do you mix in can or tank? Seems like one bottle of that stuff is enough for a Boeing 737 LOL. There are a couple places I can buy ethanol free gas but it is pricey.

 

LOL - 1 ounce per gallon. I mix it into my gas can, but if "Danger" is your middle name, go ahead and dump it in your tank. I think my E180 holds 2.5 gallons.

I can't get ethanol-free gas where I live, so I dump that stuff in all my small engine equipment, and I haven't had any carb problems with any one of them.

Enjoy your new JD. I know they're more expensive, but the ones I've owned have been worth every penny. I also get maintenance offers from my local dealers and if you get them they're well worth looking into.

 

Dude, those nugs and waffle fries look delicious.

 

Did you see any damage from the climate protestors' attacks at Stonehenge? I could not believe they would attack something like the Stonehenge.
Two days driving is worth seeing Stonehenge and the Neolithic Quoit. Two days well spent.

 

They threw a bit of orange powder on some stones. They'll survive, much worse things have happened to them over the last 4,500 years.
In Victorian times visitors could hire a hammer and chisel so they could take a bit of the stones home as a souvenir.

Stonehenge has been restored over the years with stones put in place by what can only be described as guesswork.

 

It would have been better to have just left it alone. Now it is a guess which piece is the original.

 

Sail catfish?

 

My wife saw this little feller resting in the shade of one of our Oakland hollies last week, and since I haven't seen one in years I had to get a shot:



We've got a couple of acres of field in our North 40 that we allow to grow wild now and then - it's full of milkweed, goldenrod, yarrow and other native wild flowers and grasses that the birds, butterflies and other pollinators love. If I don't cut it during the growing season it gets quite nice by Autumn. I'll have to see if I can find the pictures I took the last time we let it go....

 

Cold snap here... only getting to 95%, probably due to a hurricane in the gulf pushing cooling rain here.

 

Category 1 so it barely qualifies. I only bought two cases of beer and the power didn't even go out here. It was a bit worse in Sarasota about 60 miles west Northwest of here.

Nothing even closed down in town. Now if you see the waffle House close down you know it's about to get real and that means I'm buying at least five cases of beer and preparing for a several day power outage at least.

The one I went through here 3 years ago this September was a category 5 and that was the craziest one I've ever seen.

I believe we had sustained winds of 120 miles an hour for several hours with gust of 150.

I don't think we have seen more than 45 mph gust out of this one for short periods of time

 

Update from this year's tomato experiments:

The growing season isn't over, but so far I'd have to say my experiments have been a success for the most part. Between the heat-resistant varieties and 30-40% shade cloth all of the tomatoes produced flowers and fruit through the hottest part of summer when temps got up around 100 and the heat indexes got as high as 115. Keeping them out of direct sunlight during the harshest (hottest & driest) conditions was the key, but once the temps dropped down to reasonable/seasonable levels the shade cloth came off and the plants were exposed to full sun light.

As anticipated, some of the plants were more successful/productive than others, so here's how they all panned out:

Tomatoes - First planting with Grade

Black Krim, C: This "early" heat-resistant was the first to produce tomatoes, and they were fairly productive. The flavor, however, was nowhere near as good as other "black" and "purple" varieties such as Carbon and Cherokee Purple. It has a very mild and neutral flavor, some might even call it bland, which makes it good for cooking in some dishes where you want the other ingredients to stand out, but I don't think I'm going to grow it again.

Prudens Purple, B: This another "early" variety and it was pretty productive, but they were also had the least stamina of all the plants (I've already pulled quite a few of them up). This tomato is called a "purple" but the fruit looks and tastes more like a "pink". The flavor is pretty good - somewhat like a mild beefsteak - but nowhere near as good and complex as a Brandywine. If I do plant these again it would be to get a crop of "early" tomatoes in while I'm waiting for the bigger "late" varieties to bear fruit.

Virginia Sweets, A-: These are the "latest" of all the varieties I grew and they're just coming in now. They were pretty productive this year but I've had years when they were less productive, so there consistency remains an open question. This a golden variety (with red stripes) that produces large (1 pound and up) delicious fruit. The flavor is sweet and non-acidic, and it's one of the few that goes great with seafood. I like to make a salsa with this other sweet tomatoes for white fish and shrimp (yum!). This is a great tomato, but one of the most challenging to grow because they take so long to fruit. That means you have to baby the plants through the harshest part of Summer to get to harvest time. This is not a variety for the impatient, but I grow it precisely because it does produce after most if not all of the other tomato plants are spent. I've been growing these for years and I'll be growing them again. They also have the advantage of being an heirloom variety, so this is one I'll save and grow the seeds from.

