The Garden Thread - August, 2025

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Monday. Again?

Yesterday I ‘ran away from home’ and went to an Antique Show and Flea Market. Lots of stuff; mostly unremarkable, but I did come home with a hand-turned Cherry-wood Yarn Bowl and had a nice conversation with the man who made it. Turns out he lives not far from us! I’ve wanted a GORGEOUS Yarn Bowl for ages and now one finally found me and at a reasonable price. They are NOT cheap on line. And locally harvested wood and a local craftsman are the cherry on top!

Pear Butter is in the freezer and all of the pear slices are dried for Beau. I think they’re a pear-flavored piece of LEATHER, but whatever. He wanted them, he got them!

More beans picked, so blanch/freezing is on the docket for later today. So far the two poles have given me 12 quarts and whatever else I get put up today. And I REALLY need to clean out my VW Golf. She’s a mess! Really nice day; mid-60’s and a nice breeze and sunny. It’s actually CHILLY in the shade!

Looking ahead, there’s a slight chance of rain, but temps for the next TEN DAYS will be in the mid-70’s! Fingers crossed that we don’t get a late Heat Wave, but I’m sure we usually do.

As tomatoes ripen some more, I think I’ll have enough for another double batch of Salsa - turns out I had less than I thought on hand, so there’s the solution. :)

We’ve been invited to a Pig Roast this coming Sunday and we were asked to bring a dish to pass, so I am making my World Famous Marinated Olives. Super simple:

Cut as many strips of peel as you can from one big orange. Juice the orange. Fill a tall, lidded glass container (I am using an old, HUGE olive jar I got from my Mom ) with green (stuffed) and black olives, and mix the orange peel in there, too. Optional is to add Mozzarella Pearls, which I will as I have some on hand anyway. Add in the juice from the orange. Cover it all with your choice of ZESTY Italian dressing, homemade or bought. Put the lid on (tightly) and swish it around to make sure everything is coated well. Pop in the fridge overnight, but allow to come back to room temp for the best flavor. I make sure there is a slotted spoon for spooning it out, and napkins and small bowls. It’s a little messy, but everyone seems to like it, as there are never any leftovers. You can’t screw this up - no standard measurements because you can use any size lidded glass jar you have on hand and any combo of olives that you like. Just eyeball it.

The past week was mostly hot and dry here in Central Missouri. We got one little sprinkle of rain - tenth of an inch maybe - enough to knock the dust down for about 20 minutes.

Kitchen garden is still keeping me busy. I canned 12 quarts of salsa mid-week. That puts a wrap on my canning for this season. Mrs. Augie now has 32 quarts of fermented dill pickles sitting on the bar in the sun room. I think (hope) she’s done with those too.

Vine borers got the last zucchini hill a couple days ago. There are two big zukes left that I’ll collect later today when I pull the plants. Mrs. Augie’s got 40-ish freezer bags (2 cups/bag) of zuke pulp put away so we won’t have a zucchini bread shortage here this winter.

The spaghetti squash vines are starting to look rough but they’re still putting out new vine and blossoms. There are three nice fat squash ready to pick now. I hope to get a few more before the vines fold up for good.

I gave away ~30lbs of tomatoes yesterday along with ~20lbs of cukes. I could save myself a lot of work by pulling up all but one or two of the plants but I like sharing with folks who aren’t able to grow their own.

My buddy Nick is going to thin his raspberry patch this fall and give me the roots that come out. I picked out a spot to put them a couple weeks ago. Saturday morning I hosed it down to soften the ground up a bit, ran the garden tiller over it, sprinkled it with Preen, covered it up with a thick layer of composted stall waste, topped it off with another sprinkle of Preen, and watered it down again. That should keep the crabgrass from going nuts between now and planting time.

I picked the apples from my Granny Smith tree yesterday morning. Got 15 gallons. I gave away 3-ish gallons and processed 4 gallons (7qt yield) into juice yesterday afternoon. The Ninja juicer didn’t clog up with the apples like it did with the tomatoes. I’ll start on what’s left after work today. I’ve pretty much decided I’m going to make cider from this batch of juice. That leaves one Fuji and one Honeycrisp tree to pick and both of those are absolutely loaded. There’s probably 3x the amount of fruit on each of those trees compared to the Granny Smith. Think I’ll peel/core/slice some of those to freeze, make a jumbo batch of apple butter, and hopefully find someone(s) who can make use of what’s left.

Pepper plants are still thriving. I’d like to make some jalapeno jelly, at least one batch of Atomic Buffalo Turds, and a batch of fermented hot sauce before the season is over.

Howard is learning to play fetch. It’s one of Booger’s favorite games and he’s catching on quickly. He still got a lot of the clumsy oaf puppy thing going on and needs some practice on his timing to catch the ball from the air. I didn’t know that hounds would play fetch. Maybe they don’t and he just didn’t get the memo?

The sign up sheet was on the bulletin board for the huge church potluck next month. I signed up for the crack corn salad. I ‘might’ take the Silver Palate Chef’s 5-bean salad ... so good. It depends on how the sign-up sheet fills out.

I love olives! I will definitely check this out - may take it to the potluck if someone else signs up for bean salad.

The cooler, low humidity air has arrived - hallelujah! The weather forecast this week could not be more perfect for roofing: 0% chance of rain until Sunday, highs mid 70’s, lows overnight high 40’s to low 50’s. There currently is a nice breeze. Just watered all the plants that need it & I think I am going to go sit on the porch until sunset & do some knitting.

Those of us with awful gardens this season are living vicariously through yours! :)

“I didn’t know that hounds would play fetch. Maybe they don’t and he just didn’t get the memo?”

Hounds DO fetch and return the ball. I have winged many a tennis ball off the porch to a waiting pup and after a hard scramble, many of them have returned the ball to me for more throws.

I also have a cat that plays fetch. He is CRAZY about the ‘rings’ off of a gallon of milk, and he will bring one to you, drop it at your feet, and expect you to throw it for him. Of course 99.999% of them end up under the hallway and Dining Room rugs - but I collect them from time to time and Boyd* THINKS he has a whole new bunch of toys to play fetch with! ;)

*He’s a Tuxedo Cat, and supposedly they are VERY smart - but as far as his ‘pedigreed lineage’ goes, he was an ‘extra barn cat kitten’ that we got from the next farm over. ;)

“What is it replacing in your house? 😉”

You know me SO WELL, my FRiend!

It is going to replace the OLD Tupperware bowl I’ve been using with the BINDER CLIP attached to the rim as my make-shift ‘Yarn Bowl.’ (Yeah, I’m CLASSY like that!)

I KNEW my ‘Dream Yarn Bowl’ would find me one day! I just KNEW it!

And, FWIW, I added a half-dozen things to the ‘Donation Box’ I keep handy for St. Vinnie’s and I have already started cleaning out the pantries and filling a box for my annual donation to my Food Pantry pre- Thanksgiving.

I am WAY ahead of the curve this season for some reason. :)

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