smitty55

Those are huge for sure. When that happens it's usually a result of fused blossoms where a genetic glitch results in two ovaries in one blossom. That's a huge amount of canning, I generally do a couple dozen at most each year of sauce seeing as I'm on my own now.

I've never seen them for sale anywhere Terry. I was given ripe tomatoes from Greek immigrants back in the 80s that were part of the night cleaning staff where I worked and have been saving seeds ever since. I can't even find a variety name for them online, when I asked John Damianakos what kind they were all he said was Greek. After all these years of keeping them to myself and giving the odd plants to friends and neighbours I'm thinking I might start selling seeds. I traded some this past spring to an organic seeds seller for some heirloom German Pink seeds and while they weren't bad they still couldn't compare to the Greeks both in flavour and growth so I won't be growing them again. The tomatoes themselves aren't really marketable, they have very thin skins and don't take kindly to a lot of handling. A buddy I gave some plants to gave some to his sister a few years back who had a stand at a farmers market and she told me she sold some for $3 each. They're a high maintenance plant that need to be grown a certain way for best results but it's certainly worth it in the long run.

I know there's a good number of gardeners here. So I've been growing these heirloom Greek tomatoes for over 30 years now and saving seeds. Best tomatoes I've ever had and that includes for canning as they are so meaty and full of flavour. They are a large tomato, over a pound is common. So I went to water them yesterday evening and found a huge one. It wasn't quite ripe yet but it was starting to look funny around the stem so I picked it. Biggest one I've had in a couple of years at 2lb 4oz. and 6" across, looks like my feeding regime this season is working well. Also included a pic of what the inside looks like.

Most of my life I have always fried them in tons of butter and some spices. The one thing though was that they soak up so much of it that at times the inside would almost get a bit mushy with all the extra moisture. Last night I did them again with the schnitzel method and fried with a butter and bacon fat mix and I will never do them any other way again. The outside dark brown coating was nice and crunchy while the inside was light and almost fluffy without any excess moisture. The smoked bread crumbs add a great touch of flavour. Definitely recommend that method, panko bread crumbs would work well I'm sure and could be spiced up as well. I'm a bit surprised how many neighbours aren't mushrooms fans, the one guy that always will take one is up at his cottage for another week. Looks like the dehydrator will be getting a good workout.

So I figured I better do a little trip on some local country roads I've seen puffballs on before. Near the end of my tour I see this white spot in a pasture I had got some in before. Grass was a bit long so I couldn't get an good idea of size but it looked wide and I didn't think it was a rock. So I hop the fence as it was much closer than using the gate up the road. With all the grass I didn't spot it until I was fairly close and it was OMG that's massive. So I do the bongo drum test with the flat of my fingers and it sounds good so I pick it. Damn thing must be around ten pounds I figure. Lots of fun I tell you trying to climb and cross a page wire fence with one arm but I finally make it without wiping out or dropping it. So I make the rounds of some neighbours to see who wants some if it turns out good. Being a long weekend 3 of them aren't home yet, 2 aren't interested, 2 say sure they'll try it and another buddy can't make it today. So it's in the basement fridge till tomorrow when I'll slice it and know for sure if it's good but I figure it will be nice and white. Pretty sure it's the biggest I've ever picked, 16" across, 13" tall and 9 lbs. Just amazing.

I guess the cool nights and rain have been enough to set off the puffball season. My daughter showed up with a puffball she found while walking the unmaintained road, unfortunately it was past it's due date and getting soft. Undaunted I popped by a neighbour's place that I know usually has the odd one and sure enough there were two of them on his lawn that had just popped up this past week. One was a bit misshapen and will need some trimming but still in decent shape and the other was nice and round. So after checking with him I grabbed the odd shaped one and I'm sure looking forward to having that with a nice steak tonight. I use the schnitzel method to cook them, a nice thick slice dipped in spiced flour, then in egg wash and finally in my own smoked bread crumbs and fried over medium heat in a mix of oil and butter. It's the best way I've ever had them. So this one was 8 1/2" across and just over two pounds. When I tap it with finger tips it makes a nice boomp boomp sound so I know it will be great and pure white inside. So if you're a fan it could be worth a little drive around checking out ditches, fields and fence lines, they grow very fast and quickly get over ripe. They can also be cut in chunks, dehydrated and then powdered to use in thickening stews and gravies. Cheers