Brandywine OTV, A+: This heat-resistant Brandywine has been the most pleasant surprise of the year, and I'll be growing these from now on. It is the toughest and most productive Brandywine I've ever grown (big fruit up to and around 1 pound) and the flavor can't be beat - rich and complex. This is the first time I've grown them and they're already become one of my favorite tomatoes. I highly recommend it to all the Southern gardeners out there - you won't be disappointed.

Cherokee Purple, A+: I love these tomatoes and I'm getting a heavy harvest of them right now. Big fruit that have a rich, sweet, complex flavor that can't be beat. The shade cloth came in real handy with this variety, not only because it kept them productive, but it also eliminated the spoilage problem I've had with this variety in the past. These guys are back in my veggie garden to stay.

Sungold Hybrid Cherry, A+: Super heat-resistant, productive and delicious. The darker the fruit get, the sweeter they get. In fact, these tomatoes get so sweet you can't use them in dishes like chili and gumbo. They're great right off the vine, in a salad or with seafood. The tomato salsa I make for white fish and shrimp is a combination of Sungold and Virginia Sweets:

Tomato Salsa for Seafood Recipe:
1) Heat a skillet and add olive oil
2) Once the oil is hot, season with a sweet basil, such as Neapolitan or Genovese basil
3) One the basil has seasoned the pan, stir in Vidalia onions (I cut mine into thin crescents, but finely chopped is good, too)
4) Once the onions are translucent, stir in a combination of halved Sungold cherry tomatoes and cubed Virginia Sweets tomatoes.
5) Cook and add more basil to your liking
6) Pull the salsa as soon as the tomatoes are cooked and soft. Do not overcook because the tomatoes will lose their flavor.
7) Pour over fish or shrimp.
*Note: I will also cook zucchini into this salsa, which is really good. I usually add the zukes shortly after the tomatoes have cooked a little bit but are not fully cooked yet.

Cocozelle Zucchini, A+: Outstanding heat-resistant zucchini. Very productive and the zukes are delicious

Jarrahdale Pumpkins, Incomplete (leaning C): These guys are still growing and they've become a little more productive as the rains have picked up. They are heat-resistant but they don't like dry conditions, and the long dry spell we had stunted their growth and productivity. I'm guessing we'll wind up with one or two pumpkins in the 10 pound range per plant. Not nearly as vigorous and productive as the Blue Doll pumpkins we've grown in the past, but we'll see how things go over the next month. Speaking of which, I saw the first sign of squash bugs (eggs) on the plants this morning, so I'm going to have to respond aggressively to that development.

Succession Tomatoes, Incomplete (leaning A)
(Sungold Cherry, Brandywine OTV and Black Krim)

This has been the other pleasant surprise of this year's experiments. The succession tomatoes I planted in mid-June are bigger and stronger than the tomatoes I planted earlier in last Spring. Despite all the punishment they took growing up during the peak heat of summer, they actually seem to have thrived under the hot conditions. I'm already harvesting the first Sungolds, and the Black Krim and Brandywine OTV are fruiting. Once again, growing up under the 30-40% shade cloth was the key to success, but once they got strong enough and the temps dropped back down to reasonable levels they were allowed to grow in full sun.

I should be harvesting the Black Krim and Brandywine OTVs at various times in September and the Sungolds should keep cranking out cherry tomatoes into October if not until the first frost.

This is the second time I've planted a succession crop of tomatoes and I've had success both times (moreso this year). I'm definitely going to keep doing this in the future.

 

We're coming off of our latest heat spell tomorrow and the heat cranked up some serious thunderstorms and squalls - it rained cats and dogs and rabbits and hamsters Friday and Saturday. Now, FatBack's girlfriend Debby is heading our way and we're expected to get a lot more rain Thursday through Saturday.

 

It just rained again... down to 83 degrees, that's October temperatures!

 

Luna moth?

 

Do you think that is a sign of an early winter? The other day we had a velvet air day, that always makes me think fall is getting near.

 

We got a band of rain that was like that and wind. We think it was from Debby. Today is sunny and windy here.

 

that’s a LOT of experimenting. I love it!


I am currently running my own experiment with a seed I’ve never tried. They are called Everglades tomatoes and they can stand the heat of the Summer. Since we live in the Everglades, I’m hopeful. Now, I’m running way late due to a variety of reasons, but I see no reason why they shouldn’t go.

Out of 10 seeds, three have germinated. I expect to get them in the ground in two weeks. We shall see.

 

Great pics, Monte! Sounds like a great trip.

 

Dunno... I can only tell when the winter is going to be hard...I start craving nuts and chocolate.

 

I've been wondering about this too. It has been a very bizarre year for clues. At work, mums have been blooming for going on 6 weeks when they normally wouldn't bloom until into September here and certainly not that long.

 

I am unfamiliar with that term having never heard it before.... What is a velvet air day?

 

Yup. First one I've seen out here. Hopefully, there are more.