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My flint corn is starting to dry down. One disadvantage of growing the older varieties is that they don’t all ripen at once. I’m having to judge ripeness by the ear instead of harvesting the whole patch in one go. That’s ok, it just means it’ll take longer. This year is an expansion year, so most of the corn is marked for seed, but there should be enough to cook up for a taste test.

Next year I definitely need to treat with a fungicide. I lost about 20% of my corn to either corn smut or mold, sometimes both. I’ll be researching non-toxic preventatives this winter.

The dry bean I tested this year, Beefy Resilient Grex, has exceeded expectations in terms of productivity. I haven’t cooked any up yet, but this is the closest thing I’ve found to an everbearing bean plant! Usually when the first beans ripen, the whole plant shuts down, but these just keep pumping more out, it’s amazing! And they’re colorful, too. About half are black, but the other half are every possible color. Green, yellow, brown, red, purple, pink, speckled, striped, mottled, you name it. It’s like Joseph And The Amazing Technicolored Bean Plant! I’ve got about 4 pounds shelled already, and they’re growing faster than I can pick. Definitely going on my list for survival plants!

The strawberries have slowed down some, but they’re still coming. Just a few per picking now. The blackberries I planted have about 8 berries ripening already. Birds got most of the elderberries, but I picked enough to make my elixir.

Speaking of elixirs, chocolate mint makes a great mojito. Just saying.

Still behind on getting the hayfield cut and tilled. I’m hoping to have help with that this weekend.

Oh, and Dad’s garden has more tomatoes than he knows what to do with, so I’ve canned about 20 quarts so far. With several more batches to go!