Favorite garden vegetable

[longwinters]

So of everything you grow, I guess fruit or vegetable, what do you grow the most of?
 
For me it is tomatoes and bell peppers (red, orange, yellow).
 
Long

[burntmuch]

Me too. Tomatoes & peppers.
The kids really like growing green beans. I also grow lots of cukes, zucchini & squash, seems like you can screw those up.

[keith44]

my favorite for fresh eating or my favorite for storage, or just by quantity??


If we are to go strictly by quantity, it would have to be tomatoes, onions and peppers. Now if we look at favorite to grow for fresh eating, sweet corn, tomatoes, and green beans and potatoes.


Grown for storage potatoes, winter squash, green beans


What do I look forward to the most?? Asparagus and sweet corn.

[hillbill]

green beans for me. i eat them almost every day all summer. my favorite way is to boil them up with some fresh taters and onions. add a thick venison burger with big slabs of homegrown tomatoe and you have a feast!

[keith44]

green beans for me. i eat them almost every day all summer. my favorite way is to boil them up with some fresh taters and onions. add a thick venison burger with big slabs of homegrown tomatoe and you have a feast!

  YUMMY!!!

[reliquary]

During the harvest season, my morning meal is consumed by grazing my way around the orchard and the garden.  My favorites in the order that they appear are the tomatoes, plums, peaches, and figs.  My wife loves the squash, cucumbers, beans and peas.   WTH, I eat it all except the cucumbers. 
 

[Cheesehead]

Half my garden is potatoes. This year I am trying "Gold Rush".

Cheese

[Buckskin]

Beets, asparagus and the makings for fresh salsa...

[charles p]

If I had more room, it would be green beans.  Would like to can 52 quarts per year.  I also grow alot of mutard and turnip salad as well as kale. 

[ironglow]

  Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes...
   I like all the fresh vegetables I raise..but tomatoes are my heart's delight..   I can hardly wait for that first big beefsteak type to get to the point where one slice makes a sandwich ..very fresh white bread, Hellman's mayo..salt & pepper.  Ummmmm..
   My favorites in beef are Original Goliath, Lemon Boy and Delicious.  I enjoy Pruden's Purple and am trying Black Krim this season.
   Then I plant the sweet "cherry" type tomatoes near the back door where I can grab a few as I walk by.  Sweet 100s are good..Juliettes OK and Cupids I tried last year were a loser.
   Peas (English) and green beans are a given.. Then zuchinni, slice in a fry pan with onion and just a few halved slices of pepperoni...ambrosia !
 
      I like to "live out of" my garden in the summer..
 
 

[scootrd]

Favorites for wife is Garlic, Sugar Snap Peas, Cherry Tomatoes.
Mine are Summer Squash and Zucchini.

We do a lot of canning.
   

[powderman]

WE love all fresh veggies but choosing only one is definitely TOMATOES. POWDERMAN. 

[gr8ful]

tomatos zukes and butterbeans keep me happy
 
cant wait for the first early girls!
 

[longwinters]

I might have to add that I love fresh garden carrots.  The taste between them and store bought is amazingly different.  Steam em, add butter, salt and pepper....oh yeah.
 
Long

[scootrd]

I might have to add that I love fresh garden carrots.  The taste between them and store bought is amazingly different.  Steam em, add butter, salt and pepper....oh yeah.
 
Long

We love carrots as well , however ours always come out short and stubby we have tried everything to get those nice long ones to no avail. 

[Buckskin]

I might have to add that I love fresh garden carrots.  The taste between them and store bought is amazingly different.  Steam em, add butter, salt and pepper....oh yeah.
 
Long

We love carrots as well , however ours always come out short and stubby we have tried everything to get those nice long ones to no avail.

Your soil is probably too tight, carrots prefer a light sandy loam soil.

[Casull]

Tomatoes, cukes, green beans.  Now, I'm hungry.

[longwinters]

I plant the shorter carrots 
 
Long

[keith44]

I might have to add that I love fresh garden carrots.  The taste between them and store bought is amazingly different.  Steam em, add butter, salt and pepper....oh yeah.
 
Long

Try adding a tablespoon of honey during the last few minutes you are steaming them, a whole nother level of fine eatin'

I might have to add that I love fresh garden carrots.  The taste between them and store bought is amazingly different.  Steam em, add butter, salt and pepper....oh yeah.
 
Long

We love carrots as well , however ours always come out short and stubby we have tried everything to get those nice long ones to no avail.

Your soil is probably too tight, carrots prefer a light sandy loam soil.

There are varieties bred for heavy soils that produce fairly long carrots.  The biggest factors are loose soil (to a depth of 12 inches), and no rocks or tree roots or any other hard obstructions where they will be growing.

[ironglow]

I might have to add that I love fresh garden carrots.  The taste between them and store bought is amazingly different.  Steam em, add butter, salt and pepper....oh yeah.
 
Long

Try adding a tablespoon of honey during the last few minutes you are steaming them, a whole nother level of fine eatin'

I might have to add that I love fresh garden carrots.  The taste between them and store bought is amazingly different.  Steam em, add butter, salt and pepper....oh yeah.
 