Obviously desperately shilling for indigenous votes considering voter turnout in 2022 was 43% and she won by less than 200 votes. So much for canvassing on homelessness, affordability and housing. Sure, lets give an entity legal voter status, yea that makes sense. SMH

Yellow Garden Spider

So while not directly about the spread I may try it on this anyway and I didn't want to start a new thread. My daughter phones me late this morning and says dad I picked up a treat for you at the farmers market in Carleton Place but she wouldn't tell me what it was. 15 minutes later she comes in carrying this flat bag and pulls out the most amazing looking rectangular loaf of fresh baked this morning Focaccia bread. This lady who bakes it creates a picture on top of the loaf with mostly veggies from their farm. The loaf was so soft yet dense with good weight. Turns out that the texture and flavour of this bread beat the looks and was safe to say the best I've ever had. No way I was going to take it all after her paying $15 and delivering it to me so I cut it in half for her to take it home. We both tried a piece right there and it was awesome. Well go figure when she got home she had to get into it and ate it all in one shot with not even butter on it. It was so good she couldn't stop. Well I still had a 1/4lb of pulled pork left over from the Smokebox so I knew what I was having for lunch. I sliced of two long slabs from the loaf, spread some of their home made BarB sauce on one slice and opened up a jar of hot mustard sauce I had recently bought at a local street fest. It had a good bite so I just put a light smear on the other slice of bread. I added some bacon fat to the pork and nuked it for 40 seconds, it came out sizzling hot and made for a nice thick pile on the bread. Well I make some damn good sandwiches but this bread along with that meat and those condiments put this one over the top, best I've ever had. Too bad they're not open tomorrow or I'd be getting more pulled pork. I do have some smoked boneless thighs in the freezer that I'm thinking will make an appearance though. So if anyone here is in the CP area Saturday mornings or at the Parkdale market in Ottawa Wednesday evenings I couldn't recommend this bread any stronger, it's that good. Cheers https://www.flyingmoonfarm.ca/

Another experiment for me that will certainly be on the list for each year from now on. This should appeal to all the garlic growers in particular. I am now down to growing 100 hardneck garlic a year. Each year I'm always looking for something to do with my garlic scapes that I harvest in mid June. I store them in plastic grocery bags with some wet paper towels in the basement fridge and they last a real long time. So with around 75-80 left I decided to experiment and make a spread/dip with them and it turned out great. So far I've had it as a veggie dip, on crackers with smoked oysters and smoked sardines, mixed in pasta after draining it and before adding my Puttanesca sauce and garlic shrimp and today as a spread on a sandwich with some fresh from smoker pulled pork I got from a local food truck called the Smoke Box that I swapped for a bag of smoked bread crumbs. So out of all my scapes I ended up with 4 cups of trimmed and chopped. I took 2 cups of that in the food processor down to a finer grind, removed it and then added 1 large vidalia onion and a over a cup of chopped wild leeks and ground them down before adding them to the mix. Then I took a half pound of feta cheese, a block of cream cheese, whipped that up and then added a good grind of black pepper and a good 1/4C of EVOO to the mix, enough to soften it up so it will just flow off a spoon at room temp. Then I added all the garlic/onionmix and whipped that for a couple of minutes. Out of the fridge it's definitely thicker. Did up the other batch today as I needed more cream cheese. Very happy how it turned out with a very unique flavour profile, my daughter found it quite strong but still liked it, my only hope now is that it will freeze well as I'll be vacuum sealing at least 10 of the containers and putting them away. In the meantime I'm sure I'll find some other uses for it, I've got some smoked chorizo burgers in the freezer that come to mind. Might make for a good salad dressing base too. Cheers

So I just talked to them and they are a Mercury dealer for sure but they were not aware that it wasn't listed anywhere on their website so he will inform the boss and get that rectified.

If you click on visit website for Bay Marine on that link they don't show it as a a merc dealer like Crowman posted. Someone screwed up.

