u/swerly2

I was inspired to try fermented cherry tomatoes over the weekend. I have an abundance of them and I threw some of my sungold tomatoes along with a few tiny cherry tomatoes into a jar with some black peppercorns, frozen garlic cloves and basil from my garden. I apparently misunderstood the instructions because I added 2% (7g) salt to the jar because I was basing the requirement of salt on the weight of the vegetables (370g) in the jar and I did not include the water that I added in the total weight. Long story short, the tomatoes and all accompaniments weigh 370 g. I added 8 g of kosher salt to that and then filled the jar with water. Everything’s been bubbling away and smell smells terrific, but I just learned that my salinity was extremely low. I just tested the pH and it’s at 5. I just re-weighed everything and the weight of all of the water, the salt that I added, and the vegetables is 736g. I just added 8 g of salt to the brine. If I can get the pH to a safe level, will these be safe to eat, or is the risk of botulism or some other terrifying toxin too high at this point for these to be safe? Started them on Sunday and today is day 2.

Just a little appreciation post for Earth Angel. I got this from Walmart as a bare root for $19 (for a 2 pack!!) this spring and it has bloomed its head off since April. We’ve had an extreme drought, record high temperatures, thrips, Japanese beetles and this thing has taken it like a champ. Just absolutely covered in blooms all summer. I can’t wait to see what it looks like in a few years if this was what I got during the first!

I picked this up on clearance at either Lowe’s or Home Depot…I think Lowe’s…it was marked as PCDM, but it is certainly not lol any guess what it might be? I saw lots of different varieties there, but I’m not sure what it is (and I’m hoping that somebody that grabbed the bare roots this year will recognize her). First bloom, but much of a scent, but it has been raining all day and I’m not sure if that has an impact.

I decided to pull up 2 of my favorite roses (Earth Angel and Madame Pierre Ogre) at the wrong time of year to move out of state and then kept them in pots that were likely too small for almost 2 years…and now they are absolutely exploding since I planted them in the ground 🥹 so glad I didn’t leave them behind!