Long

We love carrots as well , however ours always come out short and stubby we have tried everything to get those nice long ones to no avail.

Your soil is probably too tight, carrots prefer a light sandy loam soil.

There are varieties bred for heavy soils that produce fairly long carrots.  The biggest factors are loose soil (to a depth of 12 inches), and no rocks or tree roots or any other hard obstructions where they will be growing.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
 
     In years past I have had to plant in heavy soil also..  I planted Red Cored Chantenay and in later years Kuroda..of course with the slimmer carrots, stones will be inclined to fork the root.  I've gotten to where I prefer the stubby ones anyway.. 

[OLDHandgunner]

There's nothing better than that first fresh home grown TOMATO of the year.
 
And second is that fresh home grown Burpless Cuke off the vine.
 
Damn!! Now you got my mouth watering. Got at least 4 months to wait.   

[longwinters]

My grandpa (a dairy farmer) used to eat hardly nothing besides what ripened in the garden and grandma's homemade bread during the late summer and fall.  I can still picture him eating sliced tomatoes, cukes and that bread with his coffee.  He was happiest during that time of year.
 
Long

[ironglow]

A hint for tomato affictionados..  Last year I had a bumper crop..best in a long time.  Don't know if this was the reason, but I took a hint from Jerry Baker (if I recall correctly)..and a couple times... at beginning and mid-season..I watered my tomato plants with a 50/50 mix of 1% milk and water..say a quart each plant.  I can't be sure that is what produced the beautiful crop... but I'm doing it again this year.

[keith44]

probably did help, if you want to try an experiment, select two or three and do not feed them the milk water mixture

[bilmac]

I grow and like most stuff, but I've always specialized in maters. Last few years I've been concentrating on heirlooms. The purple prudens I grew last year were something special. This year I'm concentrating on Amish paste.
 
If you want to loosen your soil about twice as deep as you can with a rototiller for your carrots, look into broadforks. They are kind of spendy, $170, if you buy one, but I made a couple out of stuff I had laying around.

[ironglow]

probably did help, if you want to try an experiment, select two or three and do not feed them the milk water mixture

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
  Keith;
     I did that and there seemed to be a real difference..  It was on two different varieties though, so I can't be absolutely sure...
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
 
  Bilmac;  I might make one of those, how long should the tines be ?  Do you actually try to turn the soil completely over, or just reach down, loosen & aerate it ?

[scootrd]

I've always found the key to tomatoes is consistency in watering , Dont let em dry out. If they get an erratic amount of water the skins dry too hard and they will split. I have always laid a good mulch bed of straw and barn waste from when we clean the goat barn out in spring around each tomato plant.  I water in mornings and the straw waste helps retain the moisture in the soil throughout the day.

A neighbor of mine does not have a garden , but grows tomatos on her back deck. She buys bagged soil , cuts in X in the bags , sticks one plant plant in each bag and waters them on her deck. She gets some quite nice varieties of what she calls "deck tomato's" each year. (I think she does the same thing with her potatoes and peppers) I will have to ask next time we say hello.

[bilmac]

Ironglow
The forks are a squared U shaped tool, two handels and the bottom bar about 28" long. I used 13" tines spaced out across the bottom bar. Typical is 5" or 6" apart. I made one with about a 2" spacing to dig spuds. My tines came from an old dump rake so are curved and I find if I use that one I can actually pick up some dirt and cause some mixing of the soil.
To use you stab the tines in the dirt by stepping it down, and then just tip the handels back. Pretty easy to use, the author of the book I read thinks it is easier to use than a rototiller.
Google broadfork and you'll see lots for sale, and U tube shows people using them. As a blacksmith you could probably make some dough making them at the prices these guys are selling them.

[ironglow]

Thanks Bilmac;
  Those dump rake teeth are of good spring steel, but will they take the gaff unsupported ?  It seems like they would need some support, at least about the top 1/3 of the tines anyway, did you reinforce them with something ?....Or did they do the job without support ?  I think I'll work out a pattern, I can use mild steel half inch round stock, forged to a point, with a reinforcing gusset placed edgewise so it cuts through the soil.  I am debating wooden or steel handles..1" square, heavy steel tubing would  be simpler for me but i think the wooden handles would be lighter, although more costly. Hmmm, food for thought..
 
  Scootr;
  Yes.. you are very right on keeping uniform moisture on tomatoes.  just 2 years ago I tried using a 5 gal pail with a hole in the bottom, mounted atop a couple steel posts for an inverted plant.  Results were fair, although not spectacular.  So last year I decided to try 3@ 5 gallon pails with 1/4" holes for drainage...plants in normal, upright position, hanging from a crossbar atop steel posts..no success at all, I just couldn't keep the moisture uniform.  So it's back to conventional planting for me.
 
  I like good flavor, so I start with indeterminate varieties...thus it is important that I keep trimming the "suckers" out of the angle where the branches join the main stem..very important.
 
  Yes bilmac..the Prudens Purple has been a favorite of mine for many years..

[Cornbelt]

 We usually have so much foxtail growing with the carrots, when it comes time to pull 'em, by the time we get the foxtail pulled, the carrots are loose.