Yea, just about anything you would use butter on with notable exceptions like pancakes, peanut butter and jam sandwiches etc. Fantastic on and/or mixed in mashed potatoes or most veggies and great to add in the pan when frying up onions, mushrooms and peppers for steaks, burgers and wraps. Adds a nice little twist to bruschetta too. Another thing I really like about it is that it keeps that same raw flavour unlike when pickled which I do like as well. Great for toasted tomato or blt, I always add some to tomato and cream soups too, the list is long lol.

Well better late than never they say. I finally got around to making up my Ramp compound butter this year, it's so amazingly good on so many things from soup to steaks. 4 lbs of butter done up in two batches in the food processor. Included was 1.5lbs of finely chopped wild garlic, 3 envelopes of fresh thyme dehydrated along with four trays of chives and green onions dehydrated and ground up. Seeing as it's somewhat whipped up even cold it spreads pretty good. When frozen and vacuum sealed it lasts for years in the freezer as I found earlier when I came across a surprise bonus pack I didn't know was left over. Added a few tablespoons of EVOO to one batch this time as an experiment which thinned it out some so I had to chill it more before making the logs. Bit of a messy job but well worth it.

That's a nice chunk of land you have there, must be nice. We know another guy Chris who has a cottage at the top end of the lake. Yea Derek liked it there as it wasn't crowded like a lot of trailer parks and there are only about 40 trailer lots, each with a large front and back yard. Plus the access to Bobs was a bonus. It's just the last few years with price increases and the ever increasing restrictions they add to the yearly agreements that have him ticked off. Not sure about the Americans, he's never mentioned that. He's now looking at maybe also selling his house and buying a nice insulated one owner 3 season cottage on the Miss and adding heat for the winter.

Yea I fished Kipawa for close to 20 years. One year at Corbeau my bud got a 10.5lb Laker mid afternoon and I got a 11.5 lb Walleye 10:30 at night. We took both biggest fish that week all out of my little 14 ft tinner beating out all the rich yanks in their big fancy boats. That felt good.

@CrowMan You're on Crow lake connected to Bobs lake right? My ex SIL has a trailer at Browns up for sale as increasingly strict regulations there have him fed up.

Just happen to be watching this atm. We really did have some of the best music in the 70's

What happens is the ethanol gradually breaks down the fuel line and the minute particles eventually gum up the works in the carb and filters. When changing lines in your case some good preventative maintenance would be to give your carb a good cleaning at the same time and replace the fuel filter.

Here's a how-to on creating a youtube channel. Once done you just upload your videos on to your channel and then you can copy the link and paste it here in your post. Cheers

Great pics. As for the videos you could easily load them onto youtube and then post the links here like I did with that elk soccer. Cheers

I used to have several outdoor subscriptions, even though some articles are more US based InFisherman is the only one I still have. They have the best videos by far as well. Dumped Outdoor Canada after noticing that the main editor was a flaming climate change alarmist, don't know how he kept his job there. Then I decided to go down to one and didn't renew my OOD sub. There's a good article there as well on how largemouth bass are getting harder to catch and studies done to prove how catchability rates are a heritable trait that gets passed on to future generations. A great article on ned rigs too and I'm not even half way through the mag yet. It's worth buying off the shelf IMO. Cheers

So I'm reading the June edition of In-Fisherman and there's an article titled Walleye Baitfish Patterns You Can't Pass Up by Gord Pyzer. One of the patterns involves using Cisco presentations and not always around the thermocline. "In Wabigoon Lake, Ontario for example, he's found Ciscoes feeding on schools of shiners in shallow waters along shorelines". They also talk about using large swimbaits for lunkers in areas where the thermocline intersects with main lake structure that attracts schools of Ciscoes. Another section talks about huge schools of shiners congregating in shallow sandy beach areas after long periods of calm weather and nailing Walleye all summer long early morning and late afternoon when no one else was fishing those beaches. Soon as the winds picked up however the shiners were gone.

I'd never heard of that 10 speed tranny before and after looking it up and seeing all the issues including class action lawsuits I'd never buy a truck with it regardless of how good that 5.0 l is. Hopefully the Op won't have those problems. https://www.vehiclehistory.com/articles/ford-10-speed-transmission-problems-to-be-aware